Questions about a Heritage Wood Stove

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FlyFishing

New Member
Aug 25, 2017
4
utah
Good morning-

I stumbled onto this site while searching the internet for some Heritage stove information. This is clearly a place with knowledgeable people and a wealth of valuable information and I'm glad to have found it!

I've been looking for a good, used wood stove to heat a pole barn I use in the winter as a wood shop. I found the stove in the pictures below and interestingly, I've searched the web high and low for that model # 508450 and haven't had much luck finding anything helpful. Admittedly, I know very little about wood stoves as I've never before owned one. This stove has been sitting in a garage unused for many years and it does have some surface rust, but it appears to be very solid and all the welds seem to be in good shape.
From the reading I've done about Heritage stoves, they seem to have good reviews and many of the new ones that seem to be comparable are in the $2000-3000 range.
My questions are 1)Does anyone know anything about this particular model?; 2) anything in particular I should be looking for to determine if this stove would be a good purchase or one to avoid? 3)what would be a fair asking price for this stove? 4) on the lower back side of the stove, what is that square cut out? It obviously had something screwed onto the stove here at some point.

Thank you so much in advance for any help you can provide.
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Based on the rear tag this appears to be a Heritage Cedar 2. It's an old pre-epa stove by the looks of it. Worth maybe $150? Does it have a baffle? That will help it be a bit more efficient. The hole in the back most likely is where the blower attached. Check Graingers for a fan that has a flange and outlet about the same size.
 
Based on the rear tag this appears to be a Heritage Cedar 2. It's an old pre-epa stove by the looks of it. Worth maybe $150? Does it have a baffle? That will help it be a bit more efficient. The hole in the back most likely is where the blower attached. Check Graingers for a fan that has a flange and outlet about the same size.

Thank you for your reply, begreen! It does have a baffle. In your opinion, is a pre EPA stove one I should avoid?
The stove I get will only be used for a few hours each weekend throughout the winter months to heat a barn.
I've asked the neighbor several times what she wants to sell the stove for, but it's basically coming down to her wanting to give it to me so I'll get it moved out of her yard, so the price is definitely right, but I don't want to get into something that turns into a big headache for me. Thanks again!
 
It should be ok for a shop stove, not very efficient, but ok if you only burn fully seasoned wood and don't let it smolder.

Two caveats - it looks like it takes an 8" flue which will be more expensive than 6" which is more common. Smoke pollution is a sensitive issue in parts of Utah. If you live in a valley or near a city in Utah then check to see if it is legal to burn in a pre-Epa stove.
 
It should be ok for a shop stove, not very efficient, but ok if you only burn fully seasoned wood and don't let it smolder.

Two caveats - it looks like it takes an 8" flue which will be more expensive than 6" which is more common. Smoke pollution is a sensitive issue in parts of Utah. If you live in a valley or near a city in Utah then check to see if it is legal to burn in a pre-Epa stove.

What is the primary concern allowing wood to smolder in an old stove like this?
I checked and it is OK to burn a pre EPA stove in Utah. And you're right about the 8" flue material -- it's pretty expensive stuff!
 
When wood smolders combustion is incomplete. A lot of waste energy goes up the chimney and pollutes as smoke. If the chimney temps are below about 250º this smoke condenses in the form of creosote in the flue.
 
When wood smolders combustion is incomplete. A lot of waste energy goes up the chimney and pollutes as smoke. If the chimney temps are below about 250º this smoke condenses in the form of creosote in the flue.

Thanks for explaining that to me. I obviously have a lot to learn about wood stoves!
 
Flyfishing, how nice to see someone else with a Heritage! We bought a used insert Heritage Chestnut (1982) and will be using it for the first time this winter for heat. My google-fu has been unable to turn up anything useful on Heritage stoves (what I could find appeared to be a different company). Could you share some links to what you found?

I understand this may not be the most efficient stove for heating, but it will be better than using the original huge masonry fireplace it fits in, and definitely better than not running the furnace at all! This particular stove we got off CL, and it was well within budget, and was the only insert we found that had a surround large enough to close off the original fireplace opening.