Advice on Honey Bear

[Roberta Frederick]

Hi,

We have a Fisher Honey Bear and would like some advice on finding a door seal and possibly painting. We purchased locally and installed the stove in 1985. The tag on the side says it is a Honey Bear w/ fresh air kit and mobile home pedestal but it is on 4 legs. The tag shows manufacturer as C E Smith - G/date 9-85. It has the brass and glass door. We've not replaced the door seal but it definitely looks like it needs replacement. I think the one in there is probably a fiberglass type. We have a heat pump on our house but prefer the stove because it produces better heat that remains in the room. Our house is fairly small and the main part of the house is an open design so the heat and warmth circulates well, in fact if we aren't careful the stove can cause the house to be overly warm. We use the stove during the winter months - mainly in the evening and some of the time on cold mornings unless we get some freaky weather where the days are very cold. For years we have just cranked the stove up when needed and not really paid much attention to gussying it up. We do keep the chimney clean and clean the glass door and brass but the rest we've ignored until now.

I'd like to find a source for the door seal replacement and to find out if it is possible to paint the stove without removing it from the room. I hate the thought of trying to spray paint inside the house - is there a brush on paint that works well? What about painting the stove pipe?

Another question which isn't exactly related to just Fisher stoves. We live in the high desert and it is often very windy here in the winter. Depending upon wind direction and velocity we may have smoke down draft into the house. A neighbor said that changing the cap on our stove pipe outside might make a difference - we have the old type, a round cap with screen material on the sides. Would changing that out make a difference and if so any suggestions on a type and where to locate?

 

[coaly]

Welcome to the Forum Roberta! ;
The Honey Bear was a convertible stove that you could remove the pedestal and install 4 legs for use in a conventional built home instead of using the required outside air intake in manufactured homes. The gasket material is available at most hardware stores like Ace, that sells it by the foot from a roll. it's usually cheaper that way than prepackaged pieces. If you can get a piece off the door to take in, it's easy to match up. Or measure the width of the groove that it fits in. (Stretching the rope gasket makes it thinner if you think it may be too large) The type or color doesn't matter. Round is for door seals, (Fisher only uses gasket material on glass doors) flat is for glass. It gets glued in place with something like Rutland stove gasket cement.

Spray is about the only way to get a good finish. Rutland has 1200 degree paint in a can, but you'll get brush marks, and flat isn't as nice as satin on your stove. Unfortunately the best (Stove Brite) also smells the worst. (You didn't mention if your stove is black or brown. If brown, Stove Brite spray is the only color match. It's heavy duty stuff and requires extremely good ventilation.) The hairs on your arms will feel strange and sticky, so avoid breathing ANY of it. It's best to cart it outside, sand if necessary, paint, and connect a couple pieces of pipe to burn it off giving the paint it's final cure outside. You can do it indoors, but you'll need a warm day with all windows open - preferably a fan in the nearest window, then crank it up to burn it off with everything open. You do the pipe the same as the stove.

Someone else may know of a solution to a better cap for wind. Anything with louvers or vane type baffles at the top tend to get cooled and allow creotote to stick to them eventually clogging. Burn it hard and keep the pipe damper if installed more open on extremely windy days for a stronger draft? Moving the the mountains is not a cure. It happens here too.

 

[930dreamer]

Welcome to the forum. Isn't there a flue cap that rotates to prevent draft issues in strong wind conditions?

 

[Roberta Frederick]

Hi,

Thanks for the welcome! We've been looking at the Vacu-Stack Chimney Cap for air insulated pipe - we are required to have a spark arrester in our area so we are accustomed to cleaning on a regular basis since the ordinary cap we have now will get clogged up if we aren't diligent about it. Don't know if this type would be more difficult to keep clean. We don't have a pipe damper - should we have one? And if so is it something installed into the pipe or do we need to purchase another piece of pipe with that installed? Our neighbor says the chimney cap that he has (different from the Vacu-Stack works really well but is hard to clean. His looks like a big cylinder.)

Coaly, we removed the door to make it easier to deal with the gasket. We no longer have an Ace Hardware in this area all of our local hardware centers were pushed out as the big box stores began to come in to the nearby town. Our little village has no hardware store so we have to drive to the next town over from us. I may be able to find the gasket material online with less hassle once we get it out and can determine the type. The screws that hold the metal plates to secure the gasket material are practically impossible to remove. I think my husband has managed to get one or two out but they appear to be broken on the tip. Some of the others are so corroded they aren't going to budge - he has tried WD 40 penetrating spray, etc. Do we need to just drill them out or is there a better method? And then what is the best type of screw to use as a replacement? Also since we are replacing the door seal I assume we should also replace the glass seal?

This stove is not a big one but it sure seems to weigh a ton! I am concerned about attempting to spray paint the stove while it is in the house but moving it would be very difficult. We aren't young and neither are our friends or neighbors so we don't have anyone to help us. Therefore, we would have to try to hire someone to help remove it and take it outside or resort to painting it inside. I notice that Stove Brite also makes a brush on paint but it is probably no easier to use than another type.