Vintage Resolute Wood Burning Stove w/ 2 Doors

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JayJ

New Member
Nov 4, 2015
2
Coarsegold
My wife brought home a vintage Resolute stove. It need some work...a little rusty. I have been trying to figure out the model number. It looks like an Acclaim but the stove has two doors? The tag on the rear of the stove indicates that it was manifactured in 1980..Can't find a model number. Any ideas on the model or model number (maybe where to find the model number?). Thanks :>)
 
A Resolute with a two door front is a Resolute III, safety testing would say 1980 based on the original Resolute I (combustion system was the same, so initial test dates applied). Tag was riveted to cast iron back of stove, so if there is a rear heat shield it may need to be removed to expose it.
 
A Resolute with a two door front is a Resolute III, safety testing would say 1980 based on the original Resolute I (combustion system was the same, so initial test dates applied). Tag was riveted to cast iron back of stove, so if there is a rear heat shield it may need to be removed to expose it.

Tech Guru,
Thanks for the helpful information. Can you recommend any sources that cover the rehabilitation of the stove? Mainly the parts and techniques on restoring this stove. Also, any information on polishes vs. paint. JayJ
 
Try requesting a rebuild/service manual through [email protected]. The old flat (classic) black VC stoves used effectively the same formula as the Stove Bright Satin Black paint. I have nothing to offer on stove polish as the alternative, as I have always used paint myself.
 
Uh, I have a Resolute II with barn doors. Just replaced the seal on the doors. Wow. Big difference. I'm getting 8-9 hour burns with Envi logs now.

Mine was a little rusty and was unused since purchased back in the early 80's. $100 got it for me (my sister bought it for me for my birthday). I just took very fine sandpaper to it, then hit it with "stove black" purchased at the local wood stove shop.

Done. It's been a stalwart stove and house heater for going on 15 years now.
 
Here's mine. The photos aren't great; hard to get in behind it.
 

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That is much appreciated. I needed to make sure how and where it was mounted. It looks like they use already existing mount points. I just bought this stove the end of last heating season and am still learning how to fire it. So far I really like it. You will laugh, but before I heated with a Ben Franklin stove that I had glued gaskets on the doors to make it air tight. Problem was it was too big for my house and I had to choke it off so much that my stack temp was around 150 degress resulting in much creosote and a monthly cleaning of the stove pipe. This stove is much more suitable size wise. I do have a brick wall behind the stove and at least a 10" air space but was thinking of modifying and installing my old home made Ben Franklin heat shield. My homemade shield has probably 12" wings out the side. I made a heat shield for the bottom spaced 2" down and that is working fine. I only have 3/8" slate on the floor but it is laid over plywood. It should be over cement board. Thanks again for the pictures.
 
You're welcome for the photos. I'm still learning how to use my Resolute. After reading some of this site, it looks like I can get a lot longer burn time than what I got last season. Plus, I'm sure it will help that I've replaced all the gaskets. Your Ben Franklin story is a trip, I've seen one work, and I'm sure you had a lot of work to do to bring it near air-tightness.
 
I replaced all the seals plus removed the inside panels to thoroughly clean it. I am amazed how well it burns and how well it holds a fire.

On Ben, I used that stove from 1975 through last winter. Normally got by burning 150 to 200 gallons of heating oil. I found that high temp RTV was a good glue to hold fiberglass rope on the doors. At the bottom I had to build up some areas with furnace cement to get a good seal. It was a 26" stove, but was too big for our 1100 square foot rancher. Another thing that hurt was it was in our living room which faces south. On a sunny day even with the temps in the 30's I had to choke if off too much and always had creosote problems. Now with the smaller Resolute that is not the case. I think I will use even less heating oil. Paid about $275 for the stove new in 1974. Got my money many times over. Cannot beleive how many bens I see on Craigslist and at prices that seem rediculous to me. I am sure many of them were made outside of US. Mine was made in Atlanta, GA by Atlanta Stove Workls.
 
Good to hear you had success with high temp RTV for the gaskets. I just messed with two different tubes of the black Rutland stuff, both of which had dried out badly in the tube. I finally cut one tube open and mixed it with water in a little tub. I seems to have worked but you'd think they could make the stuff last longer in unopened tubes. I see many other folks on this site have had the same problem with Rutland cement.
 
To me the Rutland cement seems like thinned furnace cement. Now I did use the Rutland cement to install the gasket material in my Resolute. Bought a gasket kit from (broken link removed) and some other parts. I added the andirons to keep wood from rolling out when burning open. It does make it a little tight to load wood, but most times I will close the doors and open the griddle and add wood.
 
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