chimney and fireplace

[waynes]

Moved into our lovely new house, central heating is oil boiler is 30 years old but runs as well as it did when made.
Chimney is completly blocked off, there was at some point a back boiler, as it is our cold water main comes in though the chimney (in the corner)

So as its coming up to winter and power cuts are common we thought we would install a fire, havnt decided on open or stove but spoke to a sweep and he said he needed a hole to have a lookie see, so off I went with disc cutter and hammer to make said hole.

Now it seems old fire is still there as is backboiler I expect, can anyone tell me what to do next or what the hell im looking at???

 

[marshman]

that's the back inspection, cleaning plate, its the same make of fire as ours but a different model,
on ours this is just above the boiler bottle, I would guess your bottle is in the same place and is fitted down from this behind the plate
with the ( flutes ) on it, if you remove this plate it should be hollow behind and clear as this is where the smoke passes when on draw,
above this in the throat of the chimney should be a damper plate that you pull forward or push back to control the draw, ( hinged )
the wing walls should be fire brick, if you knock out lower you should see the bottom of the bottle and a gap approx' 2 inches under it
this back way needs to be clear and you'll have to clean it out after having the chimney swept and any ash that gets there.

 

[waynes]

is it anygood? take it its a coal/wood fire then?
any idea if we just remove it we could have something else fitted?

 

[marshman]

is it any good?
well this one has served us for the past 25 years and how long before that I've no idea, you or we couldn't get a proper new bottle
for it about 15 years ago so if any part is broken you need to find someone to repair it,
yes its good as you can draw it up and boil the water in the tank and even not on draw if you don't use much hot water in the winter
it will sometimes boil the water, we have no central heating so that's the only thing that heats the cottage and if the doors are kept
shut you can sweat in a t-shirt in here.
ours is on its last leg's, I've welded the cast up twice so it will be gone when we renovate but we are not sure whether to keep an open
fire or go multi fuel stove, they do make a lot of dust.

take it its a coal/wood fire then?
they'll burn anything, old work boots are good blaze first thing on cold winter morning, and chip board flooring is good once you've
got hot coal's and you can keep it running 24/7 if you bank it down with ash or coal dust at night.

any idea if we just remove it we could have something else fitted?
I'd say yes but you better let the chimney sweep advise you,
and your bottle in that one would probable need the scale tipping out if its still water tight,
if you don't want to use the boiler for heating water then you must drill some holes in it so it don't pressurise
and bust.

 

[Symptoms]

wayne - cast iron back boiler box ... take it out to gain more depth then install a stove, wood-burners IMO are great, especially if you are rural and have access to woodland/timber yard for cheap fuel. The boiler will still have iron pipes fitted and the whole set is likely to be filled with filthy black water (unless it was drained properly on decommissioning) so careful how you take it out. Marsh is also correct in suggesting the possibility that the boiler (his bottle) has been capped-off so may explode if heated-up.

 

[waynes]

thanks all, will try an get it removed this w/e.

you really think a stove is much better than an open fire, room is only 11x16 i believe

 

[Symptoms]

wayne - open fires are wonderful (especially peat ones) ... but think of the dust, sparks and therefore the need of a fireguard. A stove is IMO a neater solution; get a size that's appropriate to your room size.