Ok; I have an old Heatilator fireplace (circa 1977) in my house that I'm wanting to resurrect. After a bit of research with a local fireplace dealer, I've discovered that this is supposed to have refractory walls in the firebox. It's been lightly used for about two decades without the refractory. I can no longer get new walls for this, but I could certainly pour my own. Heatilator is no help as to type of refractory or wall thickness. Might I be lucky enough that one of you has a wood-burning fireplace, and could measure your firebox refractory wall thickness for me? Then, maybe we can decide if I should cast new walls from dense castable, or insulating castable refractory. (I happen to have both on hand.) I'm thinking about 1/2", but I'm just an "eyeball engineer", and the consequences of being too wrong are rather severe. Just stumbled across a youtube vid that claims the panels are usually 1" thick, so one piece of info is found. Thanks.....Roger
my liner is stacked 1.25 firebrick , which you can get at tractor supply , heatilator has an awful good website https://www.heatilator.com/owner-support/install-and-owners-manuals Did you try their contact us, and just get a canned we dont support that anymore???? seems crazy to me since fireplaces last the life of a house, so hundreds of years, I would think they should be able to help V/r HT1
Here is a relevant comment that is consistent with my distant memory of looking at my son’s older Heatilator-style insert. https://www.safesidechimney.com/replacing-pre-fab-fireplace-panels/ “. These panels are manufactured with high thermal properties , generally are 1/2 in to 3/4 in thick. There are four panels for the back, bottom and sides. Their purpose is to withstand the high heat of a fire” I’d be inclined to use dense castable, I think. Denis
HT1; I went through a dealer in Cedar Rapids, (50 miles south of me). They (claim to have) submitted pics of my fireplace to the factory for identification purposes, and that they no longer have those pieces available for my model. (At least I know what model and mfgr date now. Bought and installed in '77.) About the only thing I can get is the damper chain, which I do need. While I agree that fireplaces can easily last the lifetime of a home, if cared for, this is one of the pre-fabbed inserts. You get it as a (mostly) assembled fireplace, set it in place and add the stack. They're supposed to be a "zero clearance", allowing the assembly to actually contact wood framing in the walls, without danger of structure fires. I suppose I can't reasonable expect them to actually support it forever, especially when they offer new models and designs that are supposed to be much more efficient. I'll check out my local TSC for that brick. If I have to, I'll build a form and pour my own. Thanks.....Roger
Thanks, Denis. I bookmarked the relevant link, and I think I'll do the 3/4 thick, should I need to cast them. Roger
Roger, I have NG fireplace(s) and NG ignited wood burners. They are not Heatilator brand but the refractory panels in all are 1/2" thick. As far as refractory goes, I don't see it as being very demanding application for refractory materials, at least by our foundry standards. If it was mine, I'd use insulating refractory. To me it's a little alarming that it was meant to have refractory panels but doesn't and has been in service for so log. Seems like a real fire hazard. I'd attend to it immediately. Best, Kelly
You're right, and I am. It's out of service until I can get the shortcomings corrected. I had a chat with one of the girls that were still living here with thier mother before I came along and married into the family. There's a few stories about what she has burned in this fireplace. Two of which were the worst. One, a foam-filled pillow, when the fans were still functional, had smoke coming from just about everywhere one could imagine smoke coming from. They had some people come in and disable the fans after that. (Yes, should have taken it out of service then.) There was also a big batch of unhusked black walnuts that got burned in this thing, too. I heard things got exciting over that, too. I suppose it was one of those events that killed the original refractory liner panels. Now that I have the wall opened up around it, I can see where there was some heat leakage, and I'm taking steps to replace damaged wood, seal it up better, and get refractory panels in where they're supposed to be. I'm seriously considering pulling some of the steel panels and inserting gaskets of compressed asbestos "rope" in the seams. (I see where McMaster-Carr has flat "rope" of the stuff available.) And in the future, well my future, it'll just be paper, cardboard and wood burned in it. Roger
