Godin Woodstove help

[Cburke]

Hello all! So I am a a newb to woodburning stoves so bear with me! I just moved into a new house with a beautiful antique godin Woodstove that is in great shape, I have plenty of firewood to burn I live in the woods. I just need help running this stove consistently. I have done some research on the stove and I know it's not a monster for heat but I don't have a big house to heat, so what I need help with is how to get this thing hot and keep it there. I can get it hot but it doesn't stay that way consistently, there's a damper in the flue that I have no idea what to do with. I use a mix between hardwood from my yard( maple and beech both well seasoned) and a wood brick fuel. Basic a pellet block I beleive. Now the wood brick burns very hot just quickly. Any ideas on how to run this thing efficiently and hot, and how to use the flue damper. I'm guessing it slows down the speed of the burn, does it also keep heat in the stove and not up the flue? The stove is a 3721 I believe that's what the plaque says but the lid says 2121. Here are some pics as well. Thanks everybody. Also just remembered, is the temp gauge on the flue pipe how hot my stove is running to heat the room, or just how hot the flue pipe is. And should I get a temp gauge for the actual stove. Thanks!

 

[webbie]

This is not really a wood stove - it's coal stove, which is the reason for the vertical firebox. You can burn wood in many coal stoves but not with satisfactory results. That, I fear, is what you are running up against!

 

[BrotherBart]

If you get two hours worth of heat out of that lil pup with wood I would be amazed.

The stove pipe thermo is telling you approximately half of how hot the gases are in the pipe.

 

[Cburke]

Ok thanks ill give coal a shot. Just hate to have to buy it since I have an abundance of firewood. Oh well such is life. Will coal produce decent Heat out of this stove or will it just be so so. It's gonna be a cold week here in pa.

 

[ryjen]

Coal burns hotter, and typically longer than wood.

Edit: You want Anthracite (hard) coal, not bituminous (soft)

 

[Cburke]

Ok sounds good is I assume i would want smaller sized coal?

 

[ryjen]

I'm not sure that consumer coal comes in sizes. I live in NC and the coal yards here only deal in very large bulk orders for power plant, and industrial uses. Call your local coal yard and see what they suggest. Alternatively, I understand that up there in your area that you can buy bags of coal on pallets from hardware stores?

 

[Cburke]

Yes we can I'm on my way to get some bags now to experiment with it.

 

[Cburke]

So first successful coal burn last night! Little shaky getting it going but after a few hours got a good coal bed going, and the godin did wonderfully heating my house(seeing as it was 4 degrees last night). Can't say ill use coal a lot just because I don't want to have to buy it but I'll keep some on hand for long burns on cold day. Thanks a lot everyone for the help I would have been pulling hair out trying to figure out how to keep wood burning all night in this stove

 

[dlj]

You should go to http://nepacrossroads.com search in the hand fired section there - you'll find the answers to all your questions there...

dj

 

[PA. Woodsman]

When we moved into our house here in Emmaus in 1989 it had a Godin stove in it. I'm almost 6 feet tall, and it used to be about waist high on me, so I don't know if that is the same one that you have as I know they came in different sizes. Anyway, I loved that stove! I remember when we moved in we thought "we'll probably never use the stove", but one day I pulled some wood from the sloppy pile outback that the previous owners left us with, burned it and was hooked! We burned wood only although like they said above it is truly a coal stove, but that thing threw good heat being steel on the outside and firebrick on the inside. I got to the point where I could practically run it with my eyes closed, had just bought a brown speckled porcelain kettle steamer at a place called "Chop N' Block" in Mashpee, Mass. while on a vacation September 1992, and wouldn't you know it I later WON an Efel Symphony stove in a raffle in October 1992. After much deliberation, I sold the Godin and went with the Efel because I could see through the big glass door and it was junk-no wonder it was being raffled off! I then picked the best features from the Godin and Efel and bought my current stove a Dovre Aurora in 1993, but I will always have fond memories of that Godin!

I would suggest still using and experimenting with it with wood, and you might be happily surprised. I think yours might be the same size as mine was, as the other one I believe was really small.

Good luck and thanks for the memories and the trip down "memory lane"