Woodstove for narrow space with tight clearances

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Mmlz

New Member
Aug 25, 2020
1
Mid-Atlantic
Hi all,

I remodeled my small space about two years ago and ripped out an old pre-fab fireplace in a corner wall with the intent of replacing it with a wood stove. I was surprised to discover a small, roughly 21" alcove behind the pre-fab fireplace that was occupied by the old chimney pipe (which was shockingly massive). I replaced the chimney with 6" double-walled chimney pipe all the way up and I now have a Hearthstone Green Mountain 40 in use mostly for enjoyment and some supplemental heating. While I love the Hearthstone, I really would love regain the space by replacing it with a small wood stove/insert nested in the alcove. Understanding that the alcove is pretty tight for clearance purposes, I'm wondering if there are any slim wood stove options? The plan would be to finish out the alcove and add heavy duty heat shielding to lessen clearance requirements. I stumbled upon the unique Swedish Ankarsrum/Westbo 30 which seems to sit up against heavy duty concrete/brick shielding on both sides with no issues clearance issues; unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be sold in the US currently. Nonetheless, it has me thinking that this might actually be possible.

Any thoughts/suggestions? Would love to hear if anyone has seen anything like the Westbo stove, or has done something similar.

Thanks!

Alcove.jpg Old pre-fab fireplace & chimney.jpg
 
The only way that might work is if the alcove was constructed out of 100% non-combustible materials, like 8" of masonry.