From the picture you sent us, what you have is actually not a woodstove, but a steel liner for a masonry fireplace. And Killaloe, Ont.-based wood-heating consultant John Gulland says this is one gift horse you should definitely look in the mouth. Not only is it outdated technology (he estimates it's about 18-20 years old), but even for its day it was a real clunker of a design.

Gulland, who works with Wood Heat Organization Inc., remembers Lakewood, which built wood-heating equipment in Ontario in the '70s and '80s, and went out of business long ago. This model is huge and bulky and probably inefficient, he says. It predates the era of the air-washed door, so he predicts that the glass would turn black as soon as you lit a fire in it.

Jan Herald, a Wood Energy Technical Training (WETT) instructor withTechnology Transfer Inc., a training and education association for the wood-heat industry, notes that the liner does not carry an Underwriters Laboratories of Canada (ULC) label. In 1990, Herald explains, the Ontario Building Code was changed to require such devices to conform to ULC standards, and the ULC label gives the requirements for installing it safely.

That said, there's nothing inherently unsafe about the liner, Gulland says, and a certified installer should be able to figure out how to set it up. However, without the ULC label, it still won't comply with the code. "What's more, it would call for some fancy footwork," Gulland adds. "To begin with, the square vent on top needs a custom-made adapter to fit to a modern chimney. It could get very, very expensive." Even if the stove is professionally installed, its unusual configuration, in addition to its lack of a ULC label, will throw up a red flag to any experienced building or insurance inspector.

In short, Gulland and Herald both suggest you quietly set this gift aside and - for not much more money when all's said and done - invest in a modern wood-burning stove or fireplace for your new cottage.