Cookin' With Coal

Paul, sorry for all the questions Im just starting to learn about these cook stoves. Do all the stoves have direct and indirect draft mode(oven mode)? What are safe clearances to combustibles and floor protection for these ranges?
Thanks
brenden

Brenden,

All the ranges I'm familiar with have the "oven damper" direct/indirect mode. If there are any that don't, I've yet to come across one. It's one of the things that make it a range and not just a simple cook stove like the early kitchen cook stoves that ranges evolved from.

BTW, stoves like yours and mine are not technically "cook stoves". They are "ranges", which are what cook stoves evolved into as more features were added starting not long after the Civil war. Glenwood starting making ranges in 1878 and our member Wilson (Wilsons Woodstoves) has one of the earliest with his 1879 Sunny Glenwood that is mentioned early on in this thread.

As for clearances, most accepted the non-UL listed stoves recommendation of 3 foot minimum to combustible materials.

However, for ranges I stumbled on an exception in the Maine State fire codes that allows less clearance for "cookstoves". They can use 30 inches instead of 36 inches. I haven't been able to see if that is also mentioned in the National fire codes. All that is posted in the stove clearances thread here, Stove and Stove Pipe NFPA Clearances.

Some more modern types of ranges are built with an insulated wall sheet metal construction and designed to be able to have less clearance.

I made a sheet metal box to cover the rear of the firebox and oven on my range. Then I added an inch of rock wool insulation to the inside of it. Because the range backs up against an outside wall, that box not only acts as a heat shield to allow me to move the stove closer to the wall, it helps keep more heat inside the house. And it helps raise the oven temps without needed to fire the stove as hot. According to the National Fire Code 211, that insulated heat shield box allows me to reduce that 30 inch clearance by 66%. So that's now allows reducing the clearance to 20 inches from combustibles.

That 20 inches is just enough to give me room to clean behind the range and chaise dropped pieces of coal,..... that always seem to roll under the range.

As for the floor, the undersides of the ranges sit much higher than parlor stoves so the floor doesn't get all that hot. The highest I've ever recorded under it is about 120 F. If you look at old photos they set the ranges right up on the kitchen floors without any additional protection - unlike the hearth insulating boards you often see under parlor stoves.

I wanted a bit more protection from any accidently dropped hot coals or wood, so I put my range on one inch thick slates, over a thin bed of play sand. My kitchen has two old linoleum floors and underlayment's over the original hard rock maple flooring. I just cut out all of those two floor layers, poured a layer of sand and put the slates down. That came out level with the top flooring.

Melissa's family and others I've seen, just used those round, glass, furniture leg floor protection discs so that their kitchen floor wouldn't be marked up by the cast iron legs making an imprint.

Paul

Couldn't resist. Waffles and eggs tomorrow!!
For starters......

This one will stay on the bench for now ...

Merc300d wrote:

IMG_1972.JPG

Couldn't resist. Waffles and eggs tomorrow!!
For starters......

Like the old Cowboy song says,...."Home, home on the range" !

Glad to see your getting back to using that beautiful range, Kevin.

Yesterday, after the cold front came crashing though (35F, with high winds, thunder, and lightening, quickly dropping to 30F and changed over to snow), Melissa and I each baked a batch of our favorites cookies for church coffee hour. Her favorite peanut butter cookies, oatmeal raisin for me. Nice way to spend a cold blustery afternoon in warmth, and warm company.

Paul

Kevin that poor G6 sitting in the corner all alone, at least its not cold with the range going. Dose the range run 24/7 and used for heating as well as cooking?

Also how hot do the back and side walls get. That stove is nicely tucked in the little cubby there.

I m hoping it does. I had it running for a while then disconnected it. I'm giving it another try. The range does a great job of heating. I've on occasion got 12 hr burn times. If that becomes the norm , it will do all my heating and some cooking. There is a learning curve with cooking on these ranges but everything I do cook comes out great. As far how hot the surrounding areas around the stoves get , it's not any hotter than the base heater. They are fun to use and I'm not using any electricity which in my area is expensive as heck.

I had it going on hardwood all day Sunday. Without a wood grate , I found it hard to build enough hot coals to start a coal fire in it. Had to buy a bag of charcoal. Burning wood is too much work in these stoves. Once I topped off with blaschak nut , the thing was cranking. Oven was off the charts. Buried the needle. It was still going when I got up at 4 and was recoverable

Yup, a range is a bit more learning curve then any type of heating stove. But it is learnable. And you have the mano, which is a big help !!!!!! I would have saved myself a lot of learning time if I had a mano plumbed into the range 12 years ago. Indispensable is the best way to describe it.

Learning how to use the check damper in combo with very little primary air, more secondary air, plus watching the mano as you open the check damper, will help control a wood fire. But at it's best, it still will only burn for less than half the time a coal fire will. And the temps won't be as steady as coal, unless you add small amounts of wood every 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

With the bigger volume of that Model E's firebox you should have no trouble getting 12 hour burn times on nut coal. And if you have a decent drafting chimney, you don't need the dampers open as much as you may think.

For longer burn times, after you get the firebox filled almost to the top plates and well established with the blue ladies dancing, .... and it's well cleared of ash,.... try just a dime's thickness of primary opening, no secondary air, and the MPD fully closed. You'll be surprised how much heat it will put out idling along like that. If it gets really cold that the drafts is still too strong, you may want to try checking the check damper open about a 1/4 inch and check the mano occasionally until your sure how it will respond over the course of several hours.

With damper settings like those the left end of the cooktop will still be hot enough to cook breakfast on such as frying eggs. And, the center plates will be hot enough to keep a kettle of water near the boiling point all through the night.

The only time you need more primary air than that dime thickness is about 1/8 inch open to boost the oven temps up to 350F for most baking, and about 3/16 open to get it up to 425 -450F for pizza. With that newly restored, well sealed flues, maybe not even that much opening ???

Also, try to use mostly the larger chunks of coal during the day for faster and hotter response. Save the smaller sized bits and pieces to mix in before bed time to extend the burn time.


Paul

I really like how that is nestled in the corner like it is. I have a slimier set up in my kitchen. Im gonna post some picks tonight if I can get the baby to nap while I make dinner. I have been debating having the wall taken out between my kitchen and dinning room to
(A) help with air flow from the G6
(B) open up my floor plan a bit to make the house feel "bigger"
(C)and this is my favorite one ............. Make room for a cook range

but I may just leave the wall save the cost off demo and permits and make a small hearth area with shielding. It will make more sense when I finally post pics.
I love that stove by the way It matches your G6 to a T.

CCM,

If it will work with your plan, wall register type vents in the wall behind the range. One at floor level behind the firebox (left end of the range) and one above that, will help circulate heat into the dinning room in addition to help remove heat from behind the range so you can move it a bit closer to the wall.

That will cause a stronger convection current than hoping the heat finds it's way sideways and around a corner.

Paul

Paul, How hot dose your kitchen get when we have swing temps like this past week. I had my G6 crawling in direct draft 45* mpd and primary open a sliver I mean paper thick stove would hold 150*-170* at the top of the barrel and we were getting baked out at a 77*-80* house.
I guess if I added a range to my collection I would be running the window stats more often than not.............

Sunny Boy wrote:CCM,

If it will work with your plan, wall register type vents in the wall behind the range. One at floor level behind the firebox (left end of the range) and one above that, will help circulate heat into the dinning room in addition to help remove heat from behind the range so you can move it a bit closer to the wall.

That will cause a stronger convection current than hoping the heat finds it's way sideways and around a corner.

Paul

This seams cheaper and easier than knocking down the wall.

Cold days the kitchen stays 70F, unless we're really running it hot like when we do large pots of boiling water when canning. Then it gets up to 80F and we're working in tee shirts. Sometimes

We hit 70 for a couple of days last week. To the right of the range is the back door. I put the screen in the storm door and left the inner door open most of the day. The kitchen only got up to 75F.

My Sunny Glenwood range is smaller than Kevin's Model E. But my Sunny has more surface area because of the water reservoir tank on the right end adds about 4 square feet more of, either heat radiating area, or when shutoff it becomes 4 sq ft of heat shield.

Paul