Need to bounce some fire place “insert” ideas off of ya

[Backwoods101]

The fireplace in question is my grandmas custom wood burning fireplace. The thing is borderline worthless when it comes to heating their home and they were forced to leave their home for several days during the ice storm. The main issue is the opening is about 6-9” too tall (39”w x39”h) and it smokes the house up pretty bad so they have to put their fire all the way in the back of the fireplace and lose the vast majority of the heat. The builder that originally built the home is talking about stoning in the 6-9” to bring the opening down. My question is, do y’all think that adjustment will make a big of a difference or should they go with an insert of some sort?

Could go this route...


...or I could get a little creative and save them some money and allow them to keep the beautiful fireplace they started with.

Here’s what I’m thinking...
Make a custom insert to fit the top of the fire place (similar to a vent hood) that has a fan internally to push heat out. I’m thinking Hometown custom iron works could make a nice decorative piece for the front with the vents worked in the design. Anyone have experience with fans in a fireplace? How hot can they get? The fans I’m finding online are mentioning installing them on the bottom of the fireplace...I need it up top.

Any and all feedback is much appreciated, thanks


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[dhall1414]

wouldn't it be easier to raise the floor 6-9 inches rather than lower the top? you could stack fire bricks or something to get the height change you need.

[Oleman]

Why not re-face it with a lower fan? Make it a two speed if you do something like that.

[Backwoods101]

wouldn't it be easier to raise the floor 6-9 inches rather than lower the top? you could stack fire bricks or something to get the height change you need.

It would be...wonder if a stone guy could “feather in” the elevation change


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[Killer]

You won’t be able to heat the house with a fireplace. Wood stove or insert with blower is the only way to go if you want to use it to heat. If it won’t draw they will need to place stove pipe up the chimney and extend the top of the chimney higher to make it draw.

[texan16]

Man, we are looking into inserts right now for the exact same reason. Built the house 16 years ago, fireplace opening was 42" wide x 36" tall. We had major issues getting it to draw so we finally gave in and our builder sent the mason out to add 3 rows of brick on top to make the opening smaller. Helped some but still didnt keep smoke from getting into the house. The wife has major allergies and the smoke was not good at all. We havent burned a fire in the fireplace in 8-10 years. Since we built the house I have also spent time reading about fireplaces and how inefficient they really are. Anyone that builds a new house and puts in a traditional wood burning fireplace is foolish. Inserts are the only way to go. I have been looking online the last few days making a list of possible inserts and we will be going to East Texas brick in Tyler and/or Light Your Fire in Flint this weekend to purchase an insert. They are a little expensive but they seem like the only way to go.

[Draco]

Just remember, the more of the stove that sticks out onto the hearth, the more efficient it will be. Heat radiates off the sides as well as the top and front. You don't want a fire in the stove, you want a bed of coals that burns through the logs you have in it.

[sailor]

I had a Lopi, cook top fireplace, with a blower on the bottom.
It was in, a two story lake house. But, I can tell you this.
Once it got up to temp, and the blower kicked on. It would
run you out. They ain't cheap. But they're worth the money IMHO.

[Briar Friar]

All inserts are trash IMO…except the ones that are a complete cast iron enclosure and have a blower. For heat…up north…wood stoves surrounded or backed by stone are what reign. Tear it open Mr Backwoods and rock it to the ceiling for radiant and refractory heat. Thats a super great thing if the builder has the same stone. Gotta convince Grandma though.

Ive an insert in my house that is too big to work efficiently. I cant convince my wife to tear out the insert and install a wood stove. “It wont match the house”. I have to crack the front door to get a smoke draw when starting the fire. I cant close the door it until the fire gets big enough to create the draw in the flue…which is obviously retarded because then all the heat is being sucked out.

[WItoTX]

People don't realize fireplaces may make one room really warm, but make every other room colder. The fire sucks air into the house through doors, windows, electrical outlets, you name it. Any way air can get it, it will. And it makes everything else colder.

A fireplace is about the worst way to heat a house with fire. You are better off installing an outdoor boiler, and using radiant heat.

OP, I know my comment doesn't help you. But if you can, install a gas line and convert it to gas. My experience with inserts is they are about useless. Granted it was only two different fireplaces with two different inserts.

[Aggies96]

You won’t be able to heat the house with a fireplace. Wood stove or insert with blower is the only way to go if you want to use it to heat. If it won’t draw they will need to place stove pipe up the chimney and extend the top of the chimney higher to make it draw.

To add to this as I'm doing the research on it myself. Mine is the opposite though - mine draws too much air and I'm tired of tweaking the damper to get the airflow right. Not every fireplace is designed to correctly use an insert. More then likely you will need to duct it up the current fireplace especially if it's not drawing correctly now. An insert has about an 85-90% efficiency while a conventional fireplace has 10-15%. Make sure you know exactly what you have there if you are putting in an insert. Might even be good to have a pro come out and give you their take on it. I never realized the efforts that should be incorporated when designing a fireplace till getting into my situation. You don't want to burn down the house by doing it wrong.

[SaltwaterSlick]

Years ago, when my wife's parents built their house, they shortly after installed an insert manufactured by "Carolina Stove" that had a fan in the bottom of it that drew air under the fire, around the back of the insert (that was obviously installed in the existing fireplace), and then through a series of pipes that was like a radiator type heat exchanger on the top of the insert. Flue gasses passed over this exchanger and that helped heat the air being blown through the pipes. This blower ultimately blew the air out on the top and sides of the fireplace insert. They also had a damper installed and piped to the central heating ductwork in the house. They could shut the vents that blew air out into the family room and open that damper and dump that hot air into the central heat system... When we'd go for an overnight stay, first thing I did was close the vent in our room and shut the door/open the window! They kept that dang house about 80 degrees!! With about 3 or 4 small sticks of wood, that sucker would burn all night long!! Don't know if they still make those inserts, but it would be worth checking into. My father-in-law still uses it to this day...

[SaltwaterSlick]

Don't know how far you are from Conroe, but this place is where we wound up buying our wood stove. They are very knowledgeable and helped guide us to a good solution for our needs. They have several lines of top line products.
The Fireplace and Patio Shop

https://www.fpaps.com/

We wound up with a Jotul free standing wood stove, but these guys do a LOT of inserts too.

[Rush2Judge]

An insert is definitely better than a fireplace. We put one in our house years ago for the same reason; the opening was too big. But as stated, as long as it burns inside air, you are going to have drafts in the house and you will likely need to add a pipe up the chimney to help it draw.

Our lake house also has an insert but, it burns air pulled from the attic. It's only a 1500 soft house but, that thing will flat get after it and heats the whole house.

[friscopaint]

We have an older heavy Ashley fireplace insert with blower and it works amazing. We didn't lose power this past winter but just incase I had the generator right outside ready to run a cord through the window if necessary to power blower. We rarely use the heat, we heat up main part of house with the insert and we like colder bedroom. The inserts are also much more efficient in wood usage. I can stoke it right before bed time and it last's all night long. Ours is heavy cast iron, I just replaced the gaskets on door this week getting ready for winter.