Stratford SC75 Design Questions.

Modified ash pan. I created a full ash pan by bending a piece of 16 gauge galvanized steel on the inside bottom and outside sides and pop riviting them in place to the existing ash pan. No more falling ash while taking it out of the ash door or outside to dump. I'm thinking of cutting the lip off of the ash pan door so I can open the ash pan door and leave the fill door closed. It can get a little smokey in the house when you stoke the stove and then have to empy the ash pan. There should be no reason that both doors have to be open to empty the ash pan!! Other than the minor problems mentioned it's been 85 + in the house at night in the living room area where the stove is and about 72 in the farther bed rooms. The temp's been in the mid 50's to lower 60's in the day and upper 20's at night. I'd have to say....my $200.00 investment in this stove was well worth it.

I have an SC1090 that is the predecessor to the SC100--all built in England. The safety feature that prevents opening the ash pan door by itself was added in later models to prevent overfiring but mine doesn't have it. The stove needs to be tended once every 24 hours and heats 2300 square foot house with no problem.

I burned wood for a number of years before moving to coal and it does a good job at both The ash pan's small size is my only complaint. Having a good door seal is key with this stove. Dussingers Stove shop in Lancaster can get any parts you need for this stove.

Same design as my Tarm boiler and Godin stove. Lets you scoop up any ashes that didn't make it into the pan.

I have a Jotul F500 wood stove that has a "full" pan. After a few days of 24x7 burning you need to get in there with a shovel and scoop out the ashes that didn't get into the pan or you can't close the door on the ash bin area.

The cut-lip ash pan is a good thing.

i own a stratford stove like yours. the main thing about this stove is that you have to open the top door into the bin before you open the air inlet, ash door on the bottom. in some instances, and this happened to the guy that I bought my stove off of. if you were to open up the bottom door while the stove is burning at the maximum temperature on a cold day, the cold air entering the stove so fast with the top door open doesnt hurt the stove. however, if it were possible to open the bottom door with the top door closed, you would get the hottest surprise of your life when the glass blows out on you! also, you will find that having this dust pan type of ash bin works in your favor by 1. it acts like a dust pan when you reinsert the pan so you don't have to turn the stove off to clear the ashes out that don't land in the pan.also, by not having a bck on the pan it makes it much easier to dump the ashes without stirring up a lot more dust. this stove compant has been around for a long time and they really know how to make it so you get the most heat and the least amount of unburned coal, known as klinkers.i can set my stove and just leave it alone and it will burn for 26 plus hours on a full load. I had a art baker coal stove for years and I always thouht I had the best stove out there but this stratford is better both performance and economy. that is the stove my friend had that blew the glass out of the front. I don't think that you can even buy a baker stove with glass in the door anymore.

bituminous is also referred to as soft coal and looks beautiful burning.however, your stove will burn chesnut sized anthricite coal. also known as hard coal. hard coal give a greater amount of heat and is cheaper to buy. so, if you want a beautiful fire, use soft coal, if you want heat and economy use hard coal, if you want a real show, throw a couple of pieces of wood in there !!

All the hand fired stoves other than this Stratford have independant doors.. only this make has this overlapping design..

I personally have never heard or had a ceramic glass in the door break.. ONly a pyrex glass panel in a wood stove about 25 years ago.. The 'glass' isn't glass it is ceramic called robax or something similar..

I think you would have to splash cold water on it to thermally stress it enough to crack.. the air through the ashpan has to go through the doal fire, heating it as hot as the fire.. it won't be cold anymore..

These ceramic glass panels are not prone to cracking even when opened into a cold room, the ceramic does ocasionally crack,, but I believe this is from the glass being mounted too solidly to the door and the door stresses the glass when it gets hot..

Greg L.

charlesmumford wrote:bituminous is also referred to as soft coal and looks beautiful burning.however, your stove will burn chesnut sized anthricite coal. also known as hard coal. hard coal give a greater amount of heat and is cheaper to buy. so, if you want a beautiful fire, use soft coal, if you want heat and economy use hard coal, if you want a real show, throw a couple of pieces of wood in there !!

Charlesmumford,
I'm not sure where you live, but here in western PA anthracite is more than double the price of bituminous. I pay $65 a ton for bituminous compared to $250+ for anthracite and that is if you can even find a place that carries it around here.

Dear JJVM,
Thanks for the reminder about the gaskets. Could you please write with the contact information to the dealer near you who still as parts. A Stratford SC100 was in our house when we bought it and I love heating with it. However the grates are severely warped and the ashes do not shake out very well. I ordered new ones at our local store in August and they still have not come in. Thanks

I had new grates shipped from Dussingers stove shop in Lancaster, PA who has a local foundry make them. 717-397-7539 Burning wood and/or not emptying the ashes upon shaking can cause the grates to warp as excessive heat comes from above and below the grates simultaneously.

Hi - not sure if this thread is still going, but I saw this post, and the pictures of the Stratford stove and felt a little less alone in owning an old English model coal stove. Mine came with the house and I knew nothing about it initially, and there didn't seem to be a wealth of knowledge out there on this specific stove. This is my second season using it and I have learned enough about operating it to pretty much heat our 2500 sq ft. 1850 home burning nut anthracite. But, based on some of the things I have read on this site, I am uncertain that I am operating my stove at peak efficiency. Like the claim by charlesmumford that his stove runs 26 hours on 1 load. There is just no way my stove will burn that long. Take a look at some of the details and I would appreciate any comments on what looks normal, or not so normal.

At most, a full load will burn for 12 hours, 8 hours is much more realistic. Burn time is longer the first 3 days after a fresh start, then gets shorter and shorter until eventually it goes out while I am at work. The longest I have been able to keep a coal fire burning continuously is about a week, using wood to rekindle dying coals.

I load the stove in the morning before work at 8AM, after work (if it is still burning) at 6PM, top off before bed at 11PM, top off again if I wake up during the night. I shake when needed, maybe 2 or 3 times a day, and poke holes in the coal bed. I would say the stove holds between 75 - 100lb of coal.

I run my stove between 300 and 600* - normally the temp sits right in the middle of that range. Thermometer is mounted right on stove top. I maintain the draft control in the ashpan door at 1 - 2 slots open at each inlet hole.

I generate at the very least a full 20 gallon trash can with burned coal a week. Probably more like 1 1/2 cans full. Spent coal is a mix of ash and chunks of gray coal. Not a fine dust, pretty chunky, and very heavy to haul out to the curb for trash pickup.

If clinkers are those things that look like coral, then I have a lot of those in my stove. Either they aren't getting ground up by the alligator grate, the stove is getting too hot, or the coal I am using is poor quality?

Does anything here seem abnormal?

Millworker,
Everything that you have posted sounds identical to the way that my stove burns. From the burn times, ashes and clinkers per week and the loading times it's pretty much all identical. I do get longer burn times when the coal bridges over when I'm at work or go to sleep at night, but the temps. also drop to around 50* in the house by the time I get home from work or wake up from a 6 - 8 hour nights sleep. After I poke and break up the bridged coal and shake the grates it starts burning real nicely again and gets back to the 70's in about an hour.

Tigermanrich wrote:Millworker,
Everything that you have posted sounds identical to the way that my stove burns. From the burn times, ashes and clinkers per week and the loading times it's pretty much all identical. I do get longer burn times when the coal bridges over when I'm at work or go to sleep at night, but the temps. also drop to around 50* in the house by the time I get home from work or wake up from a 6 - 8 hour nights sleep. After I poke and break up the bridged coal and shake the grates it starts burning real nicely again and gets back to the 70's in about an hour.

I've actually come to really like the stove. I run 12 hours now no problem. Load twice a day 7AM and 7PM. For the most part the house is toasty, a little chilly in the distant room on the floor the stove is located, and down right cold in the distant spare room upstairs, but nobody is in there. I've got the clinkers under control by not overfiring, and poking a bit to break up ash clumps. Still making lots of ash though, I'm waiting for the garbage guys to refuse taking it

I have a stratford stove.The ash pan is designed to be able to slide in and scoop up dropped ash. The pan should have been deeper to hold more,so you just have to empty out daily.The stove was designed to burn anthracite only.It was the best stove on the market and probably the easiest to burn.I've had mine for ten years and love it,except for the ash pan capacity.If I could, I'd buy a spare tomorrow.The reason they are not available is because the co.has a min. order amount of a container load and it seems there are no dealers willing to buy that many at a time.When mine goes bad I'll copy it and weld a new one togeather,the cast parts are available locally for me and steel fabrication is what I do.The Harman stove is the closest match except the baffle is welded in.When demand increases you may see these stoves available again.

horschlock wrote:I have a stratford stove.The ash pan is designed to be able to slide in and scoop up dropped ash. The pan should have been deeper to hold more,so you just have to empty out daily.

Yeah, none of the dimensions are ideal. It could be deeper, wide, and longer if you ask me. I have to use a flat shovel to regularly scoop out the ash that misses the ash pan. I think the most frustrating aspect of ash removal is when I pull the ash pan out all the ash that has collected beneath the ash pan spills out onto the hearth. I pretty much have to vacuum twice a day, after each shakedown and reload. Other than that I can't complain

Hello,
I am rebuilding a sc75 stove for next year, I am sealing her up with new gaskets and glass..
does anyone know where I could get a block off (top exhaust) plate ?? I tried to get mine out and broke it!!!!
Thanks Ken