SO, I'm looking at two inserts for my relatively small masonry fireplace - the Kuma Alpine LE and Vermont Castings Gifford. I'm heating about 1000 sf in a 200 year old house with pretty low ceilings. Issue is that I don't want to rely on a blower - we get a LOT of power outages around here, especially in winter, and I'm looking for heating without electricity. Any experience using either of these inserts without a blower? I'm leaning towards the Kuma because it isn't perfectly flush, and I've heard that I will get better radiant heating with a couple of inches of stove sticking into the room.
Wood inserts that work well without a blower
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Yes. Get an insert that projects out onto the hearth as much as possible and avoid flush inserts. Neither of these two are ideal. What are the fireplace dimensions?
One more detail (if it matters): the chimney is located in the center of the house, not on an outside wall. I've wondered how much heat (if any) the chimney brick will absorb and then radiate out into our second floor rooms (where the chimney passes up on its way to the roof)
Ctwoodtick
Minister of Fire
I second the above advice about avoiding flush insert. I have one and, while it works great overall for my needs, the stovetop gets too hot with the blower off, which can damage stove of done often enough.
EbS-P
Minister of Fire
Would be better to consider backup power for the insert? Do you have a generator? Interior chimney’s do soak up some heat but after about 18 hours of being run hard mine is pretty well heat soaked. I don’t think it would matter much.
I have one of these and a pc apu. And a generator. Seems like a good combo. AC Infinity AIRBLAZE T12, Universal Fireplace Blower Fan Kit 12" with Temperature and Speed Controller, for Lennox, Hearth Glo, Majestic, Rotom https://a.co/d/1d7c6o4
I have one of these and a pc apu. And a generator. Seems like a good combo. AC Infinity AIRBLAZE T12, Universal Fireplace Blower Fan Kit 12" with Temperature and Speed Controller, for Lennox, Hearth Glo, Majestic, Rotom https://a.co/d/1d7c6o4
Russn77
New Member
So we have the Kuma Alpine LE. We opted to not install the surround. It has some flexibility as far as depth from the fireplace face for installation. It all depends on where your pipe is. Ours (the box of the stove) sticks out about 7" from the fireplace face. We have the blower on it, but even without the blower running, circulates heat very well. It would do even better without the blower installed, as you would have more space for air to circulate through the air passage.
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It looks good without the surround. The more it projects out into the room, the better it will heat without the blower.
That should never happen no stove should ever need a blower to keep it in safe operating temperatures
Ctwoodtick
Minister of Fire
I’m glad to hear that for others with flush inserts. My issue may be due to my specific stove, which hasn’t ever been the same since an over fire situation years ago. I have blocked the doghouse air which keeps it working surprisingly well and after that my temps are in a good range after that.
I also haven’t observed the insert on too many occasions with no blower, so my comment on this thread could have been a bit of talking out of my arse.
I would think that a flush insert would retain the heat a bit more that a freestanding stove or non-flush insert, which would make that stove top temp higher. Exactly how much higher, I don’t know though.
Oh most have blowers but something is wrong with the setup if you need to run it in order to keep temps under control
A wood stove stuffed back in a fireplace is not going to perform better than an insert. In front yes
yeah obviously put in front of. More wanted to know the dimensions of the hearth and opening to account for what size could fit on hearth and what size you could put and still get the angle of the liner. I don't look at a ton of stoves, but there's only one that I know of with a rear discharge pipe.
A Jotul F55 could be an option if it fits on the hearth
Ctwoodtick
Minister of Fire
I decided to test this out again tonight. I have a medium load of red maple in the stove roughly 20% mc. With blower on, the stove top thermometer that I have roughly centered on stove top ( about 3 inches back was at 700. Nice cruising temp and firebox had good secondaries- nothing out of control. I turned the blowers off . About 5 minutes later the temp was about 800. Although this isn’t in the danger zone, I’d have to maintain that running this make/model of insert without the blower on should be done with caution.
to keep it under control yes. But I will say that the design of many takes air into the insert and then blows out heat. This by default would cool the unit down by intaking cooler air
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