We had one custom made 22 years ago. It's great. I can burn 1/2 of a 24"
round at a time. That'll generally burn 6-8 hours unless it's really cold
and we crank
'er up good. the thing that I find makes this one so good, it the
circulation features we had built in to it. We had a basic shell, then an
outer shell with wide front, powered air inputs on both sides that circulate
around the shell, then out the to over the front which serves to hear the
air further. We can move one helluva lot of air. the zero clearance feature
mostly serves as a cold air return that pulls cooler air from the back of
the house to the stove. BTW, the bottom, back and sides 1/2 way up. are fire
brick lined. Our flue is the original 8x10" masonry inside a 3x4' brick
structure.

The only thing that's sort of a pain in the _ss is having to pull it out
when the chimney needs cleaning. I only have to clean mine every 3-4 years.
Once every couple of days, I really crank'er up after having thrown in a
scoop of creosote preventer on a hot bed of coals.

We;ve got an old Ashley wood stove in the family room in case it gets really
cold but I've only used it 1/2 dozen or so times in 20 years.mostly when we
get in from the snow or hunting.

BTW we live near the Hells Canyon National Recreation area and get in the
neighborhood of 160" of snow with average temps of 10-25 from dec - mar. the
house is near 2200ft and we probably don't burn 5 cords yr.

I have some friends that had one built buy the same guy from our design but
they added propane capabilities to theirs so they could have heat when they
were gone.

Have a good one,
tHAT



"M.Paul" wrote in message
...
I currently have a good (Majestic) zero clearance fireplace with a fan
around the box that we use to heat our entire (2200sf) 2 story house. The
problem is that we go through a lot of firewood (approx 5 cords) each
year.
I am interested in installing a wood burning insert. Some say that I
would
need to replace the existing flue, which is approximately 25 ft long, with
one that is a narrower diameter in order to get the correct draw. Other
say
that it's not necessary. I am interested in hearing about the experiences
from those that have installed wood burning stove inserts.
Thanks,
M.Paul