Installing My Fireplace Stove Insert (Enviro Boston 1700 Insert) 

Thank you! I'm glad it was helpful. I tried to make this video what I had been searching for on youtube (without finding) when I was trying to figure out what all I was going to need to do. The Boston 1700 is a great unit. We've had it going for about a month straight now and it hasn't disappointed (it's currently 19 outside and 71 inside). I have done a whole series of videos on the stove from receiving it on a pallet after ordering it through what my experience has been with it so far. You may also find some of those helpful as well. Thanks for watching and commenting.!

Go on.....I'm waiting with bated breath.

@@theinternets7516 You got in.... no comment beyond that. 😶

If you're running the blower on full blast that will definitely reduce your burn time but if you're getting five hours of actual flame you're still doing well. I can usually get 4-5 hours of actual flame and then another 2-3 hours of good heat output just from the coal bed and then the coals are still good enough for an easy relight for a few more hours. I haven't had to heat during any temperatures that low and I'm heating about 2100 sq. ft. so I'm sure that makes a big difference as well in overall performance. Usually if it's single digits we can keep the house around 67-69. In temps in the 20s and up it's not too hard to keep the house in the low to mid 70s. So far I've been really happy with it. If you're looking for longer burn times the best way to get there is by slowly taking the air down by pushing the damper rod in a little bit every 10-15 minutes once the fire is going really strong. Once you get it down 80-85% closed just leave it alone and if the stove is up to temperature it should give a long slow burn. You'll have to have the blower on med. or low-med. though or it will cool down the stove too much for it to efficiently burn. Let me know how it goes. Thanks for watching and commenting!

The Internets thanks for the reply,.. the 5 hours I mentioned included the hot embers as well. I hadn't thought of turning down the blower to increase the burn time. I'll give it a go tonight and see how it changes things. I was warned not to overfill the stove, no more than 4 logs and to leave a space of a few inches from the top down. Do you have a thermometer installed on your exhaust flue? If so, how hot is your insert running?

@@clanky44, I didn't install a stove thermometer. I did buy an infrared gun-type thermometer so that I can check the stove temperature at the flue and the top of the firebox easily. I run mine anywhere between 450 and 750 as measured on the center of the top of the firebox. In general, the sweet spot seems to be around 550-700 as far as getting a good long burn with consistently good secondary combustion with the damper down to around 10-15% open. As far as how much wood to load into it goes, you definitely don't want to over load it. The goal should be to leave at least a 2-3 inch gap between the wood and the secondary tubes and be sure that there can be good air flow around each split. Being sure that the wood is 20% moisture or less is also key to a good long, clean, hot burn. I have the best luck with putting three medium splits in going north-south and then another two or three medium or slightly smaller than that splits on top of those going east-west. For a good overnight fire I like to get the stove up to temperature with some small to medium size splits and then put in three larger splits to increase the burn time a bit. Usually I'll wake up around 4:00 or 5:00 to go to the bathroom and I'll put a couple of medium size splits on the coals and go back to bed so that the house is warm when we get up.

The Internets Good advice, thanks again.

Not a problem. Happy to help. A couple more tips would be to buy a moisture meter and some 16 inch welding gloves. Both can be had for around $20 each on amazon and I have found both to be very useful. The gloves are a must if you plan on stoking or reloading a hot stove. Also, checkout hearth.com. It's a great resource for all things stove related. There are a ton of good threads already and if you can't find what you're looking for the folks on there are always happy to answer questions if they can. Let me know how things are going once you're able to make some tweaks get to know you're stove a little better.

I think the installation would have been another $2500-3000 based on the $800 quote I was given just to put the liner in. For me it was well worth it do it myself but depending on your situation and bank account you may find that it's a better deal to just hire someone. If I had done all of this straight through rather than here and there in my spare time I think with some good planning I could have gotten it done in a 3 day weekend. $1000/day savings was hard to turn down.

@@theinternets7516 well I agree. The hard part I feel will be taking out the fireplace damper. But I found a new in crate hogue insert new over 6 for only 1

@@theinternets7516 I will attempt to do it along with my brother in law, the big problem I think will be getting the insert into the house. Weight is over 550 pounds

@@davidadkins2563, most of them are able to be disassembled which should drop it down to 250-300 pounds. Make sure you take out the fire bricks too. It's still awkward but at 250-300 pounds it's manageable for two people.

I apologize for leaving that part out. I guess that makes the title a little misleading. Actually putting the insert into the fireplace is one of the least technically difficult parts of this whole process. I didn't film it because I would have been in the way for the most part. You're basically just trying to slide a big heavy metal box into your fireplace and line up the flue outlet with the flue liner. At that point you're just reattaching all of the things from disassembling the stove insert. What I wanted to do with this video was to show everything else that's involved with installing one of these inserts. Most of the videos on RU-vid simply show people putting the stove insert into the firebox which is a little misleading because it doesn't show how much work actually goes into installing one of these nor does it let you know how the different parts of the installation need to be done. A good example of this is making and installing a block off plate. I could not find any videos or very much information at all for that matter on making and installing a block off plate. Most of the recommendations were to use sheet metal which seemed much more difficult than the route that I took with the concrete board. I apologize if this video was not able to help you but I hope that at least parts of it were helpful. As for actually installing the insert, my wife and I tipped it up to get it up onto our hearth and then used a canvas drop cloth to cover the bricks and slide it over them and into the fire box. And that point it was several difficult hours of trying to get everything lined up and put back together. It's not so much that it was technically difficult but due to the weight and awkwardness of the insert it was physically demanding and even small adjustments were not easy to make. Once everything was lined up I used a wrench to adjust the leveling feet to make sure it was level and steady and then I reattached all of the parts that I had taken off of it. I hope this helps. Thanks for watching commenting! Good luck with your own installation.

7 foot 4x6 oak beam that I would like to put up there but this isn't our forever home so I'm saving it for when we build. I plan to build a very large mantle and fire box that will easily allow a free standing stove to sit inside it.

@@theinternets7516 That sounds nice, a bit too modern for my liking with that beam, but I am sure it would look beautiful. I hope you will have that opportunity soon to find your forever home :) When you do, we are expecting a video :))

@@honestcomments6060, it will be a few years before we build but there will definitely b a video for the hearth and stove setup.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you! It was a decent amount of work but totally worth it.

I have one of those and have considered getting a second one but they are a poor substitute for the blower and if you really stuff the firebox full they will not provide the needed cooling to prevent the stove from being over fired. They are definitely better than nothing in a situation without power, you just have to make sure you don't run your insert too hard or you'll over fire it for sure. Thanks for watching and commenting!

The Internets Ok. I’m investigating wood as a heat source to switch to from oil. I don’t know much about all the fine points but I’m learning. Thank you.

@@rozchristopherson648, there is a decent bit to learn but it's worth it. We love our stove. We have heat pumps but we still heat with wood because we like it so much. October to April are also our cheapest power bills. If you have a way to get the wood for free either from your property or a friend or family member it's totally worth it, especially as expensive as heating oil is.

LOL! It's my A---->B shit box. 206,000 miles and still going strong. It was my wife's first car.

I used an angle grinder with a cutt off wheel to cut it out. It wasn't terrible but it was tight quarters. I would recommend a wearing respirator and a face shield if you do it yourself.

Yeah. In hindsight I definitely should have opened the garage door and the man door on the back and had a fan going to push the dust out the front. There was dust covering everything. It was a real mess. The mask I had on was an N95 respirator so my lungs were protected but it was still a bad idea to do it in a closed off space. Thanks for watching and commenting! I hope the video was helpful.

I used a combination of the 1200° and 2400° insulation that I had left over from the install of the insert to insulate the cord and box. We're on our third season burning daily and haven't had any issues.

@@theinternets7516 Thanks for the reply. Currently doing demolition on my fireplace and your video was helpful. So, you wired up the outlet and surrounded the outlet box with insulation, along with the cord that powers the blower?

@@waterdumperthe cord runs along the floor on the fireplace firebox and I just laid insulation over top of it. I used the left over insulation and some of the left over metal duct tape from the liner insulation kit to insulate the electrical outlet. It's nothing fancy, just a barrier.

No. It was a tight fit with the insulation inside the clay liner but it went in without too much trouble. I did have to cut out the fireplace damper though. I used an angle grinder. If you do that make sure you are wearing goggles and a face shield. It's tight quarters and the shavings are really flying everywhere.

That's unfortunate but often times the truth. I did a ton of homework on the install before I started it. I didn't get any quotes for a full install but the $800 quote I got for installing the liner was nuts and I knew at that point that I was going to have to just figure it out on my own. Thanks for watching and commenting. I hope it was helpful.

No. I looked into it but it wasn't really necessary. We're in our second season with it and it hasn't been an issue.

I used Roxul 40260. If you Google "roxul 40260" it'll bring up exactly what I used.

The Internets thanks very much!

In general, I'm happy with it. Our house is a ~2100 sq ft cap cod and is relatively well insulated and efficiently laid out for wood heat and the insert does a great job when temperatures are mid 20s and up. Once it gets below 20 it starts to struggle to keep the house at 72. It can do it but the colder it gets the more you have to babysit it to make sure you're running it just right for getting out as much heat as you can. The coldest temp I've used it in was 5 degrees and it was definitely struggling. It kept the house about 68 which isn't terrible but the major problem was that I needed to take an hour or so in between loads to burn off coals so that I could get it fully reloaded and that's when it would slip down a few degrees and then I had to play catch up with the next load. We're in East TN so for us a cold night is high teens to low 20s and most of the time we only get down to 25-30 so for the most part it works great. If you have a house that's well insulated and in the 1500 sq. ft. range I think it could easily heat it in the single digits. I really can't imagine this thing heating 3000 sq. ft. (like it's rated for by Enviro) unless it was new construction that was sealed up super tight. I actually just made a video about how it performs in cold weather but I haven't gotten it uploaded yet so I'll reply to you with the link for that once I upload it. I hope that helps. Thanks for watching. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

@@theinternets7516 Thank you for all of that info! We are really considering getting one and I love hearing how it works! I look forward to your new video too.

Here is the link to the cold weather performance video. Hope it helps! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RrmgzkoBgMM.html

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They said that because it was an insert they didn't view it any differently than my current fireplace but that if I were to put in a free standing stove that it would increase my rates. This is something that probably varies from company to company though so you should check with yours and depending on what they say check around and get quotes to see if it would be worth switching companies if your company wants to drastically increase your rate but others will leave it roughly the same. I think if you have a large enough masonry firebox and hearth to actually put the entire free standing stove in the firebox you can get away with it without having your insurance go up as it would essentially be no different than an insert without a surround at that point although I'm sure it would put out a lot more heat than an insert.

The Internets Thank you so much for your reply. My fireplace is wide but I don’t think it’s deep enough for a full stove. I will check before choosing.

@@rozchristopherson648, it's definitely worth checking on especially if your insurance company would allow it without raising your rates. A free standing stove (even if it's sitting in your fireplace) will put out a lot more heat than an insert and is much less likely to over fire since they designed to be burned without using a blower. I would definitely suggest getting a blower with a free standing stove if it's an option though just for the added versatility. I would recommend watching my video on my insert's cold weather performance to help you decide if an insert or a free standing stove would be better for you.

I got the liner kit and liner insulation on ebay from fireside_chimney. I also bought the insert on ebay from somdhearth although I don't think they are selling on ebay anymore but you can go to their website and contact them either by email or over the phone and deal with them that way. They were very good to deal with. www.somdhearth.com/home.html I paid $3,361 for the unit and they shipped it for free. All in all I think ended up spending around $4,300. As far as I'm concerned it was money well spent. We used this thing on a daily basis once we got it in.

@@theinternets7516 thanks man, I'm looking to invest in a insert so that I can stop wasting wood in my fireplace and get sufficient heat at the same time.

@@ezcare5075 , happy to help. That's what pushed me to buying one as well. The fireplace could only heat the living room and used a ridiculous amount of wood. I wanted something that we could enjoy and if we needed to actually heat the whole house with it. As it turned out, we liked it so much that once we got it in and running we did about 90% of our heating with it. If you can get your wood free or really cheap it's totally worth it.

@@theinternets7516 yes I can get wood for free my tree guy that I use doesnt sell firewood because it's too much work so he gives them away that's why am looking into by a insert. I see fireside chimney also sells stoves, brand by napoleon. How is their brand of stoves they have a unit with liner kit?

@@ezcare5075, From what I've read, Napoleon makes good stoves. For the price, performance, and looks I felt like the enviro was the best deal. If you're doing an insert I would not go with a flush mount insert. They look very nice but the heat output of the insert is directly tied to how much of the insert is sitting out on the hearth. That's one of the reasons I went with the Enviro Boston insert. It also allows for a shelf to set humidifier and a fan if the power is out. If you're going to buy it as a kit make sure the liner is top quality. Mine is a double wall with the thickest metal they offered on the flex liners. I wanted to be sure that it would hold up to high temperatures for many years.

I did use a connector. I sealed the connection between the connector and the flue collar with Rutland fiberglass stove gasket cement. So far so good. For the first week or two there would occasionally be a very faint smoke smell but the forums I was doing my research on said that this would go away once everything was broken in and that was indeed the case.

@@theinternets7516 Any tips on getting the door off its hinges? I'm having a heck of a time trying to get it off.

@@mattstephen9213, Take off the cast iron top plate and then the door just slides up off the hinges.

@@theinternets7516 I took off the top pate and mine isnt budging. Even with two people.

@@mattstephen9213, that's odd. It's heavy for sure but I have always been able to lift it off without much trouble. You might try holding some dry ice on each hinge with some kitchen tongs to cool down the metal and that might give you the little bit of extra clearance you need to slide it up and off the hinges. Other than that, I'd say just make sure you're directing you force straight up so that it's not binding anywhere.i hope that helps. Let me know when you get it figured out.

You may not be surprised to hear to this, but you're not the first person to mention this. I'm going to copy and paste a fairly lengthy reply I gave to the first comment of this type and hopefully it will explain what I was hoping to achieve with this video. Actually putting the insert into the fireplace is one of the least technically difficult parts of this whole process. I didn't film it because I would have been in the way for the most part. You're basically just trying to slide a big heavy metal box into your fireplace and line up the flue outlet with the flue liner. At that point you're just reattaching all of the things from disassembling the stove insert. What I wanted to do with this video was to show everything else that's involved with installing one of these inserts. Most of the videos on RU-vid simply show people putting the stove insert into the firebox which is a little misleading because it doesn't show how much work actually goes into installing one of these nor does it let you know how the different parts of the installation need to be done. A good example of this is making and installing a block off plate. I could not find any videos or very much information at all for that matter on making and installing a block off plate. Most of the recommendations were to use sheet metal which seemed much more difficult than the route that I took with the concrete board. I apologize if this video was not able to help you but I hope that at least parts of it were helpful. As for actually installing the insert, my wife and I tipped it up to get it up onto our hearth and then used a canvas drop cloth to cover the bricks and slide it over them and into the fire box. And that point it was several difficult hours of trying to get everything lined up and put back together. It's not so much that it was technically difficult but due to the weight and awkwardness of the insert it was physically demanding and even small adjustments were not easy to make. Once everything was lined up I used a wrench to adjust the leveling feet to make sure it was level and steady and then I reattached all of the parts that I had taken off of it. I hope this helps. Thanks for watching commenting! Good luck with your own installation.

@@theinternets7516 No offense my man just wasn't what I was thinking it would be.

How rude.

@@ast-og-losta screw