Wood Burning Fireplace

We are thinking about upgrading our wood burning fireplace. Currently it is a traditional open fireplace with glass doors on the front and the wood rack has a blower built into it, pulls in air from the room and runs it thru the square tube wood rack and blows it out on the other side back into the room. It does kick out heat and makes the living room noticeably warmer but pretty much just that room. It also goes thru a lot of wood compared to other people I know that have wood stoves

This is what we have (not including the glass doors and framing of the fireplace itself)
https://www.woodlanddirect.com/cozy-grate-fireplace-heater/590998.html?a=41515_600=55664-41614_40=55666-&cq_cmp=16859978553&cq_con=132396278141&cq_med=pla&cq_net=g&cq_plt=gp&cq_src=google_ads&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsbnLhODC-wIVihvUAR3ZnAk6EAQYASABEgL_pfD_BwE&pla=no

We are thinking about going to an enclosed wood insert in the fireplace instead. My understanding is that they burn more efficiently (so less wood), they are enclosed so they would be safer with no sparks popping out thru a screen, they have blowers built it as well to push out the heat.

Would an insert kick out more heat? I get that with it being enclosed or having a door on it, I wouldnt lose much heat from the room up the chimney when the fire is burning down before I can close the flue as I do now, so that could count as keeping the heat in rather than losing some up the chimney. Would these be OK to leave a fire burning if we ran out to do errands or something for a while or even at night while we sleep?

I don’t know anyone that has put a wood burning insert into a fireplace.
I know 2 people that put gas burning fireplace inserts into their wood burning fireplace cavity and loved them. Left the wood burning totally.
If I was burning wood for heat it would either be an outside remote set up or a dedicated wood stove inside the house. I think these are the 2 safest options for wood burning. JMO

I put a wood burning insert into our fireplace, it really heats our house up nicely. Last year my gas bill was 80-100 a month to heat the house and detached 3.5 car garage.

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onestout wrote:

I put a wood burning insert into our fireplace, it really heats our house up nicely. Last year my gas bill was 80-100 a month to heat the house and detached 3.5 car garage.

The heat from the blower does that well or does it somehow go thru your ductwork?

Could check out Acucraft in Big Lake to see what they have to offer. We wanted to install one in our new build a few years ago, but it got axed due to budget. They build nice stoves and also do customs. One of the options we were going to include was a water loop that would assist in heating our in floor boiler water. Looks like they also do ducted heat. We’re still planning to do it, but Covid prices have us on the fence for now.

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Was going to add. An enclosed system is the only way to go unless you really enjoy cutting and splitting wood.

The heat from the blower and a small fan on top of the mantle. This is in our downstairs living room and helps to heat the upstairs living room(my home office) right above it. The bedrooms on opposite side of the house are cooler but most of our living is down near the fireplace in that living room/kitchen/dining room, and we prefer our bedrooms cooler. We keep the thermostat set the same, it just has to run a lot less.

Thanks for the responses. I think we will be calling a few local places to get some quotes in the next few weeks

Woodland direct is top notch.
I have an Acucraft going on 22 years and love it. It’s built like a tank, literally.

Funny story,
I needed a part for it a few years ago. They said that’s a pretty old stove, what’s the serial number. I wiped off the plaque and shined a light in there.
I said I can’t really read it that good, wait I got it, serial number is “1”.
He started laughing and sent the part out free of charge.

I remember as a child my father built our cabin with a fireplace. Everyone always wanted a fire but after a while we realized the only warm area was near the fireplace. It sucked all the heat out of the place and couldn’t be used to heat the small structure and two bedroom’s. A small wood stove would have rocked that place but they were not well known yet.

suzuki wrote:

I remember as a child my father built our cabin with a fireplace. Everyone always wanted a fire but after a while we realized the only warm area was near the fireplace. It sucked all the heat out of the place and couldn’t be used to heat the small structure and two bedroom’s. A small wood stove would have rocked that place but they were not well known yet.

When we moved into our house it had the fireplace and thought it would be great… one cold weekend we get a fire going and kept it burning for 3 days day and night. On the 3rd day the stone around it wasn’t even warm, that’s when we knew we needed an insert. We went with Hearthstone’s Klydsdale model, about the biggest we could find and just love it.

Yeah, outside combustable air and a sealed unit is the way to go. Open hearths not only pull cold air in, but if the house is sealed-up well, you may also get a negative pressure and then it all starts flowing backwards. Had that happen with an old wood-burning Franklin stove that was in a basement of a house I used to own. Thought it would be a great alternative source of heat, but ended up with a basement I could’ve cold-smoked cheese in.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

Yeah, outside combustable air and a sealed unit is the way to go. Open hearths not only pull cold air in, but if the house is sealed-up well, you may also get a negative pressure and then it all starts flowing backwards. Had that happen with an old wood-burning Franklin stove that was in a basement of a house I used to own. Thought it would be a great alternative source of heat, but ended up with a basement I could’ve cold-smoked cheese in.

In the fireplace community the general consensus is that the non-sealed units are better/safer, just do your research before hand. Sounds like the Franklin stove had other issues that would cause that like an improper sized chimney, not enough heat to draft properly, etc. With our fireplace being on the lower level it takes more heat to get the draft started, after it hasn’t been used a couple days we toss a few pieces of newspaper in before starting the fire to get the quick flash of heat and get the draft going.

onestout wrote:

In the fireplace community the general consensus is that the non-sealed units are better/safer, just do your research before hand. Sounds like the Franklin stove had other issues that would cause that like an improper sized chimney, not enough heat to draft properly, etc. With our fireplace being on the lower level it takes more heat to get the draft started, after it hasn’t been used a couple days we toss a few pieces of newspaper in before starting the fire to get the quick flash of heat and get the draft going.

Could’ve very well have been. When I went to the fireplace store to inquire (this was 25 years ago) they took it all under consideration and suggested negative pressure. They suggested I crack a window in the basement (was a walk-out). That seemed to work, but kinda defeated the purpose. I didn’t use it much after that. We only lived there for 2 years before deciding to move again – so didn’t get much of a chance to play with it any more.

There are trade offs to both systems, just need to research and see what will work best in the given application. Of course I had no idea about any of this until after we purchased ours, not sure I would have done it differently but it is just good to know to help in the decision making. One thing I do need to do is clean the chimney out, I am way past due. Now to research and find a good cleaner.

bigstorm:

Sent you a private message, not that I wouldn’t share publicly, but not just on here enough to stay up to date.

Have some experience in this and will be happy to share!!!

mbenson