VC Winterwarm 1280

[rangiputa]

Appreciate some help here. We bought a 2 storey house with one of these fireplaces in it about 3 years ago. Installed sometime after the 89 earthquake ( my guess is around 92 ) at the end of a 40ftx20ft room (downstairs living/kitchen) It was professionally installed in a plywood chimney box built on the outside of the house with stainless flue pipe.
The fireplace runs fine but is slow to warm. Once up to temp it keeps the downstairs warm. It also will burn for 8-10 hours if well loaded with Oak with coals left in the morning.
We rarely get temps below 40F here , if it is in the 30s ( rare ) the fireplace really struggles to keep the room warm. The house is very well sealed but only has average insulation.
To me this fireplace does not seem that efficient given the large quantities of wood we burn in it. We only burn high quality dry hardwood ( Oak and Madrone )
Any suggestions as to how to make this work better?? Have considered trying to recover some of the heat out of the top of the chimney enclosure with fan and ducting. Will replacing the catalytic converter make a significant difference or only a small one??
Dont really want to replace it but have had much smaller woodstoves in the past that seemed to produce a lot more heat than this one. Thanks in advance.

 

[defiant3]

Are the fans working?

 

[rangiputa]

yes they work fine.
The fireplace had hardly been used when we bought the house even tho it was 20 years old.
I can hear a small air leak when the fireplace is all closed down and running but sounds very minor.
It just ran for 10 hours last nite and there was still a good bed of coals this morning.

Maybe I am expecting too much but it seems very little of the heat ends up in the room compared to the volume of wood we burn. I have another small woodstove (half the size) in a studio with same floor area. It will burn all nite also but would easily heat this same space on half the firewood.

I am wondering how much difference the catalytic converter makes. Dont know if it is still good or nor. Did remove and clean it and it looks fine. I have read online there is only about 5-10% gains over non catalytic. If that is true it hardly seems worth buying a new one just in case the existing one is not working any more.

 

[defiant3]

I don't know. I assume you burn the same wood in both, so it can't be that, so I wonder if it's an outside chimney? Like does it have masonry exposed to the weather? Also wondering if the insulation is intact on the exterior of the shroud and if the whole thing is actually installed properly?

I confess I'm not a big insert fan, partly because they tend to be less efficient heaters. Not always though, and many people do have excellent results with them, but it's a bit more complex than a freestanding stove. Hang in there, some of the insert owners and installers should be along to chime in...

 

[rangiputa]

thanks for your help. I also have wondered if it is due to it being at the end in an external chimney box.
It was installed professionally apparently but unless I can find some other explanation/solution am considering cutting into the chimney box to check the level of insulation in there and to see if there is a feasible way to recover some of the heat from there. The fireplace is definitely burning ok and generating heat BUT very little seems to end up inside the room.

 

[jimmol]

Just came across this. Did you ever figure out what was wrong?