Lilly Stove

[OHIO MC]

Hi all... new to the forum and wood burning. Got last season under my belt, and learned a lot.
I found an older Lilly stove from a friend of a friend, and got a good deal. Freshened it up, and it looks great.
Still needs a little TLC, but was good for the first season.
Had some struggles keeping fires all night with enough left over to start in the morning without paper and matches.
I noticed at the end of the year, the "automatic" damper on the back never seemed to have moved, and was wide open
all year. Probably contributed to my exorbitant wood usage and very hot fires. I even managed to burn out the door seal
at the bottom of the main door a couple times.

Main question:
Is it possible to add dampers to the door to add a little control to the amount of air going into the stove?
Well, i'm sure it's possible, but how practical / feasible is it??

Thanks

 

[begreen]

Greetings. Lilly Industries appears to still be in business. It looks like the stoves are a sideline to their metal fab business. They should be able to provide the parts necessary to get the automatic damper working correctly. Usually this is just a bimetal coil attached by chain or rod to a flapper valve at the air intake. With the proper air damper, you should see a big improvement in burn times and a nice reduction in wood consumption. This would be my preference rather than modifying the air supply. That is a bit more tricky and can have mixed results if not done right.

Can you post some pictures of the stove interior and of the air control?

http://lillyind.com/stoves.htm
[email protected]
419.946.7908

 

[OHIO MC]

Couple photos of similar stove.

I have two square openings on the back where the blower mounts, and the lighter square at the bottom is the air inlet. Mine has a 1" hole punched or drilled in the center of the plate.
I was thinking of sealing that off & putting draft knobs on the front. Either in the ash pan door or in the firebox door.

 

[begreen]

Looks like the air control is at the bottom rear. Is this thermostatic and is it functioning correctly?

 

[OHIO MC]

There is a coil behind the box at the top where the chain comes down. I had the coil replaced and added a chain from that inlet to the new coil, but it is either always wide open, or always shut.
Even with the chain disconnected & the cover down, the 1" hole in it seems to be letting in too much air & I cannot keep a fire going from 10p - 5a