Advice on a Fisher

[mcg]

This stove is for sale locally for $500. The seller says it's a Mama Bear, which, from what I can tell from a brief look through this site, sounds fairly accurate. It's 18" wide by 27" L x 30" high. That's all the seller appears to have in the listing. He seems firm on price.

I would appreciate any information anyone can tell me, and an opinion as to whether it's worth $500. It seems like a nice stove for the money, but I've gotten nice stoves for half this price. He has a steel fireplace conversion kit to go with as well, but I won't be using that. I'm looking to heat a fairly large basement with it, and take it through an existing single pane window that I am going to redo with block and glass block, with stove pipe.

Thanks so much!

 

[coaly]

The price is up to you. It is a Mama Bear good for heating 1500 sf. with a good chimney.
Stove pipe is out of the question without a chimney. Are you referring to running single wall stove pipe all the way up?

 

[mcg]

The price is up to you. It is a Mama Bear good for heating 1500 sf. with a good chimney.
Stove pipe is out of the question without a chimney. Are you referring to running single wall stove pipe all the way up?

For my application, to use it in the basement, I would have to run it through the wall, leave several feet inside the wall between the woodburner and wall, then run a triple wall pipe all the way up. The basement wall is block, then the rest of the house above the basement is redwood siding. How much, if any, horizontal run could I have until I had to go vertical, is I suppose my main question. Then I realize I would probably have to go up about 15-18 feet to clear the room of the main floor. I have a sub-basement below the basement that is several rooms, but that's really not in the equation for this because the home is terraced into a hilside over looking the river, and this application would be from the basement/2nd level in the middle of the house. But ground floor in this area, as the window area I am going to redo into a wood burner area has no floor below it, and is a concrete, ground floor on that side of the house.

To clear up this picture, the house is essentially three stories, with the third level down being a 2 room subbasement separated by stairway/hallway with door on that level opening to the bottom terrace in the back. The middle level, the "basement" I want to put the woodburner in, is continuous with two large "rooms" that essentially are under the original garage, and a 10 foot opening/door to an addition basement under a garage addition. So the woodburner would essentially be on a concrete floor (or eventually nice tile over the concrete under the woodburner), in the garage basment area, but that area is continuous with the basement under the main (1st) floor of the house. It doesn't get super cold in the "basement" because the front wall of the basement is underground, and half of the back wall are the two finished roooms and a bathroom on the back side of the house (essentially the 2nd floor from the back/riverside of the house).

So only about 30 feet or so of the back walls of this "basement" are exterior walls, with the entire front wall underground, and half of the side walls underground, as the hill slopes on the sides of the house from the street level front yard.

Thus a good sized woodburner would likely make the basement very warm, and serve to provide significant heat to the entire house structure, except for the 2 room sub-basement, which is one level below to the other side of the house from where the woodburner will be. But with a fireplace and the proposed wood-burner, two fires would pretty well heat the whole house, especially if I run the HVAC on fan only at times.

I'm looking for whatever is possible to put a woodburner in my basement, and use an existing window I need to redo for the access to outside for venting the stove. I could possibly build a chimney on the back, but would rather do something I could install this winter, as in very soon. I cannot build a chimney this year due to time constraints.

I have a wood fireplace in my living room on the main level already, but about a 1000sq ft unfinished basement that is open (part of it is finished into 2 rooms and a bath, but separate from the large unfinished space). Heating that area would serve to also heat the floor for the main level of the house, and make the unfinished area, which houses my home gym, playspace for my daughter, and the laundry area, in addition to a small family room area with TV and futon, much more usable for the winter months. Plus I just love woodburning, and miss a previous house I had with a woodburner.

 

[coaly]

Got it. There are people out there who still think the stove is the most expensive and important part and anymore than $100 is too much to get the smoke outside above the roof! Now go find a $200 Fisher.

 

[mcg]

So $500 is too much to pay for a Fisher? This seems to be in really nice shape, but my last woodburner was pretty nice, an Earth Stove, and I scored it for $200. But that was 1997 or so. It was a rear vent, and I had it go straight back through the wall and then a block chimney up over the roof. But yeah, I had more money in that chimney and pipe than the stove, but it was a nice big stove that heated my whole place pretty much.

Is this a pre-79 Fisher given the non-arched door and trees?
Thanks!
Rich

 

[coaly]

Lets say value is in the eyes of the beholder. There's no book value, you can only go by trending prices....... At one time years ago there was a post on the Forum where someone believed no Fisher was worth more than $100. (That was incentive for me to join the Forum I guess) Screens have sold for twice that since then, and feet, 3 times more !

The style of this one is that of the older pre 1980 models. If it had an arched top door, it would be difficult to tell since some fabricators made the old style box along with the one piece box to sell at a cheaper price. This is an older style box with older style door. This is also a mass produced box from Hesston. It probably has a large H stamp on the front of ash fender if you look closely. What gives it away is the flue vent is welded INSIDE on the back. (That dates it pre 1980, but has the later bent handle, and last style springs and draft caps, so it's not early either.) Fabricator shops built the stoves ahead of time and cut the vent in when sold so they could be used either way. They were welded on the outside. This one is the most common that I'd value the lowest.

Back to value............... I value the first stoves built the highest. OR the last stoves built with shields, plated doors, and glass being a step above. (no glass in single doors) Later models are a much nicer looking stove that is UL listed if that becomes an issue. The rest like this one are the majority. Some like me, prefer the single door stoves that are the correct shape and more efficient than double door stoves built for fire viewing and paying a price for that feature which includes efficiency and having a chimney not compatible with newer stoves without the expense of a liner some day. Just the way a deep, narrow stove burns and emptying a little ash from the front each day, then having a good pile of coals and charcoal to rake ahead is reason enough to stick with a Bear Series to me. Others value the fireplace feel and need to see the fire. To me that's what glass was invented for.

These are personal preferences, so whatever value you put on a bare bones model, you should not have a problem paying more for a stove with feet, bear legs, plated door, glass....... To a collector, the first built numbered #1 stove from a fabricator is priceless. Others will say I'd rather have something that hasn't been used much and surely isn't rusty !