I'm Hooked

The short version is as follows; three years ago my wife and I ordered a potbelly from northern tool. Local coal supplier turned me on to this site via his site and the race was on. Needless to say I was not impressed with the potbelly and the work involved, not fair to the stove,I was new at burning coal and the heat just wasn't getting to the upstairs from the unfinished basement. As Freddy said to me recently, " you're heating the basement walls and nothing else." Fast forward, we purchased a used Gold Marc, model independence. I could not find any info. about these stoves until I found a member with a Gold Marc, model, montecello. Thank you dann757. This stove, made in the 80's is a workhorse. It does not like a small fire though and our 1100 sq. ft. brick and cinder block ranch with single pane windows and 30 yr. old storms is 84* at this moment and it is 38* out side. Our house has 15 windows and 3 of them are open. We did as directed, got a fieldcontrol rc baro, manometer, although model 26 with the blue gage oil 16 bucks on ebay, and I've been reading with envy for the last three yrs. We have 1.2 in the basement and all I want for xmas is coal. Thank you all for your experience and knowledge. My wife thinks I'm nuts and I feel like I invented the wheel. For 3 days I have been talking to myself aloud and doing stuff never before have I gone to the bat mobile so many times, let's go Robin we need a compression fitting with 1\8 thread 1\4 in. hole,......piece of cooper tubing..........baro.. mumble, mumble. You folks get the picture. I am going to try to load some photo's..Thanks again everyone.

Nice install. Glad you are hooked. It's a disease. I'm on season two myself and my house is a comfy 74º.

BTW, I like the model 26 better than the 25 that I currently have. I may have to order one; it'll definitely make reading for my wife easier. Those phone calls usually go like this:

"What's the draft at?" Me, while I'm at work.

"It's two after the green arrow."

"Ok, that'd be six. Count them from the green arrow. Four, Five, Six. Zero is zero and one is one after that."

"Ok.

Next phone call.

"What's the draft at?"

"It's two after the green arrow."

Hi " I'm on fire" I was under the impression your model was the correct one, my manometer is in incriments of 2/100's of an inch and yors 1/100th, but I'm having fun saying MAN-O-METER,and minomitter, lol. Thanks for the props,the Mrs. thinks I'm obsessed with saving money and walking around in shorts and tee-shirt. You bet your asteric I am.

m.a.--never trust people that don't talk to themselves. You sound like a happy coal camper

f.t.f. yuuuup

Add your name to the "Admit Your Addiction" thread!!

M.A. this is my first season with coal. I'm hooked as well. Thanks to the info on this forum, esp. Fred and Eric it has been fun and easy so far. I put in two registers and upstairs is 73-74 at night. "dad-gum". Oh yeah my Harman likes to be talked to. Thanks ya'll.
Cracker

LOL, my two have names also and get their share of praise.

michaelanthony wrote:Hi " I'm on fire" I was under the impression your model was the correct one, my manometer is in incriments of 2/100's of an inch and yors 1/100th, but I'm having fun saying MAN-O-METER,and minomitter, lol. Thanks for the props,the Mrs. thinks I'm obsessed with saving money and walking around in shorts and tee-shirt. You bet your asteric I am.

It is the correct version. But it's not numbered like yours is.

Michaelanthony,
Good luck with your Independance model!!!
I was amazed to see it, never saw one before. Looks like a dedicated coal stove! Mine has a gold plaque on back that states it's wood/coal appliance.MFG. 1980.
Does yours have the plaque on the back? Would love to see pictures of the grates and interior too if it's not full of burning coal. (Well that would be fun too.)
Looks like you have external shaker handles down by the ash box.
Great find! I told you Gold Marcs are tanks!

I have to leave town monday, when I return I'll get some photo's of the grates before the relight. I think I can slow the stove down with a real good bed of ash. It's like a new girlfriend, hot and heavy for a while untill she moves in and things settle down. The only thing I can make out on the plaque is the # 81 stamped upper right side of plaque, everything else seems to have been sanded and brushed off. My shaker is dead center above the ash drawer, it has a small stop I can lift if I want to dump, or just shake, it moves about an inch in both directions. Those two small spin knobs lock the damper plate, it has 8 slots across the front.