Newbie...Can You Tell Me About This Stove?

Hi, my name is Jason, live in upstate NY and have an aprox 1300sf Cape that that built in '49. This stove is sitting in its original location, still connected to the chimney and I was hopng someone could tell me a little more about the stove and if It might be worth while trying to fire it again? My home is currently NG hot water baseboard....and I apologize in advance if I'm posting this in the wrong place. Never been on a forum before

Welcome to the forum and you are in the right place

Nice looking old stove! Looks like a cast iron radiant stove. If you could follow up by posting a few more pictures of the inside of the stove it will help us with your feedback. Any visible cracks? A picture of the grates showing their condition and the burn pot / fire box area will help. Any refractory (bricks, etc.) inside? Is there a barometric damper between the stove and the chimney?

Welcome! You found the right place.

Nice looking stove! Maybe a pic of the inside, grates, etc...if possible..

Wow, cool stove! You've come to the right place. I'm sure someone who can answer you questions will drop by in a little while. Welcome to the forum! Lisa

Here are a couple more pics, hopefully they are adequate. I don't see any cracks, but I don't really know what I'm looking for either.

Good pics! Looks like the burn pot is cast iron. If you would clean out all the old coal and take a few more pictures of the burn pot ant the tops of the grates it would help.

Try to gently move the grates to drop the ash into the pan below. Doesn't look like they've been moved in a while so you don't want to force any parts that might be bound up with rust. There should be a handle near by to rock the grates - go really easy. The top sliding lever ... try to gently move that back and forth.

Looks like you'll need to install a baro on the back to help keep the heat in the stove longer and save on coal - but I'm getting the proverbial cart before the horse - WHOA NELLY I'm getting into the manual pipe damper vs. baro stuff way too early. If you could give us a top down picture of the top of the stove that would help. Looks like there's a spare manual pipe damper on top of the burn chamber, right?

Thank you for the very quick replies. I'll try cleaning it tommorow and post some more pics....the wife isn't too keen on this whole idea but I'm very excited.

suprcoalifragilistic wrote:Thank you for the very quick replies. I'll try cleaning it tommorow and post some more pics....the wife isn't too keen on this whole idea but I'm very excited.

Wait until she feels the kind of heat it puts out. Especially how warm the floors will be if this gem is in the basement. Not to mention the diner(s) out you'll afford on the savings of heating with an all American fuel.

Edit: reread first post and saw main heat was NG/HWB

I'm gonna make her read that reply right now

You have a circulating type stove from the 1920's. It looks exactly like an Orthophonic Victrola. I have two Orthophonics and I had to do a double take when I saw your stove. Many stoves from this period were meant to mimic Phonographs or Radios so they would look like the rest of the furniture in the living room. This stove will provide you with all the heat you require to warm your home.
The first item of business is to look it over closely. The stove most likely needs to be taken apart and all of the seams re sealed and new bolts put in to replace the original ones. The doors need to be checked to make sure they fit tightly against the stove body. Check the latches and the hinge pins on the loading door and the ash pit door for wear. If you can wiggle the doors on the hinges. They need to be replaced. If you can move the door or jiggle it when it is closed then you need to adjust the latches so the doors are tight.
This stove will be a reliable and economical work horse for you if you properly inspect it, repair it and maintain it. The time spent in taking care of this stove will be a far better investment than wasting money on a new stove which won't match it's performance or ease of operation.

That stove is a great find! It looks like a circulating stove, very similar to the Heatrola I used to heat with. If the seams between the cast iron sections aren't too bad, you may be able to just seal them up with furnace cement. Taking the stove completely apart would be best, but if you can't handle extracting broken bolts I wouldn't recommend it.

Get the stove cleaned out and have a closer look...we love pictures.

Where in Upstate NY??

-Robert

I dig those 3 wheel cast castors under each leg. I've never seen anything like that before. Would make it easier to move for flue cleaning and such. It looks like they were made for it and probably came with it. I wonder if that was an extra when it was purchased? Those grates are scary looking. Original glass door knobs too?

Seems like a really cool stove!

Steve

Here is a picture of an Orthophonic Victrola. See your stove looks just like it.

Wow, what a find! With a little work that stove will be heating your entire house. Welcome to the world of coal.

Very nice.
A barometric damper will help you control the draft on this type of stove. I would also get a manometer (draft gauge) to properly set the barometric damper and monitor chimney draft. I have a similar stove using a barometric damper and have found it's much easier to run/control the stove.
If you're unfamiliar with barometric dampers and manometers, type it in the little search bar in the coal fire at the upper right at the top of the screen (scroll to the top) and you'll find plenty to read