# Thinking about putting a woodstove in current fireplace



## mamasky (Jan 21, 2013)

I'm hoping this is the right forum to ask this.
We've been in our house for just over a year now. Very inefficient 35 year old boiler that guzzles heating oil. We have a fireplace in our living room and last year looked at putting a woodstove insert in there but we were getting quotes for over $4,000 which was not in our budget (nor will be anytime...well, ever. lol)
So, I've been looking online for used inserts, hoping to find a good deal but today my dad offered to give us a cast iron wood stove (not an insert) free if we wanted it.
It's a long rectangular stove (14wx28d) and has a 5" pipe opening. It would fit nicely in our current fireplace cutout but I'm wondering, can I just put a free standing stove in there or must I get an insert?
Also, how hard is it to put a lining in a chimney and hook up a stove? I'm thinking that it sounds like something my dad and I could probably knock out somewhat quickly but my boyfriend thinks we need to hire somebody to come do it.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

Problem is, if you put a stove in the fireplace, then the heat can't radiate into the room from the hot sides of the stove like a stove freestanding in the room would do.

I have a fire place in the middle of the room. On the back side of that I have the wood stove with it piped up the wall a bit and into the fireplace chimney.. 

I can't burn them both at the same time, but I can burn either or..


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## mamasky (Jan 21, 2013)

I get what you're saying. I'm thinking that because it's a narrow stove, there's open room on both sides of the stove and if my other options are either a plain fireplace or an insert, a free standing stove wouldn't be any worse.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

A big part of where heat comes from on a wood stove is the stove pipe.. If you have the stove in the fireplace, and then just pipe it direct into the fireplace chimney, you're just sending a most of your heat outside..


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

I say go for it. Some might say this is a bad idea, but it will work; set the stove about half way in and half out of the fireplace. Run your stovepipe back, but probably no more than a foot or 1.5 feet, then up the chimney. I would also get a stainless steel chimney liner. The liners can be found on eBay in 20 or 30 foot lengths for a few hundred bucks.

Some people will say not to do this because a flu should nevet be horizontal, but I have personally seen a stove, in the basement of a house where the stovepipe ran every bit of 2.5 to 3 feet horizontal before exiting the side wall at ground level and then up.
Has been working fine for him for well over 10 years.


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

My dad did it in my childhood home and I've done it in a cabin I rented (with permission). Sat the woodstove on some 3' x 2'slabs of flagstone, cut a hole thru the chimney, above the flue damper, used a trim piece that fit snugly around the stove exhaust pipe to hide the not so perfect edges of the hole in the chimney. 

That was the sole source of heat for a 5 room cabin. It made the living room too hot, but the bedrooms just right for sleeping. Trouble was it wouldn't hold a fire thru the night so who ever got up first, had to make a fire in the cold. Brrrrrrr.


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## mamasky (Jan 21, 2013)

Our house is only about 1,300sq. ft. 1 1/2 stories. Living room is the biggest room and there's 2 bedrooms upstairs and 2 downstairs. It would beat running electric heaters in each room or running the oil boiler to heat the house.
Also, the stove is free which would be a huge blessing to us to only have to put out a few hundred dollars for lining.
The stove is similar looking to this http://ajhearthoriginals.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Jotul_F118_Silhouette_Crop_Web300.jpg


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Here is a GREAT insert....sticks out far enough to heat the room, even cook on the surface. Has the gas re-burn tubes in it so it's efficient and produces almost zero creosote. We gave about 1800 for ours.











http://www.regency-fire.com/Products/Wood/Wood-Inserts/H2100.aspx


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

TnAndy, I like that. Wish it was cheaper. I have a regular flush front insert in my fireplace. Without the blowers going, it is pretty much useless.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Yeah, that's what we were looking at too....a flush mount....when I saw this model in the stove store. Sure glad we went this route.....it's been a HECK of a good stove.

It has a two speed fan, but we don't use it a lot.


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## mamasky (Jan 21, 2013)

We'd have to extend the hearth to have a stove that sticks out that much from the fireplace. We had looked at one similar and it was going to be over $5,000 to have put in and the hearth extended.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

The face plate doesn't have to be flush with the face of the fireplace, it could be modified to allow the stove to fit back into the fireplace 6" or so if that would be enough.

Bottom line though is if you have to hire out everything, it's gonna cost a bunch.

On installing the liner: I'd never done one, and they only charged a few hundred bucks to do it ( plus the liner cost ), so I had the stove store guys do it. But after seeing how easy it was, anybody could do it. 

Basically, it's a hunk of flex stainless steel 6" pipe they just stuck down the flue of the chimney. Only problem area was working it around the existing damper, which I simply cocked it off it's hinges and removed. At the top, they used a sheet metal collar, stuffed some fiber glass insulation in the flue, attached the liner pipe to the collar and 'glued' the collar/plate to the top of the chimney with silicone caulk. Then a top piece goes on the outside that looks like a screened spark arrestor/bird screen to finish off.

On the stove back ( mine exhausts out the back ), they put a "T" adapter, then attached the liner pipe to the T. The bottom part of the T is a trap for anything that falls down the liner ( ash, creosote ). 

You'd definitely need two people to do it, one at the top feeding the liner down, and one at the bottom to maneuver it around the damper/smoke shelf, but the whole thing didn't take them a 1/2 hour.


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## mamasky (Jan 21, 2013)

We'd probably hire someone to put in the liner. As simple as it seems to do, our roof is very steep and probably not something I want to learn to balance on while trying to install a chimney liner. I did check it out and it seems like comparatively, the lining being installed is still pretty reasonable.


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## Chuck R. (Apr 24, 2008)

Friends of ours did what you want to do a few years ago and they love it. They used a Hearthstone "homestead" model and had it mounted on their fireplace hearth:

http://www.hearthstonestoves.com/store/wood-products/wood-stoves/homestead-hearthmount 










It's not cheap, but does work extremely well. They also had it installed by the seller. Based on their experience, we went with the same company and had a larger stove installed in our new construction


Chuck


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