Riteway Model 37

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tbaker85

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Oct 23, 2011
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I have been searching for woodstoves to replace mine as it's not nearly big enough to heat my house. Someone nearby is selling a Riteway Model 37 for about $75, which I figure is worth it for just about any stove especially working.

I found a copy of the spec sheet for the stove online but I am wondering...My house is aprox. 2200 sq ft. and the stove would be in the basement almost all the way on one end of the house. Does anyone know if this model stove would be able to heat that much space? Even if not all I just need it to be able to heat a majority of my upstairs since we don't really use the basement.

Also, since it seems to be an older stove, wasn't sure how efficentcy has changed over the years, would running a stove like that be worth the amount of wood it burns? or Should I just suck it up this year and save up for a newer stove?

Thanks for any help
 
My grandparents heated from the basement well and I have been able to also. Theirs is a ranch style home and mine is a single story w/ a walk in basement w/ the stairwell leading to the foyer right next to the stove. Even though our stove is on one side of the house, our main living space is on that side as well (bedrooms are on the far end). My grandparents had a similar setup.

The other thing which gives me an advantage is that my basement is only about 3.5 feet of concrete walls, the rest is studded and insulated. Straight concrete or block walls will suck up a ton of your heat and send it to the earth rather than up into your living space.

Your best option if possible may be to keep the stove you have in your basement for supplemental heat, and if possible add one in your living space where you spend the most time.

Your next best option is to insulate your basement and have a large stove down there. If the 2200 feet includes your basement you may be alright if there is only one story above it. With 2 stories above it at 2200 sq feet, and a basement of approx 850 sq feet, you are going to have a tough time just about any way you do it.

The stove you are looking at it old. Here is some info on this site about it if you hadn't seen it https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Riteway. After going from an pre-epa stove to a modern epa stove there is no turning back for me. I went from having to relight a fire daily in a stove that wouldn't go more than 8-9 hours on a load and burning 6 cords a winter, to burning 4.5 cords and having it go 12 hours w/out attention no problem.

Since the stove you are interested in is an old non or pre-epa model, I'm going to move this thread over to the classic stove forum where folks who may have more experience w/ this unit might see the thread.

pen
 
The house is roughly 2200 sq ft all together. It is a 1 floor ranch style house. The basement is approx 1000sq ft. (the living area has a addition built onto it that isn't part of the basement) Only 1/2 to 3/4 of the foundation is in the ground, the backside is open(side the stove is on) The basement is fairly well insulated as it was a finished basement, there is one room on the far end thats insulated but has not drywall up, and a small section of wall I had to remove the wall and insulation to do some foundation repair.

The stove is located maybe 10ft if that from the stairway to the basement, and there is also a floor vent (lazy vent I guess is what their called) about 6 or 7 ft from the stove.

Unfortunatly installing a stove upstairs isn't a option for us financially at the moment, we're hoping to find a stove that we can heat a good majority of the house with since it's completely electric heat.

The current stove I have that came with the house is a Atlantic Stove Works, Homesteader Supreme? I couldn't find any info on that whatsoever, but it is a fairly small stove. We burned wood like crazy last year and I had to fill the stove just about every 4 hours and relight it every morning.

I'm hoping to find a stove that we can use but honestly money is tight, which is why the $75 stove in great condition was a big eye catch, but to have to worry about the stove pipes and such since there is a big difference in flue heights on the stove I didn't want to invest in it if it wasn't really going to do much for us.
 
It sounds like you are setup a lot like me. I don't know a whole lot about this stuff but assuming it is setup with the appropriate clearances to combustibles, and the stove itself is solid, and venting into a solid chimney, it would be worth a try for the 75 bucks. You'll burn more wood than a new unit but that does not mean it can't be done safely. Do you have a brush and rods for that chimney? Along with burning more wood they also make more creosote in general. You'll want to be checking on that chimney monthly (and probably even brushing monthly for a while) until you can get a handle on what that stove is doing.

pen
 
I don't know about your sizing question, but I just bought a Riteway 37, and made an album of the instructions.
http://s253.photobucket.com/albums/hh51/bja105/Riteway37/

I don't have mine installed, yet, but I set it next to the little Vogelzang it will replace, and the Riteway is huge. Our neighbor has a 6 bedroom house he heats from the basement with a DS Machines version of the same stove. His house is huge, but new and tight. The house was built to be heated like that, with floor registers to get heat upstairs.
 
Dad heats with a riteway copy built by the local Amish. He has a newer 1600 sf ranch with 1600 sf basement which is partially finished and has no problems keeping his home warm. The first year he bought the home he ran the stove wrong (didn't use the bypass). Now that he knows how to operate it does well. He builds a good hot coal bed, then loads gets the stove going then bypasses so the smoke and fire travel through the coal bed. It's far from a EPA certified stove, but it seems to burn pretty clean. I checked his chimney last year after 3 cords and there was a light dusting of soot. Before he knew how to operate it, he pluggedd the chimney solid and we had to chip it out.
 
That 37 is a good burning unit. The Germans have a stove they are very proud of describing that the unburned gasses are run through the coals. Riteway was doing that years ago. They are a good find if you can get one. They also seem to be very good on small amount of wood the use.
 
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