Right now, my wood stove is perpendicular to the chimney. The side is about a foot away from the chimney. Since I have to replace the stove pipe anyway, I was thinking about moving it so it would be so that the back of the stove was almost touching the chimney. Now this was a fireplace insert, so it has a 1.5" channel that runs from the bottom of the stove around to the top of the stove. I'm guessing it was to give some warm airflow. The chimney is painted, but I'm not too worried about the paint as long as it's not a safety hazard.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?