Tonight I'm Looking at a Glenwood Modern Oak No. 116

I have been surfing this forum for a while. We struggled last year with an older dutchwest stove while we learned about burning coal. I have fallen in love with coal, but learned that I need a real coal stove.

I am going to look at a 116 tonight and hope to be bringing it home
The guy said it was restored by a local stove shop 3 years ago and he has only burned wood in it since.
He has the coal grates and I assume by "restored" he means that it was prettied-up because he only mentioned re-chroming and blackening when I asked what was done to it.
I figure that I can't really lose either way because he is only asking $500.
My questions are this:
(1) - How tall is the stove?
(2) - It looks like there are some very specific parts to the chimney and I fear that, since he was burning wood, they may not all be there... what do I look for?
(3) - Any other parts/pieces I should be looking for when I inspect?

Any experience you can share will be greatly appreciated. I am hoping to be able to use it in the next month or so as its starting to get cold here.
I am sure I will be back on here asking how to best operate it as well.

Obviously you want to check the fire pot and all other castings for cracks.

Do the grates turn freely and not warped. Is the crank there? Good ash pan?

Those stoves were sold with and without an indirect back pipe and brick lining in fire pot. You want both. You can line the fire pot but finding an indirect pipe if it is missing or badly damaged could be hard. If it never had the back pipe stack temps will be higher.

Do the dollar bill test on the ash door to judge tightness and check the air shutters for tightness as well.

Good luck with your search, from what I understand... You can't go wrong with a Glennwood.

I too heated with a dutchwest for the last few years. Needless to say I went looking for one of these lost giants and am now in the middle of a full restoration of a mica base burner. It's been quite the little project.

these don't get much less than $500... if it has its finial theres $200 right off the bat! Its always worth throwing out $400 cash when your their but if the stove is even in "reasonable" condition with a final its worth it!

I'll be getting my 116 from Bryant Stove in a couple of weeks when the trim pieces get back from the plating company.

How'd your visit go? Come home with a stove?

Thanks to all.
Yes! We did come home with a stove. I hope the photo will show... I tried this once before and must be missing something when it comes to posting pics here:


I was so impressed by the stove once we travelled to see it.
My heart sank when I realized that it did not have the pipe to go along with it
We decided to buy it anyway, hoping that we could either find one somewhere or fabricate something. Being new to this, I wasn't sure.
Any advice will be GREATLY appreciated.

I will post better pics once I figure out how to go about it. You'd think someone in their mid 30's would have this internet thing down, but we tend to shy away from social media and, instead, share things with friends the old fashioned way (face to face, over a beer).

Here is what I do know:
The gentleman we bought it from got it for $5 in a 1963 yard sale. He had an occasional wood fire in it and certainly didn't depend on it as a main heating source.

Three years ago, he brought it to Bryant's stove shop. He gave me the paperwork and this is what was done:
Nickel: $350
Wood Grate: $55
Sandblast & ReAssemble: $225
Paint: $55
New Ash Pan: $35
Collar: $20
New Barrel: $150
Mica: $10

That, right there, made me feel fairly secure in parting with a hard-earned $500 even though there was no pipe.

There are no cracks in the pot. It appears to be in good shape except that it is unlined. I called the Love Barn (as suggested by Steelhorse) and I am hoping to pick up a box of Noxram next week.

Last year, I was so impressed with coal... I have never gotten a true, personal satisfaction out of turning the thermostat and hearing the furnace kick on & off (well, I DO enjoy hearing it turn *off*). There is a fair amount of fulfillment that comes from a methodically planned wood fire, but there was something about coal that felt like even more of a triumph over the cold.
That, combined with reading the passion that others share on this site, lead me to want a stove from this period.
Our dream is to, eventually, acquire a base-burner. I am only hoping there will still be some out there when I have saved enough.

franco b- I hope you don't mind if I use the photo that you posted to put a "wanted ad" in the uncle henry's? Yours is a good view to show what I am looking for (and, obviously I don't have anything to take a picture of).
I know its a long shot that anyone will (a) have the pipe and (b) be willing to part with it... but I figure I will give it a shot!

No problem with the picture. You got an excellent buy on a stove in great condition.

You could call Bryants and the Stove Hospital to see what they say about the pipe.

The pipe cuts the area of the flue in half and doubles the length adding about 4.7 square feet of heat exchange surface assuming it is about 3 feet long. Without it the stack temperature will be higher.

Last winter I ran a Glenwood 114 which is the next size smaller, without the back pipe also. Original firebrick which is about 1 inch thick. Great air mixing and fire with exceptional ease of shaking down. Very even burn. With a fire pot temp. of 500 to 600 degrees the barrel would be about 300 but the stove top only about 250 to 280. The flue gas 200 and was obviously exiting the stove too far away from the top of the stove. If the stove was pushed further then the stack temp would have been too high in my opinion. The flue exit is too far down the barrel and should have a baffle to cause the gas to sweep the top before exiting. A better design would have the exit right at but not in the top of the stove, like the Warm Morning or Vigilant have. A baffle would help a lot to better utilize the area of the stove top. I have included a picture of the baffle in a Jotul 507 to illustrate how the gasses are forced across the stove top.

If you can't get a back pipe then I think a baffle could improve performance a lot.

This stove will perform just fine as a direct draft stove. The fire pot lining is very important to preserve the fire pot and help the coal to burn better.
If the stove has the base casting to accept a back pipe, then at some point you may add it. If you are going to someday get a base heater, this stove will do fine as is and allow you to gain the experience in how to best use these excellent stoves.
The indirect back pipe however is a big efficiency feature which does make a difference.
This is a medium sized stove and it will crank out plenty of heat for you.
Don't worry about a thing because we are all here to help you along the way.

auntievintage wrote:Thanks to all.
Yes! We did come home with a stove. I hope the photo will show... I tried this once before and must be missing something when it comes to posting pics here:

Congratulations auntievintage!

Does your stove have the coal grates in it? They would be under the wood grate insert. If not, you might want to find them even before the back pipe.
Bryant's may have the parts but I'm not sure. The 116 I have coming from them had the back pipe in place before it was gone through. If you can't find one
for your stove maybe next summer we could take mine apart and use the back pipe parts as patterns to have new ones made. I'm down in Spruce Head, near
Rockland. We should compare notes one of these days.

Dennis

We have an extensive thread around here concerning someone that made a brand new back pipe for his Glenwood Oak from scratch. It was relatively easy. I can't seem to find it.
Would someone be kind enough to find it and post it here for the kind folks to peruse?

wsherrick wrote:We have an extensive thread around here concerning someone that made a brand new back pipe for his Glenwood Oak from scratch. It was relatively easy. I can't seem to find it.
Would someone be kind enough to find it and post it here for the kind folks to peruse?

OMG... I can finally help William after a year of pestering him

as requested sir Glenwood Modern Oak # 116

a perfect example of why I always say... "make a thread, take photo's, measurements, etc. of any project you do like this" (you cant get this type of info at the library or home depot on our forfathers antiques, and it will now remain long after we are gone for generations to come). also titles & the first sentence of any started thread are critical "keys" that work like a filing system for a Library as big as the whole world so describing the content helps others locate information contained within. (Example: A mod of the antique stove section could add "fabricating Glenwood indirect back flue pipe" which would achieve it properly forever)

Wow! What a fantastic find. I think we have enough resources to fabricate one. It will be more difficult since we don't have the original piece to use for dimensions, but I am now very hopeful! Thank you SO much! I asked the Love Barn & Bryant's about the possibility of finding one or fabricating one. I was told "if they could be fabricated, we'd be doing it", which left me doubtful.
I intend to get some additional photos up here tonight after I get home from work.
One more question (for now)... I have to replace the seal between the pot and the bottom as well as the barrel and the top as they were disturbed during the move (and its probably a good idea anyway). What do you recommend using?

I know a lot of people will tell you to stay away from Rutland furnace cement including me (I found Harvey to be far better and remained somewhat flexible after seriously high temps! )... but some other people have more experience than me in this area of restorations so give them a chance to chime in.

Ok. Here is the eye-candy...
Although taking a closer look has lead me to more questions. I really want to make sure we do this right. They certainly aren't making any more of these and I would hate to do something wrong.
There appears to be a tiny piece broken off the tip that was just chromed over (no biggie to me)








I am not sure how to attach this plate for the top of the opening when the door is open. It came with the bracket but I am at a loss.




The coal grates are not aligned... I have heard that this model is a bit of a pain. Since I have the base separated from the pot, I suppose this would be the time to do it... I'm all ears to any advice:



I tried the "dollar bill" test and I assume that you are not supposed to be able to pull the bill out with the door closed? I can slip the bill from the top & bottom... I read on the forum somewhere that you can seal the door by putting the sealant on the door and closing it with wax paper in between until it is dry??? Is this legitimate? Are there any other suggestions?


Again, I can not express enough how grateful I am to have found this forum with so many who hold a wealth of experience and are willing to help out the newbies.