Wood stove install plan

[Chuck-OH]

Have read a lot here, but wanted to ask you folks if you see anything wrong with my installation plan for an Englander NC-30. I'm putting it in my basement, on the hearth of an old masonry fireplace. I'm planning to install a 6 inch, stainless steel liner, insulated, and an outside air kit. The liner is 6 inches, but the opening at the top of the firebox is only 5 inches, so i'm assuming I need to come through the brick into the room above the firebox, and use 2 additional elbows to connect to the back of the stove. Is this the only option? Would reducing the liner to 5 inches, for a run of just a few inches to clear the opening, be a problem?

It's 30 feet from the floor of the firebox to the top of the chimney, and for whatever reason, there's a very strong updraft in the fireplace. It's strong enough that it's hard to start/maintain a fire there, so the fireplace has rarely been used. But I was wondering if I might need a damper in the exhaust flow, or would limiting the air intake be enough to counter a strong updraft?

Thanks for any opinions.

 

[Todd]

Most people here cut out the damper area big enough to fit that 6" liner down through and install a block off plate around that area to seal it off from drafts and keep the heat in. Another option is to ovalize the last 5' or whatever you need to slide it through, but then it's harder to run a brush down through the oval. Or you could connect to the flue above the fireplace, but that seems like a lot of work and you need to watch the stove pipe clearance to the ceiling.

 

[Todd]

One other thing on the outside air kit. I had one on my basement stove and had to run it up the wall through the sill plate above the concrete block and found out that cold air really likes to travel down fast and pump into the stove and I couldn't control it and I took it off. If you can, make it a horizontal run so the stove has to suck the air it needs.

 

[BrotherBart]

I am burning a 30-NC in a fireplace exterior masonry chimney with a 21 foot 5.5" un-insulated liner and the draft would suck the chrome off a trailer hitch. I need a pipe damper but don't have a way to install it. If you measure the actual opening in the top plate of the 30 inside the flue collar you will find that it is 5.5 inches.

Just cut the damper frame in that fireplace to let you get a 5.5" liner through and you will be fine. Or cut it to let a six inch liner through. If you are worried about returning it to a fireplace someday chimney top dampers cost around a hundred and twenty bucks and are better than the things in the top of fireplace fireboxes anyway.