Help With Mountain Aire 15 RM

[Shortfamily22]

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a 1983 built house with an old wood burning stove which is likely original to the house. The identifying plate on the back left of the stove says the Model is Mountain Aire 15 RM however I can’t find any information on this stove at all. The only thing I’ve found so far is another post on this forum from 2012 where another person has a similar issue as me, but there was no resolution posted and the thread seems closed. (https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/identify-and-troubleshoot-old-stove.99694/)


I’ve never owned a house before or a wood burning stove. The previous owner gave me a quick run down on how he used it and one thing he mentioned is that he always had to leave the door cracked slightly to keep the fire going. I’ve used the stove a few times now. It seems like the only air going into the stove is through the door which if closed will smother any fire inside. However, the back plate specifically says “Operate only with the door closed.” There is a pipe below the stove and some sort of opening at the back of the inside of the stove. There is also a rotating lever/handle on the back right side of the stove which has the letters “H” and “L” on it. Rotating this handle moves a vertical rod slightly up and down. This vertical rod connects to a horizontal rod that goes into the back of the stove into an abyss that I cannot see inside. The opening at the back of the stove seems to be clear of any debris. That’s about all the info I have.



Does anyone know more about how to operate this stove? Can anyone help me try to figure out why it is only drawing air through the door?

 

[Giaman]

Common sense tells me that if nothing you do works, the intake is clogged up. Or, perhaps the exhaust/flu/pipe is so clogged up that the only way the stove will run is to overfire it with the door open. Obviously it is very dangerous to run the stove that way, and this evidences something broken. In any event this probably is more trouble than it’s worth, it’s an old stove that’s inefficient and may need some big repairs. There’s no good viewing window too so you don’t get to see the full fire.

Your brick hearth area seems really cool and in good shape, so maybe you can replace the old stove with a more modern one.

 

[begreen]

What you describe certainly is the air control. The control should be at H when starting the stove. If that doesn't work, then it could be that the stove is poorly vented or there is a blockage in the chimney or something else causing weak draft. If that all checks out safe and clear then it may take removing the back cover to make sure that the linkage is still connected and working and that no critter died in there.

Can you post some pictures of the whole stove pipe? Does it attach to a thimble in a masonry chimney? If so, is the chimney lined? What is the ID of the liner?