Best Warm Morning for Burning Bit.

Tamecrow wrote:Thanks, so the same question still applies. Are you happy with the 520? Does it have the 4 flue system. Do you think the 420A and the 400 probably look the same as your 520 if you the jackets for the 420A and 400 were removed. Do you think that your 520 operates and has the same functional burning design as the 400?

Smokey wrote:OK. Time for some back round. I'm from Vermont, but I bought a farmhouse in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. I fell in love with the house, but I KNEW that the big ugly brown box of a heater crowding the living room was the first thing that HAD to go! It looked like an old time tube radio trying to be a heater with gaudy gold trim and old Cadillac like emblems and logos. The previous hillbilly of an owner obviously had no sense of style, proportion, aesthetics and he had certainly over estimated his BTU needs for his application. Gee, didn't he even realize he lived in the South? Oh sure, he right away started bragging on that heater saying it was "the best heater that was ever made". Of course, I was smart enough to know that he was just exaggerating the value of his goods just like a good horse trader. Either that or he was ignorant. Probably both. For goodness sake, the house was in Tennessee, not in Vermont or Nova Scotia where the real cold lives. What need did I have for a 70,000 BTU heater in the living room. Didn't the previous owner even realize he was living in the South? Oh sure, he was the nicest man around who would do anything for you. He just didn't have a clue.

Having bought the place in the middle of the summer, 80 degrees outside and crickets at night, I immediately dragged that Monster Box out of the house and drove it over to the previous owner's house with the attitude that if it really was such a great heater, he should feel grateful that I'm "giving it away" to him. Good riddance!

I immediately proceeded to civilize the house, by putting in a cute space saving base board heater. Now there was space and I would feel comfortable the whole year.

Winter rolls around and I'm freezing my butt. Probably because it was too cold at home, I spent more time at Walmart or Lowes, almost always bringing home a little plug in space heater to "fill in the gaps". After plugging in little electric fill in the gap heaters all over the house like they were Christmas tree bulbs, this Yankee finally admitted defeat. I asked around and did some serious research on that "ugly brown box" of a heater that I ejected from my abode. Turns out that ugly brown heater actually WAS the best old heater ever made. It was the kind of like the oil version of the warm morning coal stoves. It was well designed but the company went out of business as people moved on to heat pumps and propane. It's called a MONOGRAM and it has no wick, no burner to clean, no moving parts and always a delightful blue swirling flame. It's only competition was the Siegler but that was only because it was prettier and the wife had to have it. But the Siegler just produced soot when its fan went out while the MONOGRAM had a perfectly designed natural drafter that burned clean and blue everytime.

It was time to eat s-it since I had "egg on my face". So of course I call up the old geezer, cough a few times, and asked him if he'd like me to come on over an get that old heater "out of his way", cough cough. He informs me that he gave it to his sister to keep her good and warm. Pretending not to be shocked and dismayed, I hung up politely and a lot humbler than I ever had before.

I immediatley scramble to find the very same heater I had trashed only a few months earlier. After scouring old furniture stores and classifieds and old barns (this is before ebay) I finally found one, waltzed it back INTO the house. It is so perfect for the house that now, all I do is bore all my guests by bragging on that heater as being the best heater ever made. And true to the Axiom that perception of beauty follows function, since it does such a good job of keeping us warm, I am constantly amazed how I never noticed how sweetly beautiful the Monogram is as I find myself polishing the classy gold trim. What was I smoking when I called it an ugly brown box!

So, yes, I need a coal stove that really gives out the BTU's. I think the Warm Morning is under appreciated like the Chubby was and my oil MONOGRAM was. And it might be the best for Bit which happens to be nearby me. I know that a hundred pound loader like the 400 will work for me and it would not be too powerful. One poster, said that their 60 pound loader was short on some BTU's on the really cold days. And unlike wood, coal heaters don't have the problem of creating creosote when you turn them way down. So I would rather have too large a heater than too small. Plus, my wife is from the Tropics, so she enjoys cranking it up to 80 degrees in the winter, sometimes. The model 400 would be enough and I probably can't find the 200 pound loader(524) anyway. I am only interested in the 524 because it should last even longer between fillings since it holds 200 pounds. I can always turn it way down if it got too hot.

You may be right that Warm Morning always had the correct number of flues per unit. I just thought I remember an ad bragging in the "new improved version with the 4 flues". I am not a Physicist, but it seems counter intuitive that the largest Warm Morning(200 pound load model 524) would be more efficient with less flues than the smaller Warm Morning models. But what do I know? I already exposed how I learned some humility the hard way.

Smokey

A good story. Since I am originally down from them thar hills. It can get pretty darn cold. In fact Knoxville TN had the coldest temps in the nation in January of 1985. It got to minus 24 on my birthday. I have been familiar with Warm Mornings since childhood and they are specially made to burn soft coal exceptionally well. A great stove for a good price. They should still be fairly common back home in Tennessee. At least now you know better.


















orning is under appreciated like the Chubby was