The short story of a stove genius!

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webbie

Seasoned Moderator
Nov 17, 2005
12,165
Western Mass.
I'll probably move this to the wiki history section, but I wanted to tell a short story of long ago!

Back in 1986 I had the pleasure of meeting a true stove genius...maybe one of the very few that ever existed. Sure, there have been lots of stove designers, stove engineers and stove experts - but, really, how many stove geniuses have there been?

I met said genius through a certain stove company we bought products from - a very small company, but the man had recently left a BIG stove company where he had worked on some of their products...

This was right when the EPA and Oregon and other clean air regs were coming into play, so most manufacturers simply closed up shop. Others worked long and hard (and spent a lot!) to try and come up with stoves that were going to meet the numbers. But this dude didn't have to work hard. He thought hard. He developed a program on his computer (a mac, in this case) which simulated all the variables of combustion. This may seem like nothing special to those who work with such systems today, but this was the late 1980's and computing power was nowhere near what it is today.

So, how smart was he? Well, here is an example - you decide!

The small company needed some quick sales in order to get their cash flow going. They already had a small line of two models, but those were sold through dealers....and they didn't want to sell those to big box stores or mass merchants. But SEARS wanted a stove which could pass the EPA tests and be very reasonable in price. My buddy designed such a stove OVER ONE WEEKEND IN HIS GARAGE, and sure enough it worked. He sold a bunch to Sears, but they didn't do much with them so he made it into a smaller model in the existing line.

The same stove, with small changes, has been sold since that day...under various names and brands...right up until today, and remains a best seller!

He went on to design EPA stoves as an independent contractor for many of the stove companies in the biz.....of course, he's not allowed to kiss and tell, so you will never know! But suffice it to say one guy is responsible for more stoves than you could imagine.

OK, who is going to guess the man and the stove(s)?
 
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Ben Franklin - the Franklin Stove!
 
Bob fisher
 
VC Encore?
 
James E. Houck
 
I am much too young to even fathom the answer ;lol
 
Oh come on!! The suspense is killing us;ex
 
Proof I'm the oldest fart here

I'm older than you are. You just know a whole lot about stoves. Wanna have a Naval History slam? :cool:
 
Ok, Ok, here you go.....

jdes.jpg

What was later called the Avalon 700, 701, 796 and then other names - was designed over a weekend by John and originally had a flat bottom on the door as opposed to the arch on top and bottom (later models).

The original Avalon line was the 700, the 900 (now the Rainer, before the 990, 996, etc.) and a catalytic model.
http://www.avalonfirestyles.com/travisdocs/93508063.pdf

John did a bunch of work for me in the design and patent for the Extendaflue chimney caps I developed...

What I find fascinating about the story....was that, back then (and even now) companies often spend years and many failures to come up with products that do the job and are trouble free. Yet a one-man one-weekend stove (and basic other models based 100% on it) have sold in the hundreds of thousands with amazingly few problems!

LOTS of other stoves from big and small makers have been developed by John in the time since. He is no longer in this part of the business.

Sadly, everyone else made money on his stuff....other than him! Avalon was cheated out of money by one of their large accounts just when the company was on the edge and had to sell - they sold to Lopi (Travis). At the time, the entire Avalon company was offered to me for something like $275K.

How's that for trivia?
 
More trivia. The Avalon was such a hit that it was rumored (and sometimes confirmed by measurements) that other companies simply copied 98% of the interior. One stove I remember (which I also sold!) was the HearthStone Phoenix. Of course. this was all scuttlebutt, but it made sense. Why reinvent the wheel?
 
More trivia. The Avalon was such a hit that it was rumored (and sometimes confirmed by measurements) that other companies simply copied 98% of the interior. One stove I remember (which I also sold!) was the HearthStone Phoenix. Of course. this was all scuttlebutt, but it made sense. Why reinvent the wheel?
That's why they call it R&D : Research and Duplicate.
 
The only thing that I dislike about the Avalon line the rounded door, they should have kept it flat.
 
The only thing that I dislike about the Avalon line the rounded door, they should have kept it flat.

Travis wanted to differentiate it - from the Lopi line, which had the flat bottom.

You probably run into older Avalons in the field - the very old ones have a brass door about twice the weight (and thickness) of the current models. It was truly massive! (mostly in depth).
 
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interesting stove history ..
 
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