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100 series earth stove
I just picked up one for only $50 bucks... its like new.
its the OLD 100 series earth stove... looks kinda neat in a retro way. anyone have one of these old things and how do you like em compared to other stoves? the firebox is nice and big.. bigger than the parlor/lincon stove I have now. I'll be able to burn LOGS! :bouncy: all the stuff was with it... the ceramic decoration on the door.... the fire screen.... I hear the steel plate case heats up more than a cast iron stove does... its like this one; http://www.tophatenergy.com/earthstove_original.htm too cool. gonna install it sunday and test fire it. :bouncy: I'll be able to burn LOGS!!! :bouncy: big ones! no more chopping up wood in 4x10 inch hunks to fit in the stove that burns out in 2 hours. hey did I mention I'll be able to burn LOGS??? :bouncy: |
We have an old Earth Stove, purchased new in 1979. Love that thing. It has heated our home every winter since its purchase. :clap:
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I don't know what kind mine is, the emblem fell off YEARS ago. My Dad bought it new in 1979 and it is still going strong. We can heat our entire top two floors with it and it is big enough to put in enough wood to last all night.
You are going to LOVE being able to use logs!!! Joyfully, Cheryl |
Wow! $50 bucks? That's awesome! Enjoy! :clap:
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Just make sure the fire brick are in good shape.
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I was recently given a slightly newer Earth Stove from a remodel job. It was headed for the dump!!!!! The things people toss.... Ready to lightly sandblast and refinish. Has a glass in door and a VERY quiet 2 speed blower which could be switched for 12volt if need be. Can't wait to get rid of noisy pain in the tail pellet stove I have suffered through this past winter with. Enjoy those logs Comfortablynumb! Dan
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I woulda rather had a glas door but I'll deal with it. the bricks are in need of a few being replaced but mostly all in good shape.
whats the iron pipe do that runs up the chiminey? |
I've had mine since the late 70's too. Got it second hand after a neighbor had a house fire not related to the stove.
The fire was hot enough to melt off the thermostat enclosure, so I wrote and called the Earth Stove folks trying to get a replacement. The buggers wouldn't sell me one on a bet! They claimed that I just wanted their patented technology to install on another stove. Finally took the stove 130 miles to a dealer who was able to convince the company to send a replacement. I've had several more of them over the years that I picked up for a song, thinking I'd need a replacement someday, but mine just keeps purring along. You might as well tear off that ceramic doodad and throw it away though. I haven't seen one yet that has stayed on. All mine have been the big honkin' ones. I sure would like to run into a couple smaller ones for rentals. The big ones are too dang heavy to be moving around! |
the pipe that runs up the stack has me stumped.
its an iron water pipescrewed iinto the top back of the stove, with an elbow about in the center of the stack hole, and a 2 foot piece of pipe (like 1" iron pipe) goes up the stack pipe.... my guess is its some kinda pressure relief to prevent a backdraft when you open the door??? I'll take a picture of it tomorrow if you dunno what i mean. I think the ceramic doo dad on the door gives it a kinda hippy trippy 70's sorta look... this ones a pretty good size. the firebox floor inside is 18" X 24" |
Yup, that's the big one. I can't tell you what the iron pipe is for. My older ones don't have the feature and the newer ones that did have been traded off. They make pretty good handles when you are trying to move the thing around by yourself though!
Ever notice that you can count the lack of friends when it comes time to move something heavy? Over the years, I've become adept at moving those things around by myself, including walking them up and down steps. |
Our ceramic doodad is still there! :banana02:
I always thought that pipe provides air flow up the chimney to prevent backdraft. Don't have any evidence for that....just an assumption. |
Iron pipe? Weird...Mine has no provision for such a thing. I have seen people run iron pipe into the firebox or attached tightly to the side or back of a stove to heat water, but up the flue?? Would be most interested to see a picture. Dan
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Those old ones were great! Funny thing, the place that made them back in the Mother earth heyday, they now make subcontacted parts for a variety of vehicles and no more stoves. Treasure your stove, they aren't making any more.
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I have an old Earthstove from 1979. My parents bought it new back then and it has been used every year since then. It is burning right now to get rid of the damp chill in the house; we got 4 inches 4/10s rain since last night. It is still raining now....good for the gardens and water table, but it makes a damp cold that only 'woode heat' can take care of.
It does need some new firebrick installed. But I am thinking that I will retire the old stove and get a new one. This sure has been a good stove though. I love the brass framed door and my old tom cat loves to watch the fire....of course I do too. I just love this stove! I can heat water on top of it, or even cook stews, beans and the like. Uuummm, uuummm, good! |
ok heres some pics...
nice looking stove... http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a64...kie/stove1.jpg heres that pipe, down in the stack. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a64...kie/stove3.jpg and with the 2 foot tall pipe screwed to it http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a64...kie/stove2.jpg this is the hole in the back of the stove where that pipe is welded to http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a64...kie/stove4.jpg here is the back with the therostat and draft regualtor thingy, above it note the hole where the pipe is welded in http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a64...kie/stove5.jpg taking the bricks out made it alot easier to move. :bouncy: |
oh yea the screen came with it, it hangs on the side.
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Hmmm....pipe looks very homebrew-perhaps someone thought they needed to cool gases in chimney? Can't even begin to imagine, but then lots of ideas looked great at the time.
I know a couple that have that identical stove(minus pipe)and have used it since approx. 1990. No cracks, no warp, no problems. Perhaps not state of the art, but it has done a great job for them and survived the over zealous tending by two teenagers over the years. Clean it up, seriously consider welding a patch over that pipe hole, and enjoy it. Dan |
it cant possibly burn more wood than the one I'm using.
for 50 bucks, if it doesnt work out, there is always.... EBAY in fall I can sell it off for 200 maybe more. it will take me about a week to know if I love it or hate it.. :sing: |
Mine chugs away though a N. Idaho winter on between 3 and 4 cords of wood and is capable of driving me out of a 1000 sq. ft. place if I let it get away from me.
True, they do tend to crack at the base of the doors, but from the picture, it looks like that matter has already been taken care of. Once welded, they don't crack again. As for the pipe, it's not an add on, it was engineered in there so I'd leave it be, unless you plug the hole in the back of the stove too. And horselogger, if you stick around 'till I make a trip over that way, I'll let you pay me to haul that piece of junk away for ya! |
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bare,
Went over to friends with same stove las night and looked. No pipe. No evidence of there ever being a pipe. What the devil is it for?!?? Thanks-Dan |
Don't know about the earthstove, but we have a steel stove and LOVE IT. I don't think I'd ever go back to cast iron. This thing gives off such a nice, even heat. Our chimney sweep said his customers who have had steel and switch to a new cast iron are never very happy with them. They just don't heat like the steel stoves. So enjoy!
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If you remember the late 70's and 80's there was a lot of concern about stoves causing air pollution and they were under constant design changes to improve them. |
i have a theory...
as a stove hets hotter it draws harder and makes more heat and draws harder and.... then its roaring up the pipe like a train.... running away. MAYBE the pipe is like a governor, when the pipe gets to hot and draws air to fast, the pipe starts sucking cool air INTO the stack upstream and cools the draft a wee bit to regulate the stack temp to keep it from melting out the pipe.... sounds like a good theory. cast vs steel... I have only had CAST iron stoves, and the one I have now take an hour to heat the case up its so thick. Am I reading right that the plate steel heats up faster? this would be GREAT because alot of times I build a short hot fire just to warm up the room and the cast iron case is still only warm to the touch when the fire burns out. if the heat would transfer to the case faster, it would radiate more heat into the room thats lost up the stack leaving my cast iron stove still cold. the question is what soaks up heat faster, cast iron or plate steel? I have a smal house, so "stoked up roaring fires" are a no no anyway, thats a waste of fuel when you end up opening all the windows. to cool off. if I put a slow blower on this steel case, the heat transfer to the room should be great. |
In my experience, the steel definitely heats up faster. We often do a small, hot fire to take the chill off and it works great for that. I would say the whole stove is nice and hot with 5 to 10 minutes of the fire really getting going. Our cast iron stove took quite a bit longer to heat up. Now, I'm not sure which holds the heat longer.
Our house is on the small side, about 1000 s.ft. and the stove heats the whole house up within about 30 minutes. Oh, and we also have a blower on the stove, which circulates the heat beautifully. Quote:
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oky I got the stove all installed and hooked up today...
I have a few issues with the design. first off I have to point out I reduced the pipe from 8in to 6in which from past stove use and the tale the owner told, shouldnt be making the problems.... he had a damper flap in the pipe he claimed I should always keep half closed because the stove draw was so hard. I dont believe most people when the say anything so I will assume he is full of it. anyhow, on the UP side, the stove heats up nice, radiates heat wonderfully, makes a small pile of wood burn a long time, far longer than in my old parlor stove. I have a log as big as my leg in there now and its sealed up tight on high, burning away nicely. Stink is a half n half issue, half of it is the paint curing, I know that stinks. my maor peeve is it smokes when you open the door.... its terrible. even if the fire is blazig away you get gas and smoke. the slanted door and lack of headroom in the stove I think is part to blame, and the 6" pipe is also a factor. I aint shelling out bucks to convert to 8 inch so the stove might be an ebay special. or maybe I am not doing something right. my old parlor stove yo tossed some kindling in doused it with lighter fuel and a match poof instant smoke free fire, and you could leave the doors open... no backpuff. however that stove has 12" of headspace and doors FLAT and upright, this stoves door is slanted backwards.... my opinion a bad design. now while its sealed tight shut, your fine. dont open the door, you get smoked out. yup the stak temp is a good 500 degrees and that normally wwill suck you up the 6 in stack. for some reason, it doesnt draw in this stove design. HOWEVER, that oddball pipe in the stack draws air like a vaccuum and I suspect it is the culprit in lowering the draft in the stack, because I have been looking online as alot of stoves, big box stoves similar to this one and most have 6" pipe, some with even bigger fireboxes. I'm going to get an iron plug to screw in there and see if it makes a difference. to my thinking this is like having a 1" diameter hole in the lower part of your stack pipe.... that cant be good for the draw. I am enjoying not having to stoke it every hour, its been buring for 4 hours and its stil maintaining the stack temp, and giving off good heat. its different... I like my other stove better, if it was twice as large. the stack size bugs me... how newer stoves can all work fine on 6" pipe, and have igger non cat fireboxes, but 6" isnt working with this one. has to be the mystery pipe's fault. I'll keep tinkring with it and keep looking for another style... for now. and the other peeve I have which is probably my stupid fault, is BACKDRAFT. I torched off my eyebrows and eyelashes with a fireball out the door. my other stove you can shut the doors tight, turn doen the air vets till its barely burning... and open the doors, no backdraftt. dont do that with this one. a fireball huffs out the top of the open door. now of course, if you reach around and open the air intake all the way and count to 5 slowly, the door is safe to open... the gas has been given a dose of oxygen and burned off in a roar you can hear for a few sec, then it stops. it might just be me but I think something is seriously screwy with this stove... if I can improve the draw a little bit, I think the major ppeeves will be fixed. all but the backdraft thing... thats just dangerous. itll be weeks before I have eyebrows again. lol |
the mystery pipe does one odd thing I find could be rather dangerous, especially if the chiminy caught fire [a creosote burn] ; the pipe feeds the stack OXYGEN.
can you picture a chiminy fire with a hidden fresh air feed? thats getting plugged up first. it has to be a major draft reducer, because if you hold an incense stick behind the stove the smoke is sucked right in that pipes inlet hole. thats suction that could be sucking smoke and gas out of the firebox! |
that, and the heat goes right down the legs, thru a wood stove fire proof floor board, heats THAT up to hot to touch... I bet the stink is my floor burning under it.
this is looking more and more like a bad idea.... |
Wow, bad review. I haven't had the flap that flips down on the draft with the wire since I first got my stove and it's never been necessary. I just set the thermostat and the flapper connected to that does the job. It never was clear to me what that extra flapper was for unless you needed to shut it completely down. Try just leaving the external flapper up and control the heat with the thermostat.
Mine will burn 8 to 12 hours on a load of larch or red fir on low, which is plenty for my small place. I have used both 6 and 8 inch pipe, but it really does best with the 8 it was designed for. I was always having to chew out the kids because they'd want to leave the door cracked thinking it would help get the fire going better than using the draft and it would smoke. If you leave the draft closed when you open the door slowly, you shouldn't have a probem with smoke or backdraft. Mine sits directly on vinyl flooring and it's never gotten too hot to cause problems. Did you put the fire brick back in properly? Maybe since you took it out to move it, ash will have to fill in between the bricks to keep your legs from heating up? If the you don't like the pipe, just put a plug or cap on it. I know they work fine without it, just figured there was probably a good reason they added it. |
....quadrafire woodstove....if you look around...you can buy a new one for750 dollars......will burn 8 hours.....softwood...will radiate heat evenly....won't burn your house down...and is easy to start.....I saved my sheckles for 2 years to get a decent stove.......and love being able to get up in the morning and feel the stove have a chunk burning in it......this is a case of modern technology actually doing something right!!!!!
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yup I think you are right HL... time to invest in better technology.
bare I tried it several different ways, without fail if you open the door and your back flap is up [so the auto damper can oeperate] flame and soot belch out that intake behind the stove. close it before you open the door to prevent that and dont wait to long, or you get a backdraft fireball in your face when you open it. I removed the mystery pipe and plugged the hole, no differece. The draft thing got me stumped, if you start the stove, and hold a ball of newspaper in the center of the firebox, the draft is so good, it sucks the paper up the stack after a few sec. now the smoke by this reason SHOULD be sucked up the stack... dor open all the way.... no, it just refuses to work that way. and yup i have TWO layers of firebrick in the bottom [I had extras] and it still got the hottest on the bottm of the stove. so the stove lost its happy home, I wheeled my little cast iron parlor stove back in, cleaned it and hooked it up, piled an armload of scrap in the tiny box, suirted some BBQ fluid on it [I know bad bad bad but it gets it going fast... kingsford fluid ignites very slow] and WITH THE DOORS OPEN no smoke out the door. it might be this particular indevidual earthstove. but from fiddling with it I think its just a poorly designed stove. It put out to much heat when it was "properly" closed and buring a log.... whew. the one I had alll along seems to be just right.... I just have to cut & split 12" logs... ya learn something every day. kate gave me $50 for it to make a backyard patio fireplace out of, with a 6 ft hunk of strieght 8" pipe and a weather cap, it will function fine for outside. If I find a newer better design i might try it out just because i am to curious for my own good. |
Heck, don't know what your problem is. You probably ain't holding your mouth right. No doubt there are better stoves out there and I think you are right that some stoves just work better in a certain place.
Sounds like Kate's got a dandy outdoor canning stove though, which is another reason I particularly like the Earth Stove, the big flat top. Used to be a blacksmith here that made stoves (Meeker stoves), which were drum shaped with a flat surface, but I never felt like I could afford one. I still keep my eyes open, 'cause there were a lot of them around, but most folks that have 'em won't part with 'em. |
Hmmmm, never had had any of those problems with my Earthstove, which has been in use since 1980. Wondering if someone tinkered with its design before you got hold of it?
Huggs, Rose |
Regardless, for $50, you got a steal.
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Yeah HL...if you'll deliver for the $50.
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oh no horselogger, I sold it for 50 bucks and learned a lot about what to look for in the next earth stove i come across fo 50 bucks...
lol maybe someone did fiddle with it.. i dunno. |
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