grandpa bear

[el-rey]

I just picked up a grandpa bear with nickel plated doors with rear vent. Its the version without angle iron legs.
The fire bricks are 6 wide and 5 deep. All the layouts I see are 4 deep with the bricks. Is this something different?

 

[coaly]

You are describing a Grandpa III but they use 4 bricks front to back. The brick layout is in the manual.
https://www.hearth.com/images/uploads/fischermanual.pdf

A picture of your stove with doors open and closed will help identify it.

 

[el-rey]

That manual shows 4 bricks deep. Typo maybe?

 

[coaly]

The manual is correct, I don't think you have a Grandpa, that's why I asked for pics to identify your stove.
A picture with doors open will confirm if you have an XL.

 

[el-rey]

 

[el-rey]

I need to work on inserting photos

 

[coaly]

It's a Grandpa III built one brick deeper than normal.
Grandma III and Grandpa III should be 32 inches deep which is 4 full bricks.

The stoves were first sold at Fisher Showrooms which was the front of the building where they were made. Customers would talk with sales people highly trained to assure they would get the correct stove they needed plus be able to vary the stove needed such as higher legs, special sized outlets, or vary the size for the exact area they were heating. So it could have been built larger to increase surface area for higher BTU output to heat a larger area. Some reasons they were designed the size they were was to fit through doorways. (rear vent XL is so deep the ash fender is removable to get through doorways) So there were limits to what they could do. So the welder didn't get strange custom cut sizes in their heads, it would not be difficult to make a Grandma or Grandpa the depth of a Mama or Papa. If your top measures 34 deep before bending, it is probably a Mama depth X Grandpa width. Papa top was 39 deep cut size.
There were a few made to special sizes after production ceased in GA, but I don't believe yours was one of those due to the proper ash fender. That builder is here on the Forum and called them Great Grandma when built to Papa depth. He didn't form the ash fender and made it with 6 inch outlet knowing the chimney it was being connected to.

Is there a UL tag on the rear shield stamped or engraved who made it? It will say Manufactured by; ...................... at the bottom.

The cut size for Grandpa III top should be a piece of 5/16 plate cut to 30 wide X 29 before bending. That will show you how much larger your top is.

Yours is not an XL since the opening would be arched to match the doors at the top.
(The XL is 32 deep as well, but 34 1/2 wide and has 10 inch outlet).

 

[el-rey]

Good info Coaly, thanks. There is no UL tag and the legs are welded on instead of bolted. I'll clean it up and see how well it'll heat the garage.

 

[coaly]

Makes sense that it has no tag since it was not built to the specs of the tested stove model.
The correct size Grandpa III was rated for up to 2250 sf.

That model had a baffle only 3 1/2 X the width of stove. They erred on the side of caution to be able to connect to larger existing chimneys for a fireplace. So with a more efficient prefab insulated chimney you can increase the baffle size towards the lower bend in top making it much more controllable and heating a larger area.