MAJOR HELP on Federal Dutchwest Stove

Ummmmmmm


What?

I was wondering when someone would catch that. What size does it make, nut or stove?

Old time pot belly stoves never had fire brick just a double iron liner in the bottom and they burned tons of coal in them in the old days. Just because it doesn't have fire brick doesn't mean its no good.
Just my opinion.

The one thing that I see is It as grate plates with only 18 little holes in them I don't believe you are going to get enough
air to burn Anthracite coal Anthracite coal likes lots of air to burn right you need more air flow up threw the grates also the air helps to move the heat off of the grates The more air space the more heat will be taking off the grates I do not think the Plate grates will take the heat that Anthracite Puts out I think you would have A warpage issue with that type of grate Plus you have nuts & bolts holding everything together They will not hold up to the heat that long you need strong welds for coal

that was a fantastic heat machine, i had one from the mid 80's to the early 90's.

could you post a few pictures with the doors closed...lots's of nostalgia there when my kids were young.

thanks,
tom

I bought one of those stoves used & burned it for a few years. ( shaker grates have to be turned individually using a small tool ) It's definetly a coal burner but tends to give off CO at low burn temps. Very deep & hard to clean out & then this from my post on a diff thread:

............"I had a scary incident about 4 years ago with my old (bought used) Dutchwest Federal stove. I had just shaken the stove down & had a full charge of fresh coal loaded. I still had the ash door open & a roaring fire going( with the ash pan still about 1/2 way out )when I heard a sickening crunch. One of the shaker grates had broken & part had fallen into & jammed the ashpan in its 1/2 open position. (one end was still attached to the stove while the broken end had dropped down into the ash pan)
I couldnt push the pan back or pull it out & thus I had no way of closing the ash door! Panic time!! I tried to figure out how I could starve the stove from getting air but, with the stove temp climbing off the scale, I had my wife cal the fire dept who helped me unload the hot coal into a barrel out back. (Iwhile I was waiting for the FD to arrive..just about 10 minutes...I opened the top load door figuring that this would lessen the draft through the coals. I think it did slow it down bit)
If things were happening slower I would have shoveled sand onto the fire & into the ash door opening until it starved the fire of air...but I didn't think of that till later. (+ I had no sand available...I now keep a barrel of sand out back!)"....

I would be scared to run anthracite in that stove, it burns so hot, I'd be worried all the time. I would use it for wood, though.

I have a photo with the door closed but the glass is so old and dirty the fire doesn't show through!
If I have reduced it small enough!
drujinin

drujinin wrote:I have a photo with the door closed but the glass is so old and dirty the fire doesn't show through!
If I have reduced it small enough!
drujinin

Must have been a slightly diff model than mine. (or the one posted with inside pics)
Mine had one horizontal window in the door while yours had 2 vertical windows.
It was an ok stove once you got used to it & adapted it a bit:

1. The coal bed was not deep enough so I ran a peicve of steel across the front (about 2" high) to hold a deeper bed.
2. It was so deep & dark that I would have to use a flashlight sometimes.
3. A real nightmore to clean out!
4. Not good with air management. Even with all vents shut tight (& good gaskets) it was tough to get a low temp burn.
5. As I said b4, I would often get a low CO reading on my CO detector. (I would often have to fully open the ash door (& a few windows) to let the fire get hot b4 it would stop leaking low levels of CO into the house...By comparison, this is my 3rd year with the Harman TLC2000 & even with lowerer temp burns, my Nighthawk digital reading CO detector has never read anything but "0")
6. Great for burning wood as you could get alot in there.

I forgot to mention that mine says on the nameplate Model FA267CL - DutchWest, INDIA LTD. UL tested 1983.
If it helps to date mine against any others.
As you can see there is no ash door nor if I had an inside photo are there grates.
drujinin