Is this a Whitfield factory feature? -or previous owner's welding handywork?

[arnash]

Today I cut a cement board piece to back-up the soft old vermiculite insulation piece covering the pellet chute wall of my old Whitfield, and took some pictures with a flash firing into the very dark interior of the stove. Upon looking at them on my computer, I saw that the opening behind the chute, which I thought was a factory cut opening, had uneven edges and a welding edge around it like a frame piece was welded around the opening. The opening gets covered with a rectangular piece of metal. I thought nothing of it until I saw how it didn't look like what I'd expect to be factory quality cutting, but what do I know? Can someone tell me if this is factory original or some previous owner's foray into some attempt at fixing something?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

No way to tell since there is no weld or cutting consistency in a lot of the older stoves (some of the newer ones as well).

There are a few old timers that could likely tell you who did the assembly by the welds.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

That hack job is definately not a Whitfield factory job.

My guess would be that the previous owner was tired of not having good access to the exhaust fan area to clean it out and got handy with the torch.

I can't see where it will hurt anything, just reinstall the little plate over the hole and get off to the Rodeo.

I have a Advantage WP2 and it does not have the fan in that position.

My stove is # 67290 and the fan is on the LH side as you face the stove.

Your stove is an early version of the Advantage, are the controls on the LH side (while standing in front of the stove) ??

Keep us posted

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

That hack job is definately not a Whitfield factory job.

My guess would be that the previous owner was tired of not having good access to the exhaust fan area to clean it out and got handy with the torch.

I can't see where it will hurt anything, just reinstall the little plate over the hole and get off to the Rodeo.

I have a Advantage WP2 and it does not have the fan in that position.

My stove is # 67290 and the fan is on the LH side as you face the stove.

Your stove is an early version of the Advantage, are the controls on the LH side (while standing in front of the stove) ??

Keep us posted

Snowy, your stove was made years later, his is from 85-89, and yours is probably a 93-95 model
so, actually this is one hack job pyro is responsible for, thats the way the old advantage I (wp2 advantage one) stoves were

op, it covers all of this in the owners book, do you not have a copy?
if not pm me your email address and model/serial number

 

[Snowy Rivers]

OOOOOOOOOOK

My stove IIRC say 93 on the Mfg date

I am supprised that the factory would do things quite that crude.


Snowy

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

OOOOOOOOOOK

My stove IIRC say 93 on the Mfg date

I am supprised that the factory would do things quite that crude.


Snowy

yes, the good old days- some crude work considering how dependable they were/are

 

[arnash]

Today I was thinking about the possibility of an American company producing a pellet stove that is "primitive" by the standards of today's stoves (kind of like mine), the benefit being that an inexpensive stove could be purchased by millions of people who now are spending lots of good American dollars for kerosene that comes from oil from foreign countries. That way people could afford to heat their homes well and pay less for it, with the money for pellets staying here at home, AND...thousands of people could find employment building them. It's a travesty that pellet stoves are sooooo expensive. I'd never buy a new one for 2-3K. Hell, I've never paid even half that much for a car!

 

[Snowy Rivers]

The problems with anything being produced in this country today, at least in any quantity is the cost of LABOR.

Materials are still a biggy too.

Off the shelf technology is still quite easily available.

Fans, feed motors, sequencing timers and such are all readily available off the shelf.

The little tid bits needed to finish the job are also easy to come by.

The major cost is going to be the manufacture of the stove body itself.

This cost is why so much stuff goes off shore.
To make a good quality (yet simple) stove is not cheap.

To get it on the market, the thing is going to have to be tested by a lab and certified, and this is not cheap either.

Herein lies the reason that new stoves cost so much.

I dont have a clue what a lab charges to test and certify a stove model, but its a good bet that its not chump change.

The days of a cheap anything, that the masses can afford are gone.

When I installed my Whitfield Advantage 2T last winter, I got into a warehouse close by and inquired about getting stoves through them at wholesale and reselling them from my Gunshop as a secondary product.

Even wholesale is not cheap.

The Brand was, Hudson River stoves.


I can remember years ago, there was a local welding shop owned by a family, they produced a really nice wood stove at a very good price.

Sadly they were forced out, because they did not have their stoves certified.

I know of several in the area, that are still being used to heat homes ev ery winter.
These old work horses will likely last into the next century, as they were made that well.

The rules and regs today have made it nearly impossible to do anything and make a profit at it.


Snowy

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

"The rules and regs today have made it nearly impossible to do anything and make a profit at it."

What is worse Snowy once the original unit gets certified there is no guarantee that the other members of the same make and model even come close to being the same.

 

[arnash]

The mentality of the octopus bureaucracy of government is that with regulations, like taxes, the rule is: The more, the better. You know, they make planes and helicopters that you can assemble yourself. And think how complicated they are. It doesn't seem impossible to make a pellet stove kit that one could assemble at home. It would have to be a no-error-possible design. Boy, would it ever save the country a "pant-load" in fuel costs and purchase cost.