Any Sierra Wood Stove Owners Out there?

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I inherited one in 2000 that my mom bought used in '91.($300?)Its been the only source of heat since '91.Never seen another like it,or another Sierra for that matter.Someone must have brought it with them when they moved to this part or the country.It has served us well.I would choose it over any stove I have personally been around,but I'm sure there are better ones out there.Lately I've been considering an epa stove for efficiency and clean chimney.Very few people I've talked to can get along with them,but after spending a few months reading here I'd say green wood and operator error are most likely the problems.I'll try to get some better pics of it.Just measured the fire box 19 1/4x26 1/2x16=4.7 cu.ft.I've never been short on btu's.
 

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To find ads and sometimes news articles, try Google News. Search stove make, and hit "Archive". This will bring up scanned images. You can narrow the search by years.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAIBAJ&pg=3689,5488890&dq=sierra+stove&hl=en

Here's the search page;
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en...w.,cf.osb&fp=c817d5a340b047bc&biw=800&bih=400

Address given as Manufactured at 503 Union St. here;
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAIBAJ&pg=6778,5164279&dq=sierra+stove&hl=en

Google Map gives 503 Union as the only "503 Union St" in SC, being in Spartenburg. (the same local paper the address came from) so here's the street view today; Currently "Pressley Welding & Machine Works Inc." Also known as Pressley Weldng Machine Tool & Die.
http://www.corporationwiki.com/Sout...ssley-welding-machine-works-inc/47931062.aspx
 

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Well we got back up to the cabin and the new 6" liner and smoke beater cap make a world of difference in the stove's performance.
It really draws nice now, even in a strong wind....if I put a load of dry oak (really dry, killed in the 2003 wildfire) you can't even see smoke coming from the chimney.
Still burns more wood than our other stoves but probably not enough to justify a new stove.
Your stove is more ornate than ours, very nice.
 
Coaly the stoves these guys have were made at Sierra Manufacturing at 1680 Country Club Road in Harrisonburg, VA.
 
Did the same Sierra Stove Works in South Carolina in 1977 move to Virginia where theirs were built later? The top in the older '77 ad has the same angle down to the front. But it's a dark, poor picture.

I notice the ad for the stoves they have from 1984 is "Sierra Woodstoves" with registered trademark.
 
No record of it that I have ever seen. Here is the article when they shut down.

"The company, on Country Club Road, makes stoves and, about six months ago, began making carts for the United States Postal Service to haul mail, said Tom Dooley, one of the men who sent home Monday.

"Usually we wait until one minute before 7 a.m. to begin running the machines. Today was totally different," Dooley said.

Phillip Miller, and his father, the company owner, Garland Miller, got the employees together at 7 a.m.

Phillip Miller "read the letter from the bank that they were foreclosing on the loan and he hated it. He said to come back Friday to pick up paychecks for last week and then he sent everyone home," Dooley said.

John Clore, president for the Harrisonburg city market for First Union Bank, which bought Dominion Bank in March and First American in June, wouldn't comment on the details of the problems with Sierra because of "confidentiality for our customers," he said.

Discussions between First Union and Sierra are continuing, Clore said.

"We try to work with our customers, the relationship with Sierra is one we've given a lot of thought and consideration to. It's a decision not taken lightly. We try to give consideration to the impact to the customer and the local community before we do anything. If the borrower wants to comment that's his business, but beyond that I don't want to comment any further," Clore said. `

Garland Miller said only "we're going to make a statement" today.

For Dooley and his co-worker Robert Kimble, it was "Kawneer all over again," Dooley said.

Both men worked for Kawneer Co. Inc. Both were laid off in October 1992. They started working together again for Sierra in March 1993. Both men were making almost $10 at Kawneer and took a cut in pay to just over $7 an hour at Sierra.

Kimble lost his 21-month-old son, Derek, to meningitis two weeks ago, is 45-years-old and this, on top of everything else, has hit him hard, he said.

"I'm lost. I'm mad at the bank, I know that. A lot of beautiful people worked out there. We're not mad at the owner, the man was trying."

Another lay off, the problem of finding a job at his age, the death of his son, "it kicks you, stomps you and keeps you there," Kimble said.

Glade Fertig, Kimble's supervisor, had been with Sierra 10 years, until Monday.

"The only think I know is they were having financial problems and couldn't keep up. There was no indication to us until this morning," Fertig said.

Larry Parlee, owner of Acme Stove and Video Co. Inc. said Monday that he had no idea there were any problems with Sierra.

"Friday I picked up stoves from them, they make our most popular selling stove line. We've been selling their stoves for 17 years and over the years theirs has become the most popular line," Parlee said. "I can't imagine anything wrong from this end."

The irony, Fertig, Kimble and Dooley said, is the timing.

"They had ads in the paper for welders and production workers wanted because of the postal contract which was a $2.5 million contract. If they did good, then in two and a half years they could get another contract. It could have gone on indefinitely," Dooley said.

The postal contract started six months ago, and another 60 employees were being hired, Dooley said.

The carts are about six feet high, two feet wide and four feet long and carry mail inside post offices, Fertig said.

"It was a big contract, (the Millers) had to invest a lot of money to get the thing started which is where the financial problems came in, we had the machinery, but the dies to make the cart with we bought, we also bought bending machines to bend the metal," Fertig said.

Dooley went back to the unemployment office Monday and "now I'm looking for a job again. My 26 weeks of unemployment insurance will be up as of Oct. 16," he added.

Because neither Dooley nor Kimble had worked for Sierra for a year, their unemployment is coming from whatever is left of the 26 weeks they were allowed after the Kawneer layoff.

If Sierra can reopen, Phillip Miller told employees Monday they would be called back, but neither Dooley and Kimble or Fertig have their hopes up, they said."
 
Here's another ad from the South Carolina company that has a little better picture. Stove #150 and #300 available from them back in 1977. Notice the curl in the RR at bottom starting, and the fancy curl in the E as well. (no sign of a trademark yet) With those early stove numbers starting out, this could be the same company. Hopefully an ad or news article will come up differentiating them or confirming them one and the same. It's bad enough copying the first one from Fisher, but a second to copy thiers, and call it the same, takes a set of brass ones.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...899,3508745&dq=sierra+stove+spartanburg&hl=en
 
The only resemblance to a Fischer I have ever seen in a stove out of Sierra in Harrisonburg is that they were made out of steel.
 
And black ! His concern was people confusing the other makers with his. Since that was hard to prove, they had to sue by the wording in the patent; "exhaust vent higher than door" and "air intake through the door"..... When the judge ruled against Fisher it was simply due to not being able to patent the way something naturally works.
These first Sierra's in SC are single door and have the same type stove box as Fisher. It seems the company disappeared '78, and another reappeared in Virginia (abt.1980) looking like the double doors pictured above.
Here's an experimental catalytic converter article placing them in business in VA, June 1980. Donating with other manufacturers to further the work at Virginia Tech.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...J&pg=4838,3794272&dq=sierra+wood+stoves&hl=en

The earliest pictured ad I've found December 1979;
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...J&pg=4087,1735117&dq=sierra+hearthstove&hl=en

Here's the "Original SIERRA Hearthstove Contemporary" as shown in the "trade-in" ad from '84.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...pg=5651,851561&dq=sierra+stove+virginia&hl=en

3 Models by September 1981; 1000, 1200, 2000
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...J&pg=6360,1900351&dq=sierra+wood+stoves&hl=en
 
The story is a sad one and could come from the pages of today's newspapers.
Our stove is the Sierra Hearth stove Turbo Burn Classic model t2000 as shown in the ad Coally posted a link for.
I'm still wondering if the grate that's sitting in it, came with it or the guy just put a grate in it because it wouldn't draft well.
Anyone not using a grate in theirs?
The new flue makes all the difference.
 
Energy Saving Devices in Spartanburg, S.C. sold Fisher, Sierra and Morso stoves in the late seventies according to ads.
 
bohunk said:
The story is a sad one and could come from the pages of today's newspapers.
Our stove is the Sierra Hearth stove Turbo Burn Classic model t2000 as shown in the ad Coally posted a link for.
I'm still wondering if the grate that's sitting in it, came with it or the guy just put a grate in it because it wouldn't draft well.
Anyone not using a grate in theirs?
The new flue makes all the difference.
I've never used a grate in mine.Never seen a grate used in any wood stove of similar design.
 
There actually was a grate in the floor of the Sierra T-4500 Royale insert. The rest of the floor of the firebox was firebrick covered. The grate allowed you to drag the ashes into the ashpan and to also prove "under" air through it by opening a sliding vent in the front of the ashpan. Up until 1985 the T-4500 was sold as a coal and wood burning stove and it had a shaker grate in the spot. In 1985 the quit putting the shaker grate in it and put a fixed slotted grate in the stoves.

My T-4500 now sits on the back of my yard doing meat smoking a Fall outdoor burning duty.
 

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I guess with an ash pan, you have to have so way to get the ash down in it.I move my old stove into my new house in dec.I build an ash dump that goes through the concrete slab into the bottom of the stove, no more shoveling ash :)
 
BrotherBart said:
Energy Saving Devices in Spartanburg, S.C. sold Fisher, Sierra and Morso stoves in the late seventies according to ads.

Yep, I believe that was the first Sierra from S.C. (made by Energy Saving Devices - welding shop pictured - owners Gary Turpin and Michael Francis) Since all the ads I've found show dealers selling Fisher and Morso along with them having single doors. The #150 and #300.

I don't think the Sierra mentioned in this thread started in VA until 1979.
Here's an experimental catalytic converter article placing them in business in VA, June 1980. Donating with other manufacturers to further the work at Virginia Tech.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aeJLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6osDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4838,3794272&dq=sierra wood stoves&hl=en

As time goes on, more and more newspapers get scanned and are searchable on line. So doing the same search a year later brings up more results. Unfortunately Google also drops web pages and entire papers sometimes. So I've learned to take a screen shot of really good articles I don't want to lose.
 
Ours does not have an ash pan unfortunately.
Grate would help get air under the fire but it also elevates the fire closer to the top of the stove and the flue....
The grate that's in it is one from a standard fireplace and he had a couple more stacked outside as extras.
If it won't harm the fire box, I guess the next time we're there, I'll fire it without the grate.
Might get better/more heat out of it?
 
BrotherBart said:
I heated this place with a 1985 Sierra T4600 Royale for 21 years before retiring it three seasons back. No tips that would apply to a cat stove. It didn't have a cat.

This picture was the night before the last time it burned.

BROWNIE!!!
 
bohunk said:
Ours does not have an ash pan unfortunately.
Grate would help get air under the fire but it also elevates the fire closer to the top of the stove and the flue....
The grate that's in it is one from a standard fireplace and he had a couple more stacked outside as extras.
If it won't harm the fire box, I guess the next time we're there, I'll fire it without the grate.
Might get better/more heat out of it?
I would think you could make more btu's with the grate, because the air can circulate under and through the fire.But longer burn times, steadier heat, burning on the floor with a couple of inches of ashes in in.How big is the cabin?Sq. ft?Lay out?Insulation?The 2000 looks like a big stove, now that it's drawing I would think it would run you out of the cabin if you loaded it up.
 
The cabin is about 1350 sq. ft on two floors. We are using it to heat the lower floor of about 750-800 sq. ft.
R19 walls and roof..r24 floor. Old double pane windows that leak some air.
The cabin is at 7,300' , when we were there a week ago the lows were in the teens, highs in the 30-40s.
The stove seems to do the job....we'll see how it does when it gets cold.
I'm happy with it, especially when you look at the cost to replace it.
Relining the chimney and the new wind beater cap was worth every penny.
We bought the cabin in August. When we left in November before the relining the old pipe and cap plugged up because the thing just would not draw through the old 9" flue.
Then the wind came up. I could not find a ladder tall enough to get to the cap to clear it so the fire just smoldered.
With every blast of wind the stove puffed smoke and silt back into the cabin and our freshly painted walls.
We actually ended up wrapping the stove in tin foil to keep the smoke and silt out of the cabin.
Pretty funny really... I've been burning wood for heat for about 30 years now....never had that happen.
Works great now.
 
I love mine... This is the only photo I have right now of it. It heats our 2100sq. just fine too.
SierraInsert.jpg
 
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