Brittle stove legs

[BillsWS]

20 years ago I bought a cast iron wood stove. Had it delivered but because I wasn't finished with the stove pipe I had them leave the stove a few feet from where I would install it. When I was ready, I started to gently nudge (drag) the stove and one leg snapped off. Ever since then I have refused to consider a cast stove. Was it a fluke or is cast iron that brittle? I am shopping for a stove and automatically dismiss cast or any stove that has spindly looking legs like Vermont Casting or Woodstock etc...

 

[cmonSTART]

Cast is brittle by nature. I've never broken a leg off but I'm sure it's possible. Currently, I have to replace a pair of warming shelf brackets on a VC stove. Don't ask......

 

[fossil]

Trying to "nudge" anything as heavy as a woodstove that's supported on legs is risky business regardless of what the legs are made of. If a leg doesn't fail, then an attachment point may well come apart. Moving a wood stove, even a very small distance, requires that the weight be removed from the legs...that means picking the sucker up. Even if you only need it 1/4" to the left, or whatever. Pick it up, move it, and put it back down. A stove on a pedestal, of course, can be expected to be much more forgiving in this regard. Rick

 

[BrotherBart]

The two places cast gets broken on stoves from what I have personally observed is the legs and the door hinges. Both during moving the stoves. For four or five dollars a set of plastic furniture sliders under the legs will let you slide even a heavy stove all over the room. As for the doors they must be tightly closed or removed when moving a cast stove. Once those hinges are broken it is all over until the whole front of the stove is replaced.

 

[leeave96]

Nudging cast can cause a break - but I wouldn't let that get in the way of buying a cast iron stove.

Good luck,
Bill

 

[peakbagger]

Most of the time when a stove gets nudged there is slip/stick friction that occurs where the stove mometarilly sticks then releases, the resultant vibration will crack a cast ron leg real quick.

 

[Dune]

Cast iron is that brittle.
My previous stove was cast iron and needed quite abit of welding to be servicable. It was also 130 years old.