Where are all the fireplaces?

[blacknoir]

I'm really surprised that there aren't more fireplaces. It seems like a fairly easy progression from WFO to fireplace.. there are so many similarities after all.

I'm debating on either doing my WFO first and then my fireplace or attempting them both at the same time. The only problem I see is designing the fireplace. For those of you that have completed a WFO do you think doing a fireplace after would be easier? Should I wait and get some experience with a WFO first?

-Shay

[dmun]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

I built a fireplace: you can see it in my build, linked below. I'm a great believer in the Rumford style of fireplace, tall, shallow, designed for vertical fires and radiant heat.

Forno Bravo sells a fireplace unit

You should also look at the Rumford.com site:

They talk frankly about the tendency for outdoor fireplaces to smoke, since they don't have the indoor/outdoor temperature differential that aids draft in indoor fireplaces. Read this carefully before planning your project.

[blacknoir]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

I was thinking of doing a Rumford actually. Can I ask what you ended up going with for dimensions? I'm thinking of doing the 36" which should end up being a minimum of 5' wide and 1'10" deep.

[dmun]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

I don't have time to dig up the drawings now, but you can get a pretty good estimate of the size by counting the 4 x 8 firebricks in this photo:

from this page where there are a lot more photos, and a dimensioned drawing of the throat.

[blacknoir]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

That works, thanks.

[Jonathontd]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

My first oven had a fireplace and we found out that we rarely used it. We do live in the Pacific Northwest, so that is a consideration. Don't expect any fireplace to throw out heat for much distance.

Jonathon

[AlexaSM]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

Hi.
I want to construct outdoor fireplace. Prompt, what minimal distance should be from houses up to fireplace?

[dmun]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

There are codes for distance from the fireplace opening to anything combustible (I think it's twelve inches) and code that says that the opening of the chimney needs to be two feet away from anything within ten feet. Check with your building department if in doubt.

[rtnaw]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

Building a rumford is great project. After my brother and I completed the pizza oven, we started work on rebuilding an old ineffective and extremely smoky fireplace. The old fireplace smoked so much that we could no longer use it. My Dad converted it to natural gas about 15 years ago.
After finding this site, reading Dmuns posts on his rumford build and checking out the rumford site we decided to rip the old fireplace apart and fit it with a new rumford. So, while the snow covered the pizza oven, we started constrution on the rumford. The build of the actual fireplace was easy, the hard part was the destruction of the old unit (cleaning all of the masonary dust was a pain). Used a sawzall to cut the bricks out and built a plastic enclosure to minimize the dust. We put a high output squirrel cage blower facing up the chimney to eject as much of the dust as we could when we were cutting the brickwork out.

[dmun]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

You built your own curved throat like I did? That's ambitious! Looking good!

We had a question about this this week: Is there a diamond sawzall blade?

[rtnaw]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

I just found more pictures of the build if anyone interested. I wish I had more of the early stages of the build. We backfilled with a perlite mixture for insulation purposes. We used a genuine rumford segmented throat, which cost about 65.00 per section. We used a total of three sections. The smoke chamber for some reason was very expensive, if I remember correctly it was in the neighborhood of 700.00. My brother opted to custom build the smoke chamber using left over half firebricks and a flue tile that was cut to fit the sides.
The fireplace is a 36" unit, I posted a picture of my wife standing inside just for a reference of the height and width. I was worried about smoking up the inside of the house, as thats what the old fireplace did. My fear was that we went through all of this hard work for nothing. I am glad to say, the fireplace works flawlessly. The draw up the chimney is incredible, no smoking at all. The room that it is in is fairly big, about 25 x 35 with a 13ft cathedral ceiling. The fireplace heats the entire room, actually, it overheats the entire room. In the middle of winter we can raise the room temp from 65 to about 78 in about an hour.
If you can build a pizza oven, this project is a piece of cake and well worth the effort. I would recommend this project to anyone, the end result is well worth it.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

its a good looking fireplace... Do you find that the Rumford throws a lot more heat than a regular fireplace ?

Mark

[rtnaw]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

Hi Mark,

Yes, I think the rumford design is great. I think I mentioned in the earlier post that the heat output is fantastic. The room where it is installed is a pretty good size with cathedral ceilings. I was considering some sort of an electric fan that would be built on the back side of the fireplace with ductwork to move some the heat into the room. I never did get around to building that, just had too much other stuff to do. My main concern was that with the size of the room and the cathedral ceilings. I was afraid the heat output wouldn't be enough to adequately heat the area. I am glad to say I was wrong. The shallow firebox and the radiant heat it gives off is very impressive.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

thenks for the input rt,, Im having thoughts for a future project,,,

[eliteanny]

Re: Where are all the fireplaces?

can i order these fireplaces online??? thanks in advance...

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