Info about this Scardia 190 1979

[FireAustralia]

Hello
I was checking out an old shack here in Victoria Australia and this stove was in the property, I’ve never seen anything like it, could any one give me some info on the stove or point me in the direction of where to get info? I can’t seem to find much online and if I do it leads to this site!!
Thanks in advance

 

[peakbagger]

Scandia was a trademark used by middlemen who got their start bidding out outright copies of other brands of stoves to Taiwanese foundries and selling them for cheap. In the US 1979 name brand stoves were in short supply with some brands 1 to 2 years out at prime prices, lots of dealers sprung up and many would buy these by the truckload for cheap and sell them to people who couldnt afford the name brand stoves. The quality control was non existent, some were good some not so good. Fits between castings were not so good which may explain the messy refractory in the side joints visible in the 1st and 3rd photo. More than few developed casting cracks and in some cases whole panels were known to fail while being operated dropping hot coals on the floor. Given the age if there are no cracks, then it should be safe to run. It definitely looks like it needs to be taken apart, the castings cleaned up and resealed.

Its never going to be collectors item but at that age if someone needs a basic low efficiency woodstove they probably do not care.

 

[begreen]

This is a Taiwan clone. By the amount of cement slathered on the seams, it looks like it is due for a rebuild.