Not sure what to do with my corner hearth...

[otetsiona]

Hello, everyone!

We just bought a new home in WV that has a beautiful corner hearth already built with a nice wood mantle. It looks like the builder had the thought to install a wood stove, but never got around to doing it. The hearth is made out of bricks and the builder did install a plate in the brick wall for a flue, but never got any further than that. The first point is that the hearth is a corner hearth, and I can't seem to find any wood stoves that are designed for a corner space (e.g. actually have that "corner" shape). There is room for the stove to sit out somewhat from the corner, but the location of the flue plate in the brick is fairly close to the corner and is really not that high up... I'd say it's maybe 18" up from the base of the hearth.

In order to use the plate, I'll definitely have to get a stove that has the flue coming out of the back (horizontally) rather than up from the top, which seems to be the prevalent design. The other thing is that it seems as though I can conceive of a design that would be perfect for the location... a corner shaped wood stove with a horiozontal pipe coming out of the back, but I can't find any stoves that fit that shape. All my searches for "wood stove for corner", etc. end in absolute frustration... I can't even find where anyone has had a similar issue.

I apologize for my inability to describe this better... I am including a few links to some pictures that might make it a bit clearer...

Here is a picture of the hearth with an electric fireplace that is no longer there...
(broken link removed to https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/tUWkWkSOkZ57Jgeh61T7f4gCNGkGQaUsn8_8RubAClI?feat=directlink)

Here is a diagram showing some details not visible in the above picture...
(broken link removed to https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/OJWI6cbrMNVKzQpt4Y5JUYgCNGkGQaUsn8_8RubAClI?feat=directlink)

Any tips you have for me, including models I should be looking at, would be most appreciated... I definitely want to get a wood stove installed before winter.

Many thanks!!

 

[pen]

Pretty much all wood stoves have clearances for corner installs. There are no corner specific stoves that I am aware of like a corner cabinet in design.

So long as your hearth is large enough to meet the corner install requirements of a given stove and clearance to combustibles can be met all the way around, you'd be good to go.

pen

 

[brianbeech]

I think the hardest part is going to be finding something that will attach to the 18" flue height. I just did some quick looking and I didn't see anything that wasn't at least > 18" taller than the floor. The closest I found was a wall mount stove: (broken link removed to http://www.morsona.com/index.php/wall-mounted/morso-7670.html)
It was ~16" up the stove, but even with that one I think you need 11" under the stove - pushing you way over 18".

 

[otetsiona]

Thank you for your reply!

Can you advise re: some models that have the stovepipe coming out of the back rather than out of the top? I am sure I will definitely need one with that design rather than the vertical stovepipe design. Also, what are the pros/cons relative to how the stovepipe comes out: vertical vs. horizontal?

Thanks!

 

[otetsiona]

@brianbeech,

I'll be back home this evening and can get some more precise dimensions... it may be that I have to just ignore the existing plate and go through the roof, which would certainly open up the options re: design.

Btw... I'm amazed at the response time on this forum... very impressive! Thank you for your reply.

 

[otetsiona]

It's dawning on me based upon the specifications I mentioned... is it likely that the plate I'm referring to was actually installed with a pellet stove in mind rather than a traditional wood stove? I ask because it seems that many pellet stoves have horizontal flues and the wall plates I've seen for pellet stoves look quite similar to what I have installed...

Thanks.

 

[jimbom]

Based on our experience, your constraint will be the flue opening height of 18". We made a list of all of the back flue exit stoves that fit our available flue height of 25". Then searched those stoves for side/back clearances that would fit the space we had available. We used online installation manuals for the source information.

We have to economize, so we set internet search bots to find used stoves/chimney. Everything took almost two years, but we now have a pretty little stove that seems to work great. The only one on my list close to 18" is the Jotul F100, but my information is dated.

Good luck. That beautiful hearth is crying out for a dandy warm stove. Hope you find one.

 

[Milton Findley]

I think your pellet stove guess was the right answer, as many of them have low flue exits.

 

[jeff_t]

A corner shaped firebox would be kinda hard to load. You'd have to use wedges.