Guess the date...

December 1981.

precaud said:

I came across that statement while searching for info on something else and thought it was interesting...

The "something else" I was looking for was a photo of the Jotul 201"Turbo", which was the first stove I owned (1984) that had a dedicated secondary combustion system. Did anyone else have one of those? What a fascinating piece it was, complete with submarine-like viewing porthole. I'll try to find one and post it.

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Something I have noticed with my new stoves is that they don't burn a dimes worth of different than the 1985 Sierra T-4600 did. I would get it up to 500 stove top temp as quick as I could and the secondary burn up at the baffle would start. Secondary air was introduced over the fire by them not gasketing the top of the glass in the two doors. The air would enter over the glass, whip under a smoke damn across the top front of the firebox and the rolling blue secondary combustion flames would take off and then I would shut down primary air to around 20% and it would roll on till sun up.

The fixed secondary air inlets and the fact that the exhaust damper slide would not let you close it more than 3/4 of the way made for a pretty clean burning pre-EPA stove. If it hadn't been accidentally overfired to beat hell a few years ago I don't think the firebox would have cracked last year and it would be up there running right now. What it needed was the added draft that installing the liner brought to the dance.

It appears that Sierra was attempting to get ready for the EPA mandate but just didn't get there in time.

precaud said:

BrotherBart said:

Secondary air was introduced over the fire by them not gasketing the top of the glass in the two doors. The air would enter over the glass, whip under a smoke damn across the top front of the firebox and the rolling blue secondary combustion flames would take off and then I would shut down primary air to around 20% and it would roll on till sun up.

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That's a very cost effective approach...

BB, I'm curious. When you start up your downstairs stove, do you carry hot coals down to jumpstart it?

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I actually did one time last year. Haven't since then. I cut up a big, old down for twenty years, pine this summer. Cut it into hunks of fatwood the size of your fist and just use them on the little pup downstairs. Only wood I ever saw that you can light with a cigarette lighter.