Probably illegal stove by now

[ngzcaz]

In 1977 I purchased a locally made " Pine Barren " double
door wood stove. It wasnt inspected or approved by UL but was safer
than most any I've seen as far as falling apart or developing leaks.
It was solid steel Boiler plate, every bend was welded solid and you
could hit it with a sledgehammer and not cause any damage. Almost
500 lbs. of boiler plate steel with pipe caps for air draws. BIG firebox.
Other than not having a cat, the only flaw was that it didnt have an
ash pan for easy ash removal. After 10 years of shoveling the fire to the
side so I could keep the fire going from December to April I decided to
go with one stove downstairs and oil heat. I had a stove pipe that I
had a steel fabricator make for me that was around 1/4 thick. I welded
the seam solid and put it on the stove. The pipe was so thick I used to hit it
with a 40 oz ball peen hammer almost as hard as I could. The creosote
used to fall back in the stove and be reburned. ( it was a vaulted 14 ft ceiling
with triple wall pipe going thru the roof )
Anyway, the point to all this is that a friend of mine who purchased the same
stove I did recently sold his home and the lender to the prospective buyer would
not approve the loan until that stove was removed from the residence simply because
it was made before UL was inspecting them. That stove will be around far longer than
any house thats being built today. With a flip damper cat, and ash pan and I'd buy it
back in a heartbeat.

 

[webbie]

That company did eventually have them tested and listed, but probably not until 1979. In 77, it was hardly even a requirement in many places, as UL was just putting the final standard together.

It might be heavy duty, but it was designed on a napkin in the Vincentown Diner, and therefore has no clean burning or other features of a modern stoves (note- Diner thing is an inside joke).

 

[webbie]

More trivia - these were built by a local fabricator, Penfab - owned by and next door to Rowans place (Rowan College namesake), Inductotherm (rancocas, NJ).........this company also did fab for inductotherm, built fire engines, etc.

I guess if they could design and fab the furnaces that melt the most exotic metals in the world, building a stove was a pretty easy job.

 

[ngzcaz]

Maybe they considered knocking the creosote back in the stove and reburning
it an " innovation " and clean burning ............whoops that was my idea
yeah, the closest thing to a baffle was a round plate they had welded a couple of inches
before the smoke exited the stove. Problem was, it wasnt a moeveable baffle, it was just
there..non adjustable . The fact that the stove never smoked when I opened it
probably attests to the fact it wasnt very functional.

Well... now that I think about it, the manufacturer may have been called " Pennwood "
instead of PineBarren. There were several stoves that must have copied off themselves
the Fisher Papa Bear was also similar to mine but I'm not sure if it had double doors. Mine
also had firebrick on the bottom and halfway up the sides. Broadheadsville, Pa. is where I
purchased it back in November 1977. We moved into our not completed home in November.
The inlaws were concerned I spent almost $ 500 for a stove. A month later around Christmas
the power went out for 2 days in a snowstorm. Inlaws and neighbors came over to warm up.
Never heard another word about the stove. Especially since the electric heat never went on in
our home until I removed the electric in 1995 and put it oil heat. I now use a stove downstairs
occasionally when I want to.
As a sidenote, PP&L;( our electric company ) sent me a bill for $ 285 as an estimated first
month heating bill. I promptly told them to read my meter and I would pay whatever the bill was.
It was $ 30 some odd dollars. Didnt go up winter or summer, always stayed about the same.


: - )