Any Guess as to the Age of This Harman SF-250?

 
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Three Labs
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman SF-250

Post by Three Labs » Tue. Dec. 06, 2011 3:01 pm

Cap. On the lower right side of the stove near the front should be SF-250 with a number. It is difficult to see without a flashlight. Let us know what your stove's number is.


 
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman SF-250

Post by Three Labs » Tue. Dec. 06, 2011 3:18 pm

If Harman was still producing the 350 they would have it listed able to heat 10,000 square feet! :lol: The new 250's are listed at 5000 now. Amazing the increased heat one can get out of those new door handles. :shock:

 
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Post by Vinmaker » Tue. Dec. 06, 2011 7:33 pm

5,000 sq ft? That is crazy. Maybe with R-22 walls and triple pane windows.

 
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Post by Vinmaker » Tue. Dec. 06, 2011 7:38 pm

The stove should be stamped. Mine is stamped on the right side of the stove if you are looking at it. It is lower down by the ash door hinges. Mine is numbered 658.

 
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman SF-250, Mark 2

Post by pineyguy » Tue. Dec. 06, 2011 10:44 pm

If I'm looking at the correct number, my SF-250 is 2447. I couldn't find any stamped numbers on the stove, that was on the Warnock Hersey data plate. I have a thread on here from when I bought it, but I got it for $400 with a gaping hole in the top of the firebox, under the swirl section. A buddy and I cut it out and welded in a plate. Anyway, just wanted to say that it's unbelievable. I've only ever burned woodstoves and had to supplement with oil for the upstairs. I put this bad boy in a former garage remodeled into a family room with just a man-door connecting it to the main house. I put a 340 CFM blower sucking on the upstairs hallway and blowing into the family room to force circulate the air. It works awesome, I keep the stove right around 300 degrees and the main house up- and downstairs stays around 73, while the family room is usually in the low eighties. My wife wasn't too thrilled about coal from the get-go but she loves being able to open the windows during the day and air out the house without dropping temp. The best part is not hearing the oil burner. I haven't started it yet, and hope not to have to.

Just a little side story- I was planning on letting the stove go out yesterday night. I threw a bucket on around 4:45am before I left for work. I set the air at 3/4 turn like usual. I figured it'd be dead by the time I went to sleep. Got up this morning, and it still had a couple inch bed, the needle on the stick-on thermometer was in the same exact spot as the day before. My wife told me it was out when she looked in around noon. The house right now is 73. Best investment I've made since buying a house.

 
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Post by SMITTY » Tue. Dec. 06, 2011 11:03 pm

The Mark series has a metal tag on the lower rear of the stove stamped with the month & year of manufacture along with a serial #, and info related to the model & clearance distances.

Mine was built in August 2007, # 24428.

 
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Cap
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Post by Cap » Wed. Dec. 07, 2011 6:30 pm

Still not finding any numbers stamped into the steel but the data plate ser# on my unit is 003002. Maybe 2003, #2 unit? I think I bought in Dec 04 from a Harman dealer. Oh, by the way, I let it go down the other day when it was a muggy 55F. But she is back up as of 5p :!:


 
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Post by Vinmaker » Wed. Dec. 07, 2011 8:55 pm

Pineyguy. Is your stove older like this one? Any idea why it burned out under the swirl area? It must have rusted because the top of the stove is so high over the firebox that it seems unlikely that it was burned out.

 
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Post by pineyguy » Thu. Dec. 08, 2011 7:32 am

No, it has the new style door latches. I don't remember exactly what he told me, but I'm pretty sure the previous owner had it 10+ years. I've been given a lot of theories as to why it melted out like that. He never mentioned there being a hole, and it was about an hour and a half away, so when I saw it on pick-up day, I didn't ask. I figured for $400 it was still worthwhile and proved to be a pretty easy fix. I think it was a combination of regular overfiring and maybe not cleaning out the area above the firebox. If there was a layer of soot built up, it would only allow minimal heat transfer, and that area gets alot of direct convective and radiant heat. If you look at the pictures in that thread, you can see how it looks like cone, probably just gradually drooped the steel until it finally was brittled and started falling apart. I do remember the guy telling me that when he loaded it he'd get the stack temp up to like 600 degrees or something. That seems crazy to me knowing the temperatures I see on the stove and the stack.

 
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Post by Vinmaker » Thu. Dec. 08, 2011 8:46 am

Do you remember what you called the thread with those pictures? I would be interested in seeing the inside of top section. I cannot just search "SF-250". Too many hits come up.

Vin.

 
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Post by pineyguy » Thu. Dec. 08, 2011 10:14 am

Abused Stove

My bad. Should've linked it. Thread title was Abused Stove.

 
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman SF-250

Post by Three Labs » Thu. Dec. 08, 2011 3:12 pm

My mistake for assuming Harman is still numbering the models the way they did when they were welding stoves in Mr Harman's workshop. Evidently they stopped marking the steel.

 
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Post by Vinmaker » Thu. Dec. 08, 2011 8:23 pm

Thanks Pineguy. That was quite a disastrous hole in that stove. It was a little confusing what the pictures were because the inside chambers are a bit odd in order to force the hot gases out and around the top area. Glad it worked out for you. Did you ever end up posting pictures of the finished product. The last shot I think was the welded plate in place. But then I guess you would have had to reconstruct the top of the stove. Right?

Vin.

 
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Post by pineyguy » Thu. Dec. 08, 2011 9:26 pm

We cut and welded it without taking the stove apart. Those last pictures were the final product. The brittle area around the flue gas exit got welded, the plate was welded, and a piece of angle iron was welded in the back where we couldn't reach just to kind of make a seal. We toyed with the idea of cutting the top and back off at the factory seams, but after the bad section was cut out, we took the easier road and it worked out. If you want specific pictures, let me know and I can put them up.

 
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Post by alpineboard » Tue. Sep. 30, 2014 5:41 pm

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Hi All, I just got a Harman sf 150, serial # HXL 209 . Good grates, firebrick was all there, the 3 rear were ready to crumble apart. The stove was used plenty, but I believe properly, some of the 1 1/2" ell brick holders were in a vanishing state, but still had enough there to put new bricks in. I need a new blower for it, 75 cfm, I thinking. I will probably put it next to the crane 44 mag. Also mount a Russo type t- stat on the back to control the blower.
The building/shop is pretty tight and insulated, I was heating it with a jotul 507 and a crane 44 mag, pick a stove or light both. But either stove running alone would keep a freeze up from happening. I know I will burn more coal using the sf150, but like the idea of more heat. And I have wood going also. Time to cut some 16", for the sf150. Anyone reading this know what the serial # means? When I get it looking good I will post a picture, when it is lit.
Also, after reading the info on the sf 150 here, it seems that there is some confusion on if these sf 150's have a blower or no blower. As I was confused before buying this one, after reading the info. This sf 150 does have a blower, but no tubes involved with the air chamber, it is a long thin slot located just under the upper front lip. Most pictures do not show this. I will post a picture soon.
I just saw some info that the sf250 has a 135cfm blower,
Does anyone have any advice on Blower size with the sf 150? and/or the sf 250 , Thank you, Rob

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