Is this a good deal? The guy has it in storage. It is an hour and a half drive from my house. Pictures look good. Could I talk him down?
$1600 for Fireview used for "two seasons"
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Happy Stacker
Member
Offer $1300. cash today , see what he says. Anything under $1600 = more beer 4 you. Good luck either way, seems like a fair price at $1600.
What should I look for when I go to inspect it? Any warning signs to look for? I'm afraid it may have been overfired, even though he says it hasn't. That, and it is in storage. Why is it in storage?
I finally received some pictures of the firebox. It is indeed the 205 model. Is that the newer one?
I believe the #205 is the modern Fireview. Is the air control lever/knob on the rear of the stove?
Get the serial number (by the flue collar) and call Woodstock for specifics on production date.
Get the serial number (by the flue collar) and call Woodstock for specifics on production date.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
Is that a big puncture/gouge behind the cat, or a spot of soot and a spiderweb?
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I'm not sure, it's just pictures the guy sent. I haven't seen it because it is 1.5 hours away. Do you think it is a gouge? It looks like that to me.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
I can see it as a puncture and a crack, or a spot of dirt and a dangling spiderweb. The picture isn't good enough to be sure about either one.
That is the cotter key that holds the screen in place. It's just hanging down instead of laying flat.
Sorry for the double post. Stream of thought! The interior of my 3 year old keystone looks pretty much the same as that. The screen looks like it needs a cleaning, but nothing looks out of place to me. It would be good to see more photos of the outside though. If it were overfired, I'd expect to see issues at the bypass door. Hard to tell from the photos, but I don't see any cracks, sags, or white metal. The screen doesn't look saggy either. Could be a good unit.
That's where one of the mounting stud comes through the combustor scoop, and the "spider web" is the clip pin that holds the scoop up. You can see the far one better in the second pic. Check the bypass frame for warping, which would be a sign of over-firing, but it would have to be extreme. You might play dumb and ask him to describe in detail how he starts a new load and gets the stove cruising once it is up to temp. Ask what air settings he uses to burn in the load..'4' is wide open air and I never have run my stoves for long there, I was cutting air to 3 or less almost immediately. Now, his air settings may be a bit higher if he was running it on a short stack, like 13'. My Woodstocks were/are run on 16', rear-vented. I want lively flame in the box, not a blast furnace pouring heat into the bypass frame and the liner. I think roaring fires are harder on the seam cement and may loosen it, causing air leaks. Carefully look at the seams..air leaks will show as a light-colored area running along side of the cement.
The stove should have the date of manufacture on the metal tag on back of the stove. If the stove is only a few years old, and is in good shape, that's not too a bad deal, but I would certainly try to get a better one.
If it's several years old you're just taking his word that it has only been "used two seasons."
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I just brush the screen when the stove is cool, with an old toothbrush, leaving the screen in place.
Good tip. Your wrist must be more flexible that mine to get the front! Normally I give the cat a brushing too when I pull the screen. I actually just did it on Monday.
Yeah, that's real easy as well. Reminds me, maybe I should do that soon.
But the screen seems to catch most of the ash, and I've gotten away with just brushing the cat at the end of the season.
I would think that if you stay away from roaring fires in the box (overfire territory, not just burning at a normal high-output rate,) the cemented seams should hold up well over the long run. I'm sure that any seamed stove, be it stone or cast iron, gasketed or cemented, will eventually benefit from a rebuild at some point. My SIL bought her Fireview used, and I had to patch some seam leaks, which were an issue on her 21' chimney (the Woodstock cement is great stuff BTW.) That stove had definitely been overfired, as evidenced by the warped cast iron combustor scoop. The bypass frame was OK. I'm not a fan of pushing any stove hard, be it cast, stone or plate steel. If you need a bigger stove, and you can't get one, or fit one, that's a problem in my book and I wouldn't expect the stove to last as long.
Now, my Keystone came from the factory with a small seam leak on the front vertical corner. It later became worse and when conditions in the box were right I could see oxygen igniting smoke along the seam. Yeah, I coulda called in the warranty and returned the stove but I just went ahead and patched the seam myself..not too big a deal. I guess you could just do that years down the road, when normal air leaks got to the point of affecting performance to the point that you couldn't cut the air as low as you wanted to run the stove, as an alternative to a complete rebuild..
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