Rebuild old sheet steel stove?

[AntRhonda/CA]

This might be really dumb, but this no-name stove has been perfect for us for more than 20 years. It's very easy to start a fire, it burns for a long time, the door is as tight as ever, the outside stays relatively cool, and all you need do to get the recirculating part going is push in the rod that works the baffles.

But. The bars that make the baffle system have burned away so all the heat goes up the chimney. Our neighbor has a big metal shop -- builds and rebuilds all kinds of farm equipment -- and is a genius welder. As far as I can see the only way to get into the baffle area would be to unweld the top sheet. Has anyone here tried to rebuild a stove of this type? Any opinions as to whether this would be worth even thinking about will be gratefully received. I feel a little leery about the complex new stoves, even the relatively simple ones like the Napoleon S25. (It's been a fight to find any stove within our delivery area! The Napoleon is one of the few that's actually available.)

TIA,

Antie

 

[ChillyB]

People have built ships in a bottle. A baffle in a stove should not be a show-stopper. Maybe not exactly like original but equally functional.

 

[ABMax24]

How do the baffles function inside, it might be possible to reach in through the door to repair them, welders get real creative when the other option is spending hours zipcutting or torching of the top like that. Also depends on if your neighbour is charging for this work, it's going to be a labor intensive project, I don't think I could do it for anything under $1300.

As for if its worth it, only you can decide that, for me if the repair is any more than 50% of the cost of replacing with a new model I'd be getting the new model.

 

[bholler]

Is it possible? Absolutely. Do I think it makes sense? Probably not. There are plenty of new stoves that are no more complicated than what you have

 

[AntRhonda/CA]

People have built ships in a bottle. A baffle in a stove should not be a show-stopper. Maybe not exactly like original but equally functional.

Thanks!

 

[AntRhonda/CA]

How do the baffles function inside, it might be possible to reach in through the door to repair them, welders get real creative when the other option is spending hours zipcutting or torching of the top like that. Also depends on if your neighbour is charging for this work, it's going to be a labor intensive project, I don't think I could do it for anything under $1300.

As for if its worth it, only you can decide that, for me if the repair is any more than 50% of the cost of replacing with a new model I'd be getting the new model.

 

[AntRhonda/CA]

Actually I've never gotten a good enough look at the baffle setup to see exactly what's beyond the tiny window I could see when I took the stovepipe off. Which is that what used to be solid bars had eroded to stubs.

I especially appreciate your costing -- I'd thought kind of the same but am grateful for an expert's thinking. Is the neighbor charging... a little complex. And you don't want to hear my waffling about that. That the Napoleon s25 can take bigger wood may be the game changer.

 

[AntRhonda/CA]

Is it possible? Absolutely. Do I think it makes sense? Probably not. There are plenty of new stoves that are no more complicated than what you have

The more I see of replies here the more I'm coming to agree with you. And thanks!

 

[stoveliker]

Also, is your hearth large enough?

 

[AntRhonda/CA]

Also, is your hearth large enough?

Not for the Napoleon s25 but it's no big deal, I'm sure there are a bunch of concrete tiles around somewhere. Also bricks and firebricks and half-depth firebricks. The old Arctic Flame (it does have a name, I just never noticed it on the glass frame) sits on glazed tiles that are cracked and broken from my husband splitting kindling on it anyway. The S25 is about 9" wider and 2" deeper than the old stove and its pedestal is a lot bigger. The concrete block house was built for a wood stove 100+ years ago and there's been a series of woodstoves in that place ever since. The rest of the walls are lath and plaster but there's something else where the stove is. Probably asbestos under all the coats of paint. The chimney is part of the house and actually goes to the floor, sort of: there's a horizontal partition about 8 inches below the bottom of the stovepipe opening. Someone has to get up there and shovel out the soot every so often. There was an LPG water heater in the lower part when we moved in and had been for at least 40 years! The vent you can see in the Christmas 2001 photo has a partner on the other side of the wall but we've never figured out what they do. We always heated the living room only during the day, opened the bedroom doors at night. The old stove kept us warm and I'm a little worried about going up so much in size and not being able to shut the burn down enough.