I have been given a Chappee Stove!

Eric, I know this is an old thread, but thanks for making the Chappee owners manual available. I just bought one and was searching everywhere to try and find some info. I thought I was out of luck until I followed this post down a ways and saw your recent post. I have been burning coal with a Petit Godin for about 4 o 5 years now. It has been a great stove and has performed admirably. It is small enough for our needs and is economical as all get out. But, the fire brick lining is so rough now that the coal does not shake down very well, it gets hung up on the walls. Anyway,I've been looking for something similar, small but efficient and I hope this Chappee 8033 is just the ticket. Mine seems to be in good shape and also has the dual shake grates that you said one of yours' has. Thanks again for posting that info.... Wayne

Glad to help out, Wayne!

My advice with that stove would be to be careful to avoid getting the "ceiling" of the firebox red, and especially not for any length of time.
You can get the stove pretty darn hot before that happens, but she'll fire up quickly, especially when first fired after being cleaned, and surprise you if you turn your back on her for a few minutes too long.

Other things are that you will shake lots of ash (and dust) out the front if you shake it with the ash pan in its proper place.
I find that if I pull it out about an inch, shake it, then use a small shovel to shovel out the ash that fell behind the pan I get the least dust possible.

Both of the shaker levers are topped by bakelite knobs that screw on. They have an impressive habit of unscrewing while you shake the stove, and I took mine off for their own protection, while I look for a pair of metal knobs that I won't be worried about stripping out or breaking.

The instructions for the stove advise you to remove the back of the smoke box to clean out accumulated fly ash every season.
Though I am that guy who takes everything apart, I try hard to avoid disassembling anything that I'm not sure will survive the process.
To clean out the smoke box on the back, I fashioned an attachment for my shop vac out of about two feet of PVC pipe (either 2½ or 3" - whatever fit on the end of the vacuum hose). I slowly heated the pipe with a heat gun and shaped its end flat with a nearly 90° bend to fit in through the flue connector and reach the bottom of the smoke box. Now I just vacuum it out once a year - easy!

Check the upper door for a good seal. The original gasket was asbestos. If it's fiberglass, it's been changed.
The door seems to want to warp, so that the upper corner above the handle is away from the stove and the lower corner is close to it. You may need to bunch your replacement gasket accordingly when the time comes.

Rutland makes a brown magnetic stove thermometer that looks like it was made to go on this stove.
I keep it on the door, and run the stove anywhere from 200°F to about 600°F.
Running at 600°, I need to empty ash and shake 3-4 times a day. I can get away with once a day at 200°.

The fire fence tends to change shape slightly with firing, and the two tabs at the top corners that latch it into place get too tight when it's hot.
I would recommend using a high speed hand grinder to remove a bit of metal from each, so that you can open the fire fence if you need to.
A word of advice: Do not do this while there is a pile of ash in the stove or on the floor. Those grinders do make a bit of a breeze.

I tend to load the stove with the coal slightly mounded against the back wall, avoiding leaning any against the fire fence.
If you burn coal against the fire fence, it will burn up after a few years.

I find that if tended well, the stove seems to go about two weeks before needing to be cleaned of ash that wouldn't drop down (and small clinkers if run around 600°).

Let me know if you have any questions about the stove as you start to use it.

Good luck!

- Eric

ps: Here's a picture I took of my dog warming her belly in front of the stove as I wrote this:
(pardon the ash - wife's in Florida!)

Erik, Thanks for all the info. I'll let you know how I make out after a trial period. I'm hoping the weather will stay cool enough for me to get an idea of how it works, so I'll know if I can go with it next winter. I did vacuum out the back firebox yesterday, just happened to have some little snake like attachment to fit the vac that I picked up at a dollar store somewhere. Door gasketing looks to have been replaced, although not recently. I'll probably do a complete tune up this summer. Thanks again, Wayne

Real impt. about that complete tune up Wayne. No matter how things LOOK. Welcome to the FORUM my friend.

Oh, and one other thing:

This stove likes to be shaken more, rather than less.

I tried the "shake until a few hot coals fall down" method - no good. It'll choke up with ash in a few days.

You need to shake it until you can see a good red glow coming down from the grates, and/or until the grates start to "crunch" on hard coals.

And along those lines, during shaking, a grate will, very occasionally, jam on a hard coal in its "out" position. This can be disconcerting, as the bottom door will not close in this position. When this has happened to me, and further shaking hasn't cleared it, I have used a hammer to tap the grate back in the right direction, cracking the jamming coal and releasing it. I'm no fan of hammering cast iron, but the coal should be more brittle than the metal, and it's worked for me so far.

- Eric

Double post

I found a little Chappee very similar but way older in an old house. It is still there. My business partner has a Chappee sectional boiler and I got him into coal last winter and he will never go back to all wood! Another happy convert.

Kevin

The smaller stoves with the side-loading door (no ash door) are WOOD ONLY (they have no firebrick), so beware of using coal if you come across one.

- Eric

Hi Eric,
Thanks from me too regarding the posting of the manual. I have just helped a friend install a Chappee 8033. He bought it last week for 25 euros! We opened up a chimney in his kitchen, put in a stainless flue and connected up with some enameled pipework. We fired it up yesterday and in no time it was generating plenty of heat. He will only use wood as coal is difficult to come by here in France. Wood is relatively inexpensive here. He went back to the UK today, but will be returning next month with his wife, who is unaware of the stove, but will be very pleased I'm sure. I have emailed him the instructions that you very kindly posted. He will be pleased.
Regards
Paul

Bonjour Paul.
Bien heureux de voir votre intéret pour ces poeles. Je croyais que l'anthracite était facile a trouver en France. Curieusement, ici au Québec l'ant est facile a obtenir dans une quinca. et livrée sur palettes, en sacs de 18Kg. Pourtant l'ant vient des USA. On est bien chanceux
De qu'elle région de la France etes-vous?
Salutations ""cousin"".
P/S, j'espere que vous lisez/parlez le francais if not, just come to live in Québec

You're welcome, Paul! Glad I could help out.

And, NordCan, bonjour, voisin!

- Eric

Chappee is lil' very heavy duty unit... most people would overfire them because of their size and they were trying to heat a 2000 sq' house , these lil' suckers took a beatin for sure. If you have one thats in good shape with no warping of the castings then it will serve you well for a long time.