Warner stoves were heavy duty steel airtights made by two (maybe more toward the end?) welding shops, one in NH and one in Maryland.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Warner_Stove/
In 1979, after the establishment of our shop (Stoveworks, Medford NJ), I took a trip down to the factory to place an order and see the production. Suffice it to say that steel fabrication has come a LONG way since those days!
The stove plates were cut using a large water table with a torch mounted to it - really nothing but a duplicator, like you would use to trace and duplicate a drawing. It was SLOW SLOW SLOW......no computers, no laser, plasma or water jets!
Some of the stove plates, those which were simple squares or rectangles, were sheared by the steel supplier before they got to the factory.
Each stove was made by hand - no assembly line of any kind. At the time, they were running full bore and making about 10-12 stoves per day. I placed my order and the owner entered them into a paper handwritten ledger - as being in the number range of 400+ of back ordered units......that meant I would get my stoves in about 6 weeks!
Warner had a couple features they trumpeted over the competition - firstly, they had a massive cast iron door which was double wall (hollow inside) - they claimed this was a great preheater of the incoming air (doubtful, but looks good)....
They also had a full baffle systems and later models had a hollow baffle and blower - this probably did provide a heat and efficiency gain.
We sold the Warner Stoves for a couple of years, and although we didn't sell vast numbers of them, the customers were very satisfied. I can only assume most of those stoves are still installed somewhere today, as these were built to last forever!
Most information about Warner Stoves seems to have faded away, so hopefully this post and the wiki article will keep it alive for another generation!
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Warner_Stove/
In 1979, after the establishment of our shop (Stoveworks, Medford NJ), I took a trip down to the factory to place an order and see the production. Suffice it to say that steel fabrication has come a LONG way since those days!
The stove plates were cut using a large water table with a torch mounted to it - really nothing but a duplicator, like you would use to trace and duplicate a drawing. It was SLOW SLOW SLOW......no computers, no laser, plasma or water jets!
Some of the stove plates, those which were simple squares or rectangles, were sheared by the steel supplier before they got to the factory.
Each stove was made by hand - no assembly line of any kind. At the time, they were running full bore and making about 10-12 stoves per day. I placed my order and the owner entered them into a paper handwritten ledger - as being in the number range of 400+ of back ordered units......that meant I would get my stoves in about 6 weeks!
Warner had a couple features they trumpeted over the competition - firstly, they had a massive cast iron door which was double wall (hollow inside) - they claimed this was a great preheater of the incoming air (doubtful, but looks good)....
They also had a full baffle systems and later models had a hollow baffle and blower - this probably did provide a heat and efficiency gain.
We sold the Warner Stoves for a couple of years, and although we didn't sell vast numbers of them, the customers were very satisfied. I can only assume most of those stoves are still installed somewhere today, as these were built to last forever!
Most information about Warner Stoves seems to have faded away, so hopefully this post and the wiki article will keep it alive for another generation!
