Old Warner stove, newbie w/ questions!

[abracadabra]

Hello folks!

My 1st post here, I've gleaned much info already but thought it would be cool to join and post about my particular stove.

My family and I just moved to central Maine into a big & very old Cape farmhouse. There's an oil furnace but also a very large Warner wood stove in the main area downstairs. Seeing how expensive oil is it wasn't too hard of a decision to invest in some wood and start burning.

Here's the info on the Warner: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Warner_Stove

Seems like it was an early attempt at secondary combustion w/ the baffle setup. I'm pretty curious about this setup, I wonder how affective it is? Our stove is in good shape but the blower motor is currently dead, I think this summer I'm going to pull that out and get it going, seems like that could be a nice thing to have.

We're really just figuring this stove out. Its very large and I know this could be nice when its 10 degrees or less in the dead of winter and I can pump thing full of 30" wood all day, but when its 30-40 at night and we just want to keep the place warmer its hard to build a "small hot" fire in it.

I have figured out how to get a good overnight burn with it, I don't have to relight in the morning.

It seems hard to get the stove to burn "right", as in, going out and looking at the chimney for smoke, its usually smoking pretty good, whether I just add wood or if its been burning hot for awhile. Now my wood might be a small issue, I bought a cord of white ash that isn't fully seasoned but also isn't totally green yet either. I've read some old timers claim you can burn ash green but I don't think thats true, this stuff has been down 2-3 months and burns pretty well although I do get a sizzler once in awhile.

Also I've got not 1 but 2 key/flue dampers in the stove pipe. These really make me scratch my head, I have them both wide open for now. What do I do with them.

My aim is to get a surface and flue pipe thermometers for the stove before next years cold comes back so I can monitor changes.

Basically I wonder this:

Do you think this is a pretty decent design as far as burning off secondary gasses? I know its not gonna be as effective as a modern unit with Cat. but it seems pretty good, and airtight too.

Also, I'm interested in approaches to using such a large stove when its not too cold (fall/spring).

And finally, the flue dampers? Leave 'em wide open?

thanks folks, !

Mark in Freedom Maine

 

[webbie]

That is a big stove and I really doubt that the secondary combustion works at all!

It's a heavy duty number and likely to last forever, but you just are not going to do clean combustion in it!

The best you may be able to do is use come full thick firebricks and attempt to create a smaller and hotter chamber inside - for those off-season days. This chamber could even have a partial "roof" on it made up of more firebrick or refractory. This may help keep the core fire hot enough to clean it up.

As far as flue dampers, unless you have a very strong draft I would leave them open at most times.

 

[abracadabra]

Well, if firebricks are something that goes on the floor of the firebox then this stove has exactly zero of those to begin with, so I better start with that! Is putting the bricks in a DIY job?

By the way, as far as design and build quality go how does this Warner compare to a Fisher Mama Bear? I know the Fisher is a little smaller but I found one locally pretty cheap. In the end end I'd like to buy a stove with secondary burn etc but I just don't have much money to work with, but on the other hand I don't want to burn 6+ cords of wood a year either!!

thanks,

Mark in Freedom Maine

 

[abracadabra]

I stand corrected, there are totally firebricks in place. I just didn't notice them under the ash. They're in good shape.

Mark in Freedom Maine

 

[Dune]

What Webbie meant is that you could put more firebrick inside, for as twofold effect, making the combustion chamber smaller, and also possibly raising the temp inside high enough to burn cleanly. 2-3 month old ash will burn ok but really isn't dry enough to burn cleanly.
1 year seasoned ash would be good.

 

[Heavy Metal]

That stove is awesome!