Glenwood Base Heaters and Oak stoves burning wood

wsherrick wrote:I would assume that the best quality wood stoves were as well made as the coal burners, however; all the money and research went into improving coal stoves and appliances as that was the primary fuel. As a percentage, I don't have the exact numbers, but; by the 1880's coal use far outstripped wood as a fuel. Anywhere you could ship coal, people left wood burning and switched to coal. If you look at the catalogs from then, all the wood models were in the back of the catalog and all of the base burners were in the front.

As far as stacking wood up to the top of the stove, I don't think that the temperatures from wood would hurt the barrel. I think that stuffing logs into the barrel like shown in the video is a good way to bang and dent up the barrel if you weren't very careful.

wsherrick's right. even in the heart of the adirondacks with their tiny rural towns and more wood than anyone could know what to do with (including very good hardwood) I've pulled countless turn of the century stoves, literature, and utensils ALL for heating with coal. In north central missouri, even with bituminous coal, the story is much the same; all the older nice homes had bit coal burning fireplaces and coal stoves and furnaces while being surrounded by vast hardwood forests in a rural area.

Here is a graph to illustrate the comparison of wood versus coal usage in America for most of our history. As you can see by 1890 wood burning was almost nil and coal usage was growing at a staggering rate. The raw demand for coal burning stoves far out stripped the demand for wood burning appliances. So you can easily see why all of the technical and research efforts went to to improving coal burning units. The huge demand for coal stoves created unbelievable competition in the foundry business to produce the best coal stove available. Wood burning was an after thought during this period.

Nice chart and interesting William. Up here in Maine, I found an old photograph at the Historical Society that was taken from the porch steps of my house in 1930. I was stunned at the difference in the view from then to now. It wasn't only that photo either. As I went through several of my town I couldn't help but notice that there just wasn't a whole lot of trees around compated to now. It was a much more agrarian culture for one thing and I think people had burned or sawed a whole heck of a lot of the timber. Just then, cheap oil came around and the difference to the landscape in the last 100 years is striking.

My results burning wood in the Glenwood Oak #30 WITHOUT A REGISTER PLATE.
She burns scraps,cardboard,seasoned wood,Cats, Puppies and pretty much anything combustible!...lol
Naaa to be serious my Oak can be set up with over the fire air from the loading door and she will chug right along and make very nice heat without what I would consider in my opinion to be excessive consumption of wood but even with good seasoned hardwood she will need to be fed 6 times a day minimum SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO......HMMMMMMM....feed her with NUT ANTHRACITE and she needs a tendin every 12 to 14 hrs. and that is just by my schedule, and I can easily stretch that to 18/20 hrs. with no problems...so I DO NOT BURN WOOD in my Glenwood unless it is just to take the chill out of the shop when I will only be here for a short time in the spring or fall.
other than that she just gets fed NUT .
Tim

I hear that Tim, It's an amazing difference, it truely is. Especially these clyinders. Heck my cookstove goes from 2hrs to 8hrs and it's hard to explain but seems to put out more heat at lower temps that it did on wood? It must be the steadiness because 300 on the oven gauge wi coal heats better then 400 wi wood and that's probably because it stays at 300 the whole 8 hrs or more.

Your Oak 30 is the same stove as my Modern Oak 116, just the series before. Got to love em.

Tim do you have the divided back pipe on your Model 30 or just a direct draft?

He's "on the pipe" PJ.

Yup she is on the PEACE PIPE.
Lit her up a hr. ago to season up this yrs. Williams polish job and just now topped off the pot and set the drafts ....gonna be chilly and windy tonight so figure a good evenin to let her cure out and from the forecast she will stay lit for a few days at least.
And steve..A WHOLE HEARTIDLY YES!...YA GOTTA LOVE EM!
Tim

I recently purchased a house with a Glenwoood Basse Heater Coal and Wood Stove #8. I need instructions on how to use it. The previous owners did not leave any and our first experience resulted in a large amount of smoke pouring into our home. Please give any input. I have watched the you tube videos and we still have smoke coming out of the very top. Thank you for any help you can give me.

Susan

Susan,

Welcome to the forum!

I would call a chimney sweep first and make sure the chimneys are in working order. Your problem could be a simple case of cold air in the chimney not allowing for draft. Or the chimneys could have birds nests or dead animals blocking the flu. Better to be safe than sorry.

I am sure some other members will check in as well with some ideas. What part of the country are you in?

onedollar

Susan, That's a great find to buy a home and have that stove in it! It's a great heater and will work about 5 times better on anthracite coal than it will on wood. Burning coal is it's real forte. You can burn wood but you must keep the stove in direct draft mode and not base heater mode. That could be causing the smoke. Even when using coal you start in dirct mode till it's going well before switching to base heater mode. The lever is on the back of the stove. Also if you must burn wood in it, you need to have a good draw on your chimney and in this weather (not so cold) may have to induce the draft first before lighting the stove.

I hope my next home purchase has a Glenwood 8 in it !

Check out the videos on you tube from a member here (William) they are very helpful in getting you familiar with the stove and started burning coal in it. The videos are of a Glenwood No 6 and it is just smaller then your No 8 but works the same.

Welcome to the forum Suzan.
As said before you should place the stove on the direct draft mode to start a fire. One good thing to do before is to put a hair dryer inside the stove toward the exit and at the full speed a few minutes to initiate the draft. Then check the draft with a torch from newspaper in the stove. If you get draft it's OK. Then make a Very Small fire( more newspaper than wood) to help the draft. If no draft , better to wait and for the fire and check the chimney for some obstructions in it. Opening a window can also helps in very air-tight houses.

PJT wrote:Did they make the wood stoves back then airtight and controllable like they did the coal stoves William?

I would be leary of stacking so much wood so high against the sheet metal of a cylinder stove...would it possibly overheat the metal?

The fire burns from the bottom up. The hottest part of the fire is in the bottom section. I burned wood 100% stacking it up inside the stove for many years, and my stove is still going strong...

dj

samiam2sm wrote:I recently purchased a house with a Glenwoood Basse Heater Coal and Wood Stove #8. I need instructions on how to use it. The previous owners did not leave any and our first experience resulted in a large amount of smoke pouring into our home. Please give any input. I have watched the you tube videos and we still have smoke coming out of the very top. Thank you for any help you can give me.

Susan

As has been already said, you need to check your chimney to make sure you have draft and everything is OK in that department. Next, you need to check the flow patterns in the stove. Pull the plates off the top and back, open the bottom ash door and look into the bottom of your stove. There should be a trap door that comes out of the bottom, then you can look into the bottom and clean it out there. Look under the stove and see if there are any cracks in the bottom of the stove. There are a lot of seals in these stoves, a lot of parts that bolt together and have to seal. You need to check these seals. Post some photos of the stove. Starting the stove, you need to have the lever on the back pipe pushed forward putting the stove into direct draft mode. You start the stove that way and don't flip that lever up until you have a decent fire going. Oh, and did I say post some photos of your stove?

dj