Base Burner Lookin Thing

Guys ,

Found this while looking for boat stuff. looks like one of those base burner things you're all buzzin about.

**Broken Link(s) Removed**

key word "looks like"
This is an Oak Type stove that every owner "thinks" is worth the same price and is as rare as a baseburner (its not).
They certainly have value and im sure they work fine too...but I can find 100 of these to every 1 baseburner (In my mind that equates to "less valueable")

here is an explaination of some of the differances in these types of stoves (Baseburners are the pinicle of design, function and effeciency in coal burning which occured around 1900)
If you think Im wise enough to write these descriptions below...think again... credits to our very own member/mod Greg for what follows...

"an OAK stove has the exhaust leave the top barrel of the stove from the top or the back, and the stove
does not have any method to run the hot exhaust gasses down around or under the ashpan in the BASE of the stove..

Therefore an OAK stove has a cool or cold base and is not a base heater or base burner.

The OAK is the most common version of the antique cylinder stove, it burned wood and coal and paper etc. The exhaust went directly to the flue pipe.. the exhaust flue temps were fairly high

When a rear exhaust OAK stove had a rear exhaust, it could be equiped with a double pass rear exhaust pipe, in this pipe there is a diverter damper, in one position, the exhaust goes directly up the flu, in the other position, the exhaust goes down one side of the pipe, then reverses at the bottom of the pipe and come back up the other side, the pipe has a flat plate inside that divides the pipe in two.
The exhaust does NOT get into the base of the stove, even though there is a protrusion from the stoves base that the double pipe rests on, it does not heat the base of the stove, or ashpan area.

The rear divided pipe does add a lot of extra heated surface area, but it still is not as good a a base heater, the floor under the stove is still cool.

Many baseheaters like my Art Garland are also double heaters. they have an air passageway in the base that goes up the back of the stove and picks up heat from the hot stove body and exhaust gasses,. This hot AIR passageway has a grill on the top or can be hooked to a piece of duct pipe to go up to a room above the stove.. . So the cold air from under the stove is drawn in, heated then exits the top and goes into a room above, or into the stove's room. Kind of like a single pass furnace. Simple and effective.. Look at some of the ads that Wsherrick and Norcan posts about stoves, many are 'double heaters"

DC,

Id have to see one in person to know what you're referring to. They arent something Im interested in , I just thought it might be for someone else.

Waldo

waldo lemieux wrote:DC,

Id have to see one in person to know what you're referring to. They arent something Im interested in , I just thought it might be for someone else.

Waldo

Ohhh no... for sure Waldo thats a great post and a great find for someone, I was just trying to explain the differences in all these classics (which im only just learning myself).
I enjoy seeing stoves like that one and other available classics all the time! so keep an eye out for sure

This stove is a Beckwithe Round Oak stove. These were made in Michigan. They are an extremely famous stove, probably the first of the Oak type designs.

I visited the Dowagiac Museum on the west side of the state a year or so ago, many very fancy Oak stoves. only one or two baseburners..
Michigan must have been too far from the anthracite coal fields..Only the wealthy could afford to pay for a baseburner and keep it stocked with coal.

Interesting museum, I may go back this year or next.

Greg L

so is there a way to tell a base burner from a non by looking at it from the outside? # of doors or ? If I come across one, and I will, I want to be able to recognize it.
I seem to find myself in a lot of abandoned barns and homes in Va and Nc and Im thinking Ill come across one. I always see old stoves.Please advise about who to notify as I said Im really not in need of one.I hate to see anything that is special just sit and rot.

Thanx, Waldo

waldo lemieux wrote:so is there a way to tell a base burner from a non by looking at it from the outside? # of doors or ? If I come across one, and I will, I want to be able to recognize it.
I seem to find myself in a lot of abandoned barns and homes in Va and Nc and Im thinking Ill come across one. I always see old stoves.Please advise about who to notify as I said Im really not in need of one.I hate to see anything that is special just sit and rot.

Thanx, Waldo

yes... there would be a visible diverter pipe or housing from the primary flu that goes downward to the lower section of the unit (also some type of blocking mechanism that can be opened or closed on the stove or diverter in order to block that airflow to the bottom of the unit). You will still see the typical MPD at the main flu outlet also (so don't be confused by that being their as well). What you cannot see is the double layered walls and/or chambers between the combustion chamber and the exterior walls (these are were the blazing hot gasses are routed... behind, under, around and back up through the firebox to be burned again... this is what gives a baseburner its uncanny ability to maintain a super low burn temp without going out but rather simmering along nicely in the fall and spring for amazingly long burn times that other coal stoves just cant compete with). If you look at the rear pics of this stove Baseburner on the Way at Last...Kineo Stove From Maine you will see how the rear pipe goes up and down the whole length of the stove (this is the pipe that feeds the hot gases from above the fire back down below the fire, some base burners have these double walled area's behind and on the sides and some even have these double chambers under the floor of the stove (i don't believe this one has the chamber under the floor of the unit but other would know this better then me).

Being from a Stove manufacturing & design background I can tell you that building a Base Burner type stove raises the cost to reproduce a stove like this enormously (I can clearly see why their are far fewer true base burners then other types of parlor, oak, etc. type stoves). It was true genius in design but even more impressive was the fact that American company's could produce these things in a cost effective manner way back in 1900 (but I guess humans did a lot of things we cant fathom now...like stonehenge)