Chimney and Stoves, Part II

Being completely distraught by Part I, I haven't dealt with another vendor for several weeks. Speaking with a co-worker, another stove store in their locale was brought up. I paid a visit to their establishment and met with the owner. He was the only other seller of the same stove that we saw previously in our area. Through our conversations, we found out that the Travis made Lopi Laydon is poorly made for heavy use, cosmetically, it's very attractive, but is not built to handle heating a home.


We became dismayed but were drawn to a stove that had a huge glass front, with plenty of surface area to cook on, should it be necessary. This is another Travis product, however, this one is built for heating, not for looks. It's the Travis Avalon 1190.

We received a price that was the same as for the Lopi Laydon but the performance of this beast is greater than that of the Laydon. We also wanted the blower, cast iron legs and front door options. The pedestal look doesn't seem to flow well in a 250 year old home so these options made sense. We had the store owner give us a quote for the installation. The first trip out was by his son who gave a quote for the stove install only. We also needed a quote for a liner in the basement. So a second trip was made by the owner to examine exactly what was needed.

From our home inspection, we found out that we had a Crane oil furnace. Online searching revealed that the Crane company ceased production of oil furnaces in 1968, leading me to believe that our furnace is at least 44 years old at the time of this writing. We had a chimney inspection which also revealed that we did not have a liner for our very old boiler. Thoughts of leaking CO are a major concern with it venting past our bedrooms. In that second trip, the owner came himself, as we discussed the options, I wanted to know if it were possible to get some of the other fireplaces working back to original. We planned on a third visit where he would bring his mason in.

The mason arrived with the owner and they went over the chimney briefly. The conclusion was that YES! it is possible; however, we would never be able to get all 5 fireplaces working due to the current codes limiting space in our chimney. I'll take what I can get, but first our stove.

The final quote for the stove I'll reveal later as it is not installed yet and anything can pop up. The scheduled installation date is February 10, 2012. Look for an update after that date.