Mark III Value?

I was finally able to talk to the current owner direct today and some of the info I was given was incorrect. He said the stove is a 2001, new gaskets last year, and new glass 3 years ago. He says the stove is in very good condition, grates are in good shape as is the shaker. I will be making a trip to Corning Sunday to take a look at it.

Well, the Keystoker now has a brother. Picked up the Harman this morning. Needs a good cleaning, a paint job and glass needs to be cleaned. Overall it appears to be in very good shape.

Looks good.. I just bought a used one and love it... While the stove isnt being used open the door and watch the grates while you shake them. It doesnt take much to go to far and dump coal. I marked both ways with chalk, so I don't go too far when shaking.

sebring wrote:While the stove isnt being used open the door and watch the grates while you shake them. It doesnt take much to go to far and dump coal.

Haha, thats the first thing I did when we got it off the truck was to see how far the grates opened when shaking the handle.

Yes. The Harman's seem to really open up the grates when you push/pull he shaker handles to the ends. The good thing is when you shut the stove down, it is easy to get all the ash down into the pan with ease. But yes. Beware of the over push/pull. Don;t want to dump your fire.

Enjoy.

I also have a Mark 111 also and have just noticed during a jammed grate cleanout there is a different gap between the first grate and the second grate (bigger) in comparison to the gap between the second and third grate (smaller). I get a lot bigger live coals dropping between the first and second grate. Do not know why. Do they come as a matched set? Something to look at while it is cool and you can do something about if there is an issue. This may be part of the reason mine seems to be jamming up even with just barely wiggling the shaker lever.

THe spacing between the grates should be pretty equal. If you have one bigger than antoher, maybe one of the grates is slightly warped. The grates should be level. When they warp, they sag and get a "smile" look to them which could make the spaces bigger.

That thing can put out a lot of heat!! Congrats!!

I would suggest you check the integrity of the baffle plate on the top of the firebox. Make sure all the fly ash is vacuumed out from there or your heat transfer to the distribution air tubes at the top of the stove won't be as efficient.

Also make sure all the fly ash is gone from behind the firebox by vacuuming through the exhaust port. You will probably have to vacuum off the back part of the baffle from through the exhaust port also, it's a tight fir to get the vacuum hose to the back of the baffle from the front of the stove.

Thank you all for the suggestions as this is new territory for me. I would like to get it into the basement and fire it up but I want to do this right, so it will have to wait until summer because I don't have anyplace warm to do the work. I don't want to rush to get something done because of the cold. She's under wraps right now.

I love my MKIII..been using it for 4 years now. I had other stoves and this is the best. My grates are slightly bowed down in the center and was going to replace it but they said $100 so I haven't bothered. It still shakes good. This was 2 seasons ago. Still runs nice. My motor (OEM) started making a noise a couple of years ago too. But it is still going strong. I just keep blowing the dust out of it and oiling it. Changed the gaskets once. Never vacumed out the back baffle. It's been going since Nov. 1st. the year before it went from Oct to April without going out.
Burn Pea alot and some Nut. Have to shake little throws with Nut or it will jam. If it does I leave it until morning and by then the coal has turned to ash. Pea never jams.

captcaper wrote:I love my MKIII..been using it for 4 years now. I had other stoves and this is the best. My grates are slightly bowed down in the center and was going to replace it but they said $100 so I haven't bothered. It still shakes good. This was 2 seasons ago. Still runs nice. My motor (OEM) started making a noise a couple of years ago too. But it is still going strong. I just keep blowing the dust out of it and oiling it. Changed the gaskets once. Never vacumed out the back baffle. It's been going since Nov. 1st. the year before it went from Oct to April without going out.
Burn Pea alot and some Nut. Have to shake little throws with Nut or it will jam. If it does I leave it until morning and by then the coal has turned to ash. Pea never jams.

If you've never vacuumed out the back baffle, you are going to be very surprised how much flyash is in there. It's got to be having a negative impact on the stoves performance.

Honestly it seems the same as new. How do you vacume it out? Remove the stove pipe? Mine is top venting. I'll wait until spring at this point if I have to remove the flue pipeing.

I've only ever seen the back vent Mark III's so I don't know if your top vent would even have a space behind the firebox for ash to accumulate.

Do you get fly ash accumulating on top of the baffle like the back vent models do? I would always notice a big difference in the temp of the air coming out the distribution tubes after cleaning out the fly ash from the baffle. The ash would lay against the tubes insulating them somewhat.

On the back vent model you do have to remove the flue pipe to vacuum out that space.

I have the rare top vent also on an older MK II. Yes the fly ash still accumulates on the baffle plate, and you have to remove the pipe to clean it out. But the ash does not seem to affect the flow of flue gases. I could see it cutting down on the efficiency of the heat transfer to the internal air passages though. I have heard of people blocking off one of the grates for when you do not need the stove to run so hot in the shoulder months. It would then have the coal bed the size of a MKII. Seems like a reasonable idea if done right.

I burn Pea coal during milder temps. No need to cut down the grate size,etc Pea will simmer right down to almost nothing. Then will fire up when opened up..