Do You Like Your ANTIQUE Stove?

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nortcan
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Post by nortcan » Sat. Dec. 31, 2011 9:02 am

Since a few time I'm wondering how the antique stove owners like or not their stoves.
Sometime someone log on the forum and ask questions about antique stoves, some buy one some don't. But many times we don't hear about them and it could be very interesting to have a feed back about their experiences, good or not.
Having not an antique section here yet, I hope we can read some good stories about all antique stoves owners, having of all kind of antique stoves.
Welcome to you.


 
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Dennis
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Post by Dennis » Sat. Dec. 31, 2011 9:16 am

It might be a good thing to have an antique stove section on the fourm,since there seems to be a big intrest in them and rebuilding them.I really enjoy just looking at all the beautifull antique stoves. Dennis

 
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Post by echos67 » Sat. Dec. 31, 2011 10:01 am

I love my Glenwood No 6 Antique Stove, I can not think of anything to say that hasnt already been said about these great stoves. Everything with this stove is amazing and I have only been burning it a couple weeks. This stove has became part of a very few items I have that are not for sale :lol: .

The only con I have is when shaking I get unburnt coal through the grates and have to pick it out to send it through again later. I probably need more practice and that will come with time.

This item is not the stoves fault but I need to do something about emptying the ash pan inside into a larger container that doesnt make a cloud of flyash, thankfully its in the basement at this time and it doesnt go upstairs. I should probably just take it outdoors and make a sifter and save the cleanup.

 
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Post by lobsterman » Sat. Dec. 31, 2011 10:26 am

Gotta love the old No. 6. I get so many compliments on it. Echo, you put in new B and C grates, right? You should not be dumping coal. When I shake, I peak through the primary air vent and go gently +/- 30 degrees or so until I see the embers and then I stop. If you want to fine tune it, you can even position the triangles to block bigger pieces from falling if you have a gap. The ash is very fine and needs to be emptied outside. If you get clinkers, then a more violent shake may be in order to grind them up.

 
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Smokeyja
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Post by Smokeyja » Sat. Dec. 31, 2011 10:29 am

At the same time it's good to force these stories of these old gems on the modern users ;).

I am not really a fan of anything modern. I own mostly old cars, motorcycles, cameras, guns, house and so on. The way people lived in the past romances me and causes a love affair with these things of the past. Needless to say, when it came to buying a stove to heat my house, it wasn't going to be something new.

Honestly I stumbled on burning coal. I had all the intentions of using a wood stove. I couldn't get past the ugly looks of most wood stoves, so coal stoves became more appealing to me even though at the time I didn't really know they were coal stoves. We had just put a contract on a 19th century home while living in an apartment and the first thing I did was go on Craigslist and buy a Victorian wood stove (this really was a wood stove. Then when I started a new job and a co-worker heard me talking about stoves and websites he chimed in. I ended up agreeing to build him a small website for a cannon heater that he would sandblast and restore for me. Well he got as far as sand blasting it and replacing all the bolts and I told him I would take it from there as he wanted to spray paint it and I wanted to finish it with Rutlands and restore it a bit different. I can be picky like that. I never used the stove other than fire it with wood outside to cook an egg on but I plan on it one day. I still thought it was wood stove though. So one day I just happend to stop by a salvage yard and saw these little square stoves and asked the owner how much he wanted. He said "$125" as to which I replied "ehhhhhh..." he said "alright $90" I said " SOLD" . He told me they were popular coal stoves back in the day! This started my research and I found out that the cannon heater and WM 414A where coal stoves, thus starting th addiction to coal. Because of these little stoves I spent a couple thousand on my chimney to get it operational and safe again. I had all intentions of using that cannon heater to heat the house but when the workers got done with my chimney I measured the hearth and then the base of the cannon heater then cursed. It was too big for the hearth. I went over to the little WM that I had restored a month ago and put it in place, hooked the pipe up and shoved it with wood, lit the match! I was burning, yea! I shoved some old power plant bit on the wood fire and saw how long it lasted. Eventually I read enough on this forum to get a good grasp on coal and these antique stoves. I found a place to supply me with Blaschak coal and that's what I steady burn now in my antique stove.

Now enough with the life history and to how I like the stove. I love the Warm Morning 414A. I read all of these problems some of the people have with newer stoves and enjoy the simplicity of this stove. I have no blower to make noise or break and no Baro to fool with. It looks good in my house and does the job at keeping it mid 70s very well! I would suggest this stove to anyone, any day. It is easy to load, easy to shake down and you can configure it two ways with the reversible flue collar. It is ultra quiet and can burn anthracite and bituminous very well! If space is an issue but you want to buy an all nighter then this WM is a winner. It holds 40lbs of coal in its firebox and will go all day and night with minimal attention!

Now for you base heater guys. Y'all really have had such great things to say about Base burners that I am planning on buying one next year. I emailed Emery at the stove hospital about making a trip in 2012.

No offense to anyone buying new stoves but I see a lot of problems with fairly new stoves that I don't see people having with these antique stoves. So why spend over $1000 to buy a sheetmetal problem box when I can buy a piece of history that works? That was my way of looking at it. I only apply that logic to hand fired stoves as well. I understand the advantages to stokers and coal hoppers.

That's my story!

 
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Post by coalnewbie » Sat. Dec. 31, 2011 11:03 am

I am in love with the old stoves too. My four stoves (five soon) that I need to operate are hard enough to deal with when the bitchy weather comes. I NEED automation and reliability and I revel in it. I dutifully enter the Lotto every Friday and when I win I will have a Wherle 100 in the corner with a red light bulb inside and mutter darkly about how I going to connect it one day. Love 'em but can't use 'em.

 
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Post by franco b » Sat. Dec. 31, 2011 11:50 am

I too like the romance and looks of some of the antique stoves. Looking at them more objectively though most of them also had design flaws just as most new stoves have. Just to mention a few: grate designs that pass unburned coal too easily and in the case of design where one grate is connected to the next by a gear, uniform rotation is impossible owing to gear tooth clearance issues. Others require too much shaking to perform their function. Undersize ash pans; this plagues both old and new and in the case of new too much ash misses the pan. When lacking a magazine the flue gas is too far away from the heat absorbing surfaces. Use of light sheet metal that rusts out far sooner than the cast parts. The mica windows are pretty but are far inferior to glass both in durability and in providing a clear view. The lack of refractory in the fire box of most old designs which leads to lesser combustion efficiency, especially at low firing rates.

I am very partial to those designs that passed the flue gas down around the fire pot as I feel it is the best way to achieve both combustion efficiency as well as providing heat exchange efficiency.


 
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Post by smithy » Sat. Dec. 31, 2011 11:57 am

coalnewbie wrote:I am in love with the old stoves too. My four stoves (five soon) that I need to operate are hard enough to deal with when the bitchy weather comes. I NEED automation and reliability and I revel in it. I dutifully enter the Lotto every Friday and when I win I will have a Wherle 100 in the corner with a red light bulb inside and mutter darkly about how I going to connect it one day. Love 'em but can't use 'em.
Hi coalnewbie when you win the lotto you can buy yourself a nice brownstone and hire a staff, then sit in the parlor enjoying the Wherle 100 with brandy and cigars ,while pointing out the fact the maid missed a spot dusting off the iron ;)

 
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Post by dlj » Sat. Dec. 31, 2011 12:10 pm

The subject of having a separate antique stove section has come up before. I don't think it's necessary, these are all just hand feds and I think should just stay here. Plus, it's easier for me to to just stay on top of the various discussions going on within the hand fed section as many apply to new or old.... But that's just my 2 cents on that.

I think it's necessary to caution folk that old stoves can have problems that are expensive to fix. There were also a lot of pretty crappy ones made, they aren't all great stoves. Some are about the worst you can find...

Now that being said, I run a #6 Glenwood base heater and it's in the top tier of coal stoves as far as usability. It's mediocre burning wood but is superb burning coal. If was going to burn a fair amount of wood and some coal, I'd want a different stove. But I burn almost exclusively coal so it's awesome! Let's see, some of the good points of this stove running coal:

1) It has very long burn times. I can easily get 16 to 18 hour burn times in very cold weather and still keep the house toasty. Add a magazine and extend that..
2) Very easy to start a fire in.
3) Very easy to keep the fire running well over the entire heating season. No need to shut it down ever for any kind of cleaning. The stove design allows you to do this while it's running.
4) The layout makes it easy to load with coal without having anything fall out of the stove.
5) The fire box is round, but below the grates is rectangular. So it's easy to fit with an ash pan and collect the ash. I do keep a vacuum cleaner near to clean up ash and dust, but there is really very little to clean up with this set-up.
6) This stove runs over a range of heat output that is hard to equal. I can run with the stove at very low output, side wall at under 200*F when there is little need for heat or as high as 750*F when there is need for a lot more heat. It's hard to push it above that, although I can if I'm attending it, won't hurt the stove. Now, with wood it can run hotter, but since I haven't done that in so many years, I don't really know the top end on that now... I think maybe the Jotel coal stoves are the only ones I have heard of that match this running range. And I think they might have a slightly higher end...
7) The outer design of this stove makes for a heat pump that's amazing. This stove, without a fan, circulates the heat extremely well, on this point, I don't know of it's equal. Maybe only the modern stoves that have fans will circulate the heat as well...

dj

 
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Post by SteveZee » Sun. Jan. 01, 2012 10:17 am

I too am an Antique stove lover. It's really about the aesthetics and the fit in my 225yr old house. That said, if I thought there was a modern design that was more efficient, I'd certainly consider it. But the facts are that there are probably modern stoves around (hand feds) with equal efficiency, but I seriously doubt that are any flat out better. As DJ stated, there is plenty of crap out there too as now, there were great ones and crappy ones. The beauty we have here (with antique designs) is hindsight, In this case, we've got 100 yrs of service to fall back on. These have stood the test of time and are still on duty and kicking butt ;) . Time will only tell if a modern design is still kicking in 100 years.
My advice is do your homework. Find the tried and true designs and make sure that it is up to snuff or rebuild it till it is. The beauty of cast iron is in its durability and longevity. It's pretty hard to beat for a hand fed heat radiating stove.

 
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Post by Vinmaker » Sun. Jan. 01, 2012 11:44 am

Can't beat the design and beauty of the old stoves. They definitely do not put thought and time into beauty anymore. So much of the production process is only for Function and utility. Sad but true.

Vin.

 
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Post by nortcan » Sun. Jan. 01, 2012 10:08 pm

When I did ask the present question, I forgot to say that if you have some deceptions or problems with an antique stove: just tell it. If you dream of the perfect stove tell what would make it the perfect stove. Tell the pros and the cons of something we get is not a defeat, it's just honest toward the readers and ourself.
Also it woul be good to see the best photo from the loved or hated stove you get/got.
Good to read from peoples having no antique stove too.
I'm in the bag of peoples who didn't like these stoves before I met my Bride.

 
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Post by wsherrick » Mon. Jan. 02, 2012 3:53 am

franco b wrote:I too like the romance and looks of some of the antique stoves. Looking at them more objectively though most of them also had design flaws just as most new stoves have. Just to mention a few: grate designs that pass unburned coal too easily and in the case of design where one grate is connected to the next by a gear, uniform rotation is impossible owing to gear tooth clearance issues. Others require too much shaking to perform their function. Undersize ash pans; this plagues both old and new and in the case of new too much ash misses the pan. When lacking a magazine the flue gas is too far away from the heat absorbing surfaces. Use of light sheet metal that rusts out far sooner than the cast parts. The mica windows are pretty but are far inferior to glass both in durability and in providing a clear view. The lack of refractory in the fire box of most old designs which leads to lesser combustion efficiency, especially at low firing rates.

I am very partial to those designs that passed the flue gas down around the fire pot as I feel it is the best way to achieve both combustion efficiency as well as providing heat exchange efficiency.
Design flaws are a matter of degree. We can talk about the GLARING flaws of modern design (or lack of design, take your pick) and discuss those all over again, but; I'll try to keep peace in the family. I think everyone already knows that I love my stoves and wouldn't think of having any other type for burning coal.

And you are right about the Base Heaters with the suspended firepot. That is probably the optimal design for burning Anthracite. They produce a lot of heat for a minimum of coal consumption and the fire bed burns uniformly and evenly throughout the entire combustion cycle. This is achieved regardless of whatever temperature the stove is operating at, The fire will not go out until there is no more fuel left to burn.

 
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Post by franco b » Mon. Jan. 02, 2012 2:36 pm

wsherrick wrote: Design flaws are a matter of degree. We can talk about the GLARING flaws of modern design (or lack of design, take your pick) and discuss those all over again, but; I'll try to keep peace in the family. I think everyone already knows that I love my stoves and wouldn't think of having any other type for burning coal.
I agree with you except I think design shortcomings should be pointed out in both old and new stoves. For instance the modern stove I like and use, The Franco Belge has outstanding combustion and heat exchange efficiency but it does it at the cost of sacrificing long burn times. I don't think there is anything wrong with objective criticism. Nortcan's and Steve zee's and many of yours have been helpful in that regard.

There is a certain panache and feel in an antique stove or in any quality antique for that matter that new cannot match and the many styles are hard to beat. The period also had an excitement much like that of early automobiles where all sorts of things were tried.

 
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Post by wsherrick » Mon. Jan. 02, 2012 3:20 pm

franco b wrote:
wsherrick wrote: Design flaws are a matter of degree. We can talk about the GLARING flaws of modern design (or lack of design, take your pick) and discuss those all over again, but; I'll try to keep peace in the family. I think everyone already knows that I love my stoves and wouldn't think of having any other type for burning coal.
I agree with you except I think design shortcomings should be pointed out in both old and new stoves. For instance the modern stove I like and use, The Franco Belge has outstanding combustion and heat exchange efficiency but it does it at the cost of sacrificing long burn times. I don't think there is anything wrong with objective criticism. Nortcan's and Steve zee's and many of yours have been helpful in that regard.

There is a certain panache and feel in an antique stove or in any quality antique for that matter that new cannot match and the many styles are hard to beat. The period also had an excitement much like that of early automobiles where all sorts of things were tried.
Of course there's nothing wrong with objective criticism, Again a flaw is a matter of degree of the severity of the flaw and how easy it is to adjust for them. For example, an unlined fire pot can be lined easily and for little cost. Yes, glass is more durable and gives a more clear view than mica when it is new, but, mica on the other hand is dirt cheap to replace. I can replace the windows on my Glenwood for less than 10 bucks. A new piece of glass is more near a 100 bucks in many cases. In the case of grates, learning how to shake the prismatic bar grates properly to not lose unburned coal is easier than having a stove where one has to go through a massive array of histronics to poke, shake, slice and clean up after the fact in order to clear the ash. Again it is a matter of degree of what one is willing to accept.


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