Woodstock fireview Fv201 without baffle

[tobsie]

Hi all,
My name is Tobsie and I live in The Netherlands in Europe.
I have an older fireview woodstove (build before 1996) which was in the house I bought 7 years ago. I used the stove for the last 7 years each winter and it was used almost everyday in the autumn/winter period (6 months). I always thought it was a dutch stove and the manual I got with the stove was for a non similar model.
When I first started using the stove I cleaned the combuster and closed the bypas when the pipe temp was +100C. This worked ok for 4/5 years, but I always find the heat that the stove produced wasn't that good. 3 years ago I started using more pinewood and the that produced a lot more heat, but it also resulted in a vaporized cumbuster and a broken pivot bypass plate. And I also know now a broken baffle.
Since the last 2 years the stove produces much more ashes and also the creosote build up is much more. I have a thatched roof, so I have a spark net on top of the chimney and this nets has to be cleand every 2 months in the burning months.

For me it was time to look for an other woodstove, because it wasn't burning clean anymore. For what I know now is that I was using the stove at the wrong manner and i destroyed the baffle, pivot and combuster due to my way of burning.
I contacted Woodstock and I can still order the new materials, but only the shipping cost will be more than $250. The materials will cost +$400. So I am busy looking for a new baffle in Europe and contacted a lot of suppliers. Still waiting for some to answer.

In the meantime I removed the baffle, so look what the damage is and I could fix it maybe with a metal worker. The baffle is totally overfired and burned, so I know now that this can only be caused by temperatures of around 1000C. So it got really hot inside the stove.

Is there anyway I can still use the stove, while waiting on an afforable replacement (if not then I will buy another stove). Because it isn't possible to place the misvormed baffle back inside. I burned it yesterday without the baffle and it heated rather well. But i don't know if it is safe, because I now have one big fire chamber. For the last 2 years the combuster was already removed and the bypass was open, so in my opinion the baffle didn't do anything anymore. The biggest difference now is that the secondiary air intake on the baffle isn't present anymore and I closed the hole it left with firecord.
What is your opinion?

ps. I attached some pictures of the stove.

 

[mellow]

I am no help on finding parts without paying a lot in shipping as they need to be replaced.
BUT.
I would love to know the story on how that fireview made it to the Netherlands in the first place.

 

[tobsie]

I have no idea. The previous owner past away.

 

[moresnow]

Guessing Woodstock could check the serial number to see if it was sold/sent overseas originally. Interesting.

 

[tobsie]

There is no serial, and I looked on the places where it should be.
I am more interested in if it is safe to fire it again without the baffle.

 

[mellow]

Are you able to control the air still? Your burning dirty so I would only do small loads in it and make sure to use dry wood and if you can keep the temps in check it will get you by for a short period of time. You will need to keep an extra close eye on your chimney and keep it cleaner than usual.

If the stove has been overfired as much as it looks then it needs to be rebuilt, only then would it be considered safe.

 

[tobsie]

Ok, thx. I can control the air. How can I make sure I have the creosote as low as possible. Is this only with small loads, because I don't know if I get enough heat in the fireroom to get a clean burn.

 

[mellow]

Dry wood will help and burning short hot fires will help, get the soapstone warm. If you close that air down you will smolder the wood and cause creosote to form at the lower chimney temperatures, but apparently you have already been burning this way for a while now so I am not telling you anything new. You have what we call here in the states a pre-epa stove, meaning no secondary burn to clean up the smoke and reburn the wood gases with no cat in that stove.

How has your chimney looked for the past 2 years? Lots of black shiny bits in it?

 

[tobsie]

I was sweeped two months ago and the sweepman didn't say anything unusual. Amount of ash wasn't much difference. But I can see when I open the hatch of my chimney on the attic that it looks black and shiney. But that is no difference then in the years before.
It is a masonry chimney by the way.

The only thing is that it is building loads more black soot on the spark grate/grid on top of the chimney. This is so bad that I have to clean it regularly. The chimney sweeper says the grate is too dense in comparison with similar rosters he saw, but in the days with the combuster I didn't have this issue.

 

[mellow]

Yep, that is going to be one of your issues, that cap will keep clogging while burning dirty, no way around that with no secondary reburn as that stove is not operating as it should without the cat in it.

I am guessing someone from Vermont must have moved to there and had that stove imported back in the day, maybe a wife of the previous owner?

I would sell it and get a stove that is built locally and you can find parts for. Woodstock rebuilds those but it is going to cost a ton with shipping.

 

[tobsie]

That's I think my plan. I will probably go for a heta scanline 1000. It has a efficiency of 86% and very low output values. It also has tertairy combustion without the use if a catalyc combustor.

But I don't know if my fireview is sellable. What do you think a fair price would be in this condition?

 

[begreen]

Over here, after rebuilding, the Woodstock might be worth $1000. As is, it might be worth $100-200 to an interested party that either has access to parts or that wants to make a simple baffle system for it out of skamol or ceramic board. This would be an experiment and the results may be unsatisfactory.

The Heta Scanline 1000 looks like a nice stove with the low output you seek. If you wouldn't mind posting a photo or two of the house, I would love to see it.

 

[mellow]

The fireview would be a nice workshop/garage stove to someone if that is allowed where you are.

 

[tobsie]

If you wouldn't mind posting a photo or two of the house, I would love to see it.

You mean from the inside where the stove is?

 

[tobsie]

The fireview would be a nice workshop/garage stove to someone if that is allowed where you are.

No problem here. So that is indeed a possibility.