Greetings to All,
My US Stove Model 1869 Caboose woodburning potbelly stove looks like this after one year. My father grew up with one and said his never turned white like this--at least not just the belly of the stove. So I called US Stove and they said I'm running her too hot but that it's normal for it to turn white. Thing is, I never really fill the fire box more than half way up and so it doesn't get real, real hot. Moreover, the white color stops at the seams of the stove. The top portion of the stove where the "lid" is didn't discolor and neither did the bottom part where the ash tray pullout is--both parts that remained black are separated by a slight seam from the fire box portion of the stove. And I have to imagine the entire stove gets roughly the same temperature so I don't know why a seam would prevent the top and bottom parts of the stove from turning white too. Perhaps this is a manufacturing default? Hard to believe since it's cast iron--not much to it, right? I broke the stove in correctly by starting out with small fires and gradually building bigger ones. Any ideas?
My US Stove Model 1869 Caboose woodburning potbelly stove looks like this after one year. My father grew up with one and said his never turned white like this--at least not just the belly of the stove. So I called US Stove and they said I'm running her too hot but that it's normal for it to turn white. Thing is, I never really fill the fire box more than half way up and so it doesn't get real, real hot. Moreover, the white color stops at the seams of the stove. The top portion of the stove where the "lid" is didn't discolor and neither did the bottom part where the ash tray pullout is--both parts that remained black are separated by a slight seam from the fire box portion of the stove. And I have to imagine the entire stove gets roughly the same temperature so I don't know why a seam would prevent the top and bottom parts of the stove from turning white too. Perhaps this is a manufacturing default? Hard to believe since it's cast iron--not much to it, right? I broke the stove in correctly by starting out with small fires and gradually building bigger ones. Any ideas?