need some help

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spadafore

spadafore

New Member
Sep 4, 2008
128
northwest ohio
Hey folks, I am new to this site and need some help. I recently bought a Benjamin Franklin type stove made by hearth craft out of Portland, Oregan. I understand that they were manufactered for a Sears or Mont. Wards store. The stove appears to be in good mechanical shape, no cracks in the cast iron or excessive rust spots. When I bought it, it came with no legs and I am having a hard time finding anyone that can direct me in the right direction for finding legs. The bottom of the stove has beveled slots where three legs would fit. Without the legs the stove sits on the bottom of the firebox. Is this alright for operation or will the weight end up damaging the iron. I did wire wheel, brush, and paint the whole thing last weekend and it looks very nice. I also burnt a couple fires in it as it sat outside letting the paint cure being careful not too overfire it. I think it will serve a great purpose if I can find some legs for it. I would like to find some legs for it before I call a professional out for an estimate for installation. Any help would be a huge help. Thanks.
 
If that is a Hearth Craft stove it is made in China and is a pile of junk. Keep it out of your house if your even thinking of having a fire in it. Dont waste your time with the legs . The stove is good for decoration only and using it for outside fires..Sorry for the bad news. :shut: On the other hand if you do want to heat safely with wood and install a proper approved wood stove/insert than you have found the right place and Welcome aboard SPADAFORE. :) Hopefully someone will follow behind and back me up as the thread has been bumped forward. CHEERS.
 
Welcome spadafore. The stove is really not meant for 24/7 heating. Technology has progressed a whole lot since the 1740's. If you got the stove for a very occasional evening fire and keep it under control it may be ok. But for serious heating, it is not. As noted, the castings can be suspect and the stove may not seal well enough to control a large fire. But if the goal is to heat the house, you need a better, safer heater.
 
I see one on E-bay exactally like the one I bought current bidding in the 3 hundreds. Not saying people aren't nieve. What makes this stove junk besides that it might may have came from China. I am curious. I was under the impression that all cast iron stoves old as some may be will only hold up if the maintence holds up. Used frequently will require stove cement and mortor. Installation of this stove would be in the work shop of my garage and not in the house, on concrete floor 36" away from 4' cement block walls installed by a proffesional. I have grew up around wood burners and fireplaces and am very aware of the problems a wood burner could create Any addional info would help. Thank you.
 
There is a large difference in casting quality between some of the lower end units and the good ones. Cheap castings can have internal voids and poor fit. They often crack under the stress of repeated heating/cooling cycles. Most importantly, the often seal poorly which means air leaks that can lead to poor burning behavior and potential lack of control.

FWIW, woodstoves are not permitted in attached garages. The stove on eBay looks like an antique parlor fireplace stove made by Portland Stove works of Maine. If the cast date is correct it is from the early 1800's. It's price (no takers yet) is based on it's antique value I would guess, not it's heating ability.
 
BeGreen said:
...FWIW, woodstoves are not permitted in attached garages.
Click to expand...

Or any garage, per NFPA 211.
 
Does your stove look more like the 1812 stove or like the last Franklin listed on eBay - #280261679032 ?
 
fossil said:
BeGreen said:
...FWIW, woodstoves are not permitted in attached garages.
Click to expand...

Or any garage, per NFPA 211.
Click to expand...

If this is rural Ohio and this is an unattached garage that is not used for vehicles, he may be able to get a variance. We have such a garage that is really a workshop and probably hasn't seen a vehicle in it for many decades. It has two wood stoves in it, though neither is connected ;-)

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Stove_in_Residential_Garages/
 
Yeah...and I readily admit to a bit of "Do as I say, not as I do" behavior here, too. I'm just pointing out what's in the standard. By the strict literal interpretation of NFPA 211, my workshop stove is not in compliance, because my shop is attached to a garage, with a gaping 4' wide open passage between the two. I put the stove in. When we had an inspector out to look at the Lopi installation in the house, I showed him my shop stove, and all he said was that the installation looked really nicely done. Believe me, I'm careful about what I do in the shop and the garage attached to it when I'm burning in the stove. Rick
 
BeGreen it is number 260280741811 on E-Bay current bid 381.98.
 
Basically a poor man's fireplace. Looks like the back plate is already warping. There is something that looks like a crack on the lower left of the stove. A crappy repaint made it shiny, but I wouldn't be surprised if this thing sat rusting in a barn for awhile. Hope they used high-temp paint. The bidding is a bit bizarre considering that for a few hundred more you can get a real stove that will really heat, safely. Must be a sign of the times. Pretty soon 55 gallon drumstoves will be going for hundreds at this rate.
 
I sorta hate to admit it here in front of god, wood burning elitists and everybody else, but I have heated my hunting cabin for the last 6+ years with the cheapest Vogelzang boxwood stove Northern tools carried at the time($69.00 on sale). I have touched it up with stove cement a time or two but the cabin is still standing and the stove is still burning, be it a kind of all or nothing burn. Would I put it in my home fireplace w/o legs? Nope. But for a month or so of heating a year in a 450 sq. ft cabin it does keep me from going home with frostbite on a yearly basis.
 
Alright guys, if that stove does not seem safe I will do some research to see what kind of new stove I can get that would work. Basically I bought that stove and all the pipe for a hundred. There is probabaly about 12 to 15 feet of metalbestos stainless class A pipe. I figured the pipe itsefl was a deal for that price. As far as insurance goes, I talked to my agent and she said there was no charge for adding a wood stove. They would just have to come out and take pictures of the instalation. Any advice ?
 
Keep the pipe, scrap the stove, go shopping. Rick
 
I went to Tractor Supply Company last night and took a look at a few stoves made by Volen-something. I have heard of this company as I believe they manufacture stoves for TSC and other big box stores. I talked to a guy in his late 50s, early 60s who seemed to have wisdom to go along with his age. Sometimes they don't come together. He himself has a grizzley. He was all for selling me a stove, but suggested that I have a proffesional HVAC or hearth company come out and take a look at the stove I currently have. I explained to him the stove I had and the leg problem I had and how I joined this site to try to find legs for the stove , but found that I might have a junker of a stove. He said cast iron is cast iron, some may be softer than others but all had to pass some kind of tensile strength test or hardness test. He continued to say that if it is installed right there should be no problem. I said the firebox may not be sealed the best and could leak. He said once again insatllation is the key. Older stoves are not as tight as new stoves due to the nature of technology. If the flu is installed correctly there should be no problem creating a good vaaccum to pull air up the chimmeny. The man said truth be told they sell a 55 gallon drum stove kit which is probabaly more dangerous than what I have but people buy them. I'm not saying he's right and whoever is wrong, just saying it's funny all of the different opinions. For wht it is worth, there were some small cast iron stoves for sale and they were not UL listed. Only the stoves made out of metal were UL listed. What to do what to do.
 
vogelzang? .... oh hells no....$199-$299
i know its tough man, i was hip on those too when i started.
then i spent a lot of time searching, reading, and thinking, "do i want a quality, UL LISTED, EPA cert. firebox in my house with my family, or do I want the cheap way out thats made mainly for campsites. if you read the fine print
man if you go and really touch one and inspect, then go the same day and check out a real good stove, yor decision will be made.
you get what you pay for (least when you buy new)... think about it, a $1000. cast iron box isnt $800. more just becasue of a name... its quality man, and when it comes to a lawn mower, its one thing, but when its a containment for a raging blaze in my house, i want something i can be comfortable using.
 
here man, if it is the vogelang,
here is a review from amazon..

"I've been using this stove on occasion in my woodshop for two months now. All four welds around the firebox have already cracked. The thing would completely fall apart were it not for the four slender metal rods on each corner that are apparently the "back up" for the welding.

The paint has burned off of one side (it's white now), and the stove hasn't been subjected to anything out of the ordinary. I'll be looking for a new stove next winter. "
 
The model I was looking at at TSC was more like $800. Did the person that wrote the review on amazon know how hot he was burning his stove at. If his stove is cast iron, the white he is seeing is the bare iron as the color of iron is white or grey depending on which process was used to make the stove. Overfire. If you go to volgelzang's web page and read thier reviews you will find good things said about most of their stoves including the fire box and frontiersman models. I know they won't post anything bad on their own site, but there is a big differance between using and abusing. I find it funny how quick to judge people are. I have not had one person tell me any facts on the stove I bought nor the manufacter. Someone suggests it came from China, so did the process of casting iron. Almost everything today comes from China. It may be assembled in the USA, but that's not quite the same as made in America. I buy a used stove, junk. I look at a new stove, junk. That's the way she goes.
 
man, i understand V's web site says good things.. of course.
search here, search on line- dont listen to a salesman, most have no idea what they are taking about. ie- there are major differences in cast irons... as mentioned above.
if I accidently overfire my VC it wont cause a life or death situation for my family. if you overfire this POS Volg it could hit the floor. furthermore- if you
read on V- web site it mentions.. not air tight so it burns real hot--- Great so you have no freaking control on the burn if it runs away
I understand what your saying-- i was there a year ago and almost bought one...although i do not know the TSC model.. I know I would not burn one of those stoves with my family.

i spent a month reading here, and other stove blogs, from people who know and use the stoves...people who have owned, tested, or work in the industry... not from a sales guy who could give to craps.

do what you feel comfortable with, because inthe end you are the only one who has to live with the decision.

ps everythign that comes from china is crap-- trust me I return counterfiet, crappy made semiconductors and electronics every day, it is all crap. have you not watched the recalls lately in the news? why do you think chinese highest selling cars are Buick and GM-- china has no standards... and cuts any corner possible.
I have been doing this 10yrs.. its all crap... here go to home depot- buy one of those crappy wooden handle $1. paint brushes then buy the same one from sears... for a few nickles more.. notice they are not the same... as cheap as these crappy things are-
Sears- indonesia- made with 100% bristle.
HDepot- china- not bristle--- probably monkey hair-- and you can pull the stuff out. even the wood handle jsut seems better on sears.

understand we are here not to slam you- this site is here to help- but we see a lot of folks, like me, start the WOOD BURNING venture thinking "this is a good deal" the frustration is with the co's that sell crud, not the folks wanting to do the right things.

take time, theres a lot to soke up....
 
Yes my research has just began and plan on learning alot, alot of facts. Opinions welcome with facts to back them up. How about Napoleon wood burners a step up or still junk? This will be my next stop today. It is a heating and cooling store that recently started dealing with wood stoves and high end refrigerators. Yes I have been watching the news latley. It is not China's fault. It is America's own fault. The good jobs, steel workers, automotive, and processing plants, those jobs are gone from the USA. The people that worked those jobs were paid a good wage and spent it. Dumping it right back into the good old USA. Economics suggest for companies to make a profit they neede to cut cost. Welcome to the global economy. You can get anything done cheaper anywhere than the USA. Why? Because there are no laber laws in place or standards in many countries. Before China, it was Mexico. Untill they wisened up and started forming labor laws making it more diffucult for big companies to be cost effective. On to China. It will be a matter of time before the past catches them also. Then on to the next country untill America has totaly lost it's backbone of the hard working middle class. Not to get off topic, oops I did.
 
dont know much about Napoleon, but I do hear good things of satisfied folks here.
perhaps someone else can chime in, its always best to have multiple opinions....
did you see this on the site?
reviews from those that have burned them.....
https://www.hearth.com/ratings/all.php
 
No, very helpful link. Thank you very much.
 
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