fireplace insert/glass doors

[fishman]

Being I'm in Texas, my needs for burning wood differ from many, I'm sure. But I do have a question and hope to get some good feedback. First some background.

When I lived in Missouri, I always burned wood in a woodstove. Now I find myself in a home with a big fireplace with a blower insert. It can really crank out the heat, but it absolutely eats wood doing it. Also, there aren't many times when maximum output is desired. Many times we want a small fire with minimal heat output. We can't shut down the draft at all, and twice in the middle of the night we've had downdrafts reverse our drafting, pumping carbon monoxide into our living room, setting off our alarm. We also often have embers left over the following morning in the ash, which precludes us from shutting the draft, so we lose heat all day.

So I'm thinking about buying some glass doors for the front of my insert. What I'm hoping is that they will do several things. They will allow us to burn wood when it's a little warm to do so, preventing too much heat from being dumped in the room. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif They'll allow us to shut the damper down a ways during the night to conserve coals, acting like a woodstove in other words, without smoking up the house. And lastly they'll prevent reverse drafting which is no good.

Can anyone tell me if this is reasonable? And if it's not, are there better fireplace inserts out there that act like a woodstove, provide good aesthetics, and don't cost more than a good used car? I'd prefer to use what I have if possible.

 

[EddieWalker]

Hi John,

I don't know about glass, but I did have a screen that I could put in place and leave the doors wide open. It wasn't any good for heating the house that way, but it looked nice.

Eddie

 

[SnowRidge]

We have the same issue with our fireplace. Sucks air out of the house like mad and eats an incredible amount of wood. We only use it for an occasional 'nice to have' fire.

I've had the glass doors in the past and haven't been real impressed with them, although they are a lot better than nothing. While they helped, they weren't air tight by any means. The best results I have had was with a decent insert with a window in the door. I heated the entire house with it. They aren't inexpensive, but if you have a good supply of free or cheap wood, they will soon pay for themselves.

It's been a long time since I had that insert, so I have no idea what current prices are like. Our current house planning envisions a centrally located freestanding wood stove with a fire view door.

 

[SnowRidge]

Just remembered this site: http://www.woodheat.org/

 

[Piedmont3]

They make wood burning stoves that are fireplace inserts. We have one. It is a 36" model, has an electric blower, uses triple wall 8" flue pipe, a single glass door, a incoming air vent that can be almost shut down to nothing. Our chimney does not draw worth a flip, so it is kind of hard to get the fire started unless it is really cold outside, or the wind is right, out of the N/NW. I am not sure if it would work as a replacement for a ZERO clearence fireplace insert, but it set right in our fireplace and works great.
It is called:
Fireplace 44 Elite FP Ext.
We bought it from:
Ricks Lawn and Hearth

Here is a link to a picture of ours, ours has a smooth face on it instead of the textured face this one has.
Fireplace
Hope this helps.
CJ

 

[BB_TX]

John - We have had glass doors on ours since we built the house 24 years ago. We don't have a blower on ours, just natural draft. They do pretty much what you describe. As mentioned, they are not tight shutoff. The doors close pretty tight, but it has a simple slide damper at the bottom. But that is OK as I can close the doors and most all air goes in at the very bottom. That does two things. One it minimizes downdraft if the wind is blowing hard while the fire is low. Second, it helps get the fire going by putting a good draft under the grate when I first start it. OK, three things. It also reduces the amount of air going up the chimney when when the slide damper is closed.
Closing the doors does reduce the heat into the room, but does not eliminate it. We normally leave our doors open.
We use it more for "atmosphere" than real heat. Although it is nice to back up to it after coming in from a really cold day.

 

[JimR]

Here's two options for you that work. One would be to install a fireplace insert that you can seal the front of the fireplace with. The other option is to remove the damper in your chimney. Make a new one out of 1/4 inch steel. Cut a hole in it to fit your stovepipe into. Make the hole tight so that the pipe is a forced fit. Install an airtight woodstove in the fireplace opening. You won't need the damper as you can control the air flow though the knobs on the stove. I've been heating our 1750's farmhouse like this for the last two winters with no problems and no creosote buildup. I pickup up a used Fisher Mama Bear stove for that house for $50.00 that has worked out real well.

 

[Egon]

Look at the high efficiency fireplace inserts. Lots of different types on the market. These are different than wood burning fireplace inserts.

Egon

 

[rswyan]

fish,

I'm using an older "Goodnews" stove insert in our basement fireplace - it's a so-so unit.

On really cold days it doesn't put out enough to heat our home (4200 sq. ft single story ranch with full basement) to more than around 60 - 65 degrees at best - but our forced-air furnace sure runs alot less. On days where the temps are 30 degrees F or greater it keeps up pretty well - if the sun is out it does really great - we get alot of heat gain Our house is very drafty (lots of unhandled weatherization issues) so when it's windy that aggravates the problem.

The weak part on our insert is the blower - if it moved more air the unit would put out alot more heat. Look for an insert that has a good blower unit on it - moves alot of air and is quiet (ours does neither) are the main features.

I'd figure on spending at least $2K to $3K for something new .... you might find a bargain in something used though.

 

[GregMVT]

A couple of years ago we had a fireplace insert installed as a way to reduce our dependence on propane. It is made by Regency. It does real well heating our 1,500sf single story home. It was a little pricey, about $3,500 but that included relining our chimney with stainless pipe. It has a decent blower but it's an option. If the outside temp is in the 30's the stove will keep the house in the low 70's as long as we keep wood in it. A lot of what we've been burning this year is poplar so it doesn't last long, but it came from our land so the price is right!! We use cherry at night and that usually will last 6 hours or so with the draft about 1/2 way open.

Greg