Another Chubby

So, as my thirst for coal stoves to add to my collection grows, I can now say I just added another to the list. I found a Chubby Sr with factory blower unit for sale a month or so ago and made a deal with the owner to purchase it even though it had been run hard and not taken care of. It has been in my shop ever since. I started the tear down and referb yesterday. It was in pretty rough shape. The good news was the heat tubes running through the stove were in very good condition. It pays to use thick steel. All I need to do now is replace the mica in the door and finish making the shaker handle. As soon as it cools down since it is still outside burning (I wanted to cure the paint and set the gaskets), It will take its place with the Chubby Jr, and Chubby Sr (this also has factory installed blower system). I forgot to take a couple pics of the stove before I started tearing it down, however, I did take a couple during tear down and after I finished it today. So, enjoy.

The snowman.

Ya done real good sm

Nice CHUBBY!!!!!! ......just a fantasy for us old guys.......

PS: NICE work!

wow...lookie that! That's back from days when Larry installed MPD's right in the solid welded flu collar (don't expect that today ), Jr with blower (I rare find)! GG

dcrane,

It is not a Jr Chubby, it is a Sr Chubby. The top looks very similar to my Jr with all of the roping around the top. It is easily mistaken to be a Jr especially from a picture or a short standing distance from it. My other Sr is completely different, the top only has the ship on it, no roping around the outside of the top.

Whistlenut,

Thanks. It didn't take me too long. It was bad but at least the heat tubes in the stove were in good condition. It took me two fourteen hour days to start and finish the stove. I started it yesterday and finished it up this afternoon. It is almost ready to go on display with my other Sr and Jr along with all of my 507's and such. I guess I didn't get caught up on orders in the shop this weekend. I'm not complaining, this was a fun rebuild.

FF:

Thanks! I don't know why but your post reminds me of a saying in the movie every which way but loose. Again, thanks.

The snowman.

the snowman wrote:dcrane,

It is not a Jr Chubby, it is a Sr Chubby. The top looks very similar to my Jr with all of the roping around the top. It is easily mistaken to be a Jr especially from a picture or a short standing distance from it. My other Sr is completely different, the top only has the ship on it, no roping around the outside of the top.

Whistlenut,

Thanks. It didn't take me too long. It was bad but at least the heat tubes in the stove were in good condition. It took me two fourteen hour days to start and finish the stove. I started it yesterday and finished it up this afternoon. It is almost ready to go on display with my other Sr and Jr along with all of my 507's and such. I guess I didn't get caught up on orders in the shop this weekend. I'm not complaining, this was a fun rebuild.

FF:

Thanks! I don't know why but your post reminds me of a saying in the movie every which way but loose. Again, thanks.

The snowman.

I would not mind having a Jr. someday (cute lil' stoves), how many do you have? where do you find the space to have all these stoves in your house

Looks exactly like the one I started and I swear, I'll get around to finishing. Just need to cough up the dough for new guts and one of those full view doors would be nice.

Until then, it's a boring old Mk II for me.

Snowman - you've been running the Jotul 507's for a long time now - how do you compare the Chubby's with the 507's?

dj

dlj,

That is a loaded question for me, since everyone knows or most everyone, I tend to be biased towards the 507. Each of the stoves have their pluses and minuses and each have their own set of quirks to running them. So, for right now I will do a very short summary as unbiased as I possibly can. I can write volumes concerning the two stoves and would if someone really really wanted me to.

The quality of material used to make both stoves are good. I have seen stoves from both manufacture that had been beaten over and over again, yet they were still running. They looked like hell, however, they were running. Both stoves can burn a variety of coal sizes. . . pea, nut, and stove coal and egg coal in the Chubby Sr. Burning pea in the 507 is easier than the Chubby. I currently have my 507's burning stove coal. I believe the 507 is more efficient at burning coal than the Chubby especially when burning nut or smaller coal. The Chubby burns the stove coal more efficiently than the smaller stuff. The Chubby Sr performs very well on stove coal, just remember to put a thin layer of nut on top of the stove coal. It is not needed but helps.

The 507 is much easier to control the burn than the Chubby. This is due to a completely sealed stove. Close the air intake and the stove will flame out. On the Chubby the bypass valves, entry point for the shaker handle and air intake leak air. Once you know how your Chubby acts it is pretty controllable and predictable.

The shake down of the 507 is clean and neat with no dust outside the stove and it does not require poking or slicing. The Chubby requires poking and slicing every so often. The Chubby is very quick to shake down with no problems with the grate where the 507 takes longer to shake down due to the slow rotation speed of the grate. The 507 will sometimes have coal lodge under the grate, lifting it up away from the gear. At this point using a screwdriver is required to turn the grate to clear the grate. Removing the ash in the 507 is much better than the Chubby. The ash pan is never hot and can be removed with bare hands while the Chubby is always very hot requiring gloves and then it is still hot.

Obviously the Chubby has a slight lead in the amount of heat the stove can produce and amount of coal the stove can hold. The Chubby is rated for 70,000 BTU while the 507 is rated at 42,400 BTU. The 507 seems to radiate the heat better than the Chubby. The Chubby Sr with factory blower can really produce the heat. The 507 can be ran at a max temp of 932 F (its like a nuclear power plant going critical) while the Chubby is not recommended to be pushed beyond 700F and burning at this temp for extended periods is not recommended.

Repairing the two stoves is the area where the Chubby has some great pluses. First, the owner Larry Trainer is great to work with and a really nice person. He is now producing the stoves again and has parts for the Chubby Sr. If you damage the body of the stove, just weld it, grind it smooth and repaint. The pot is replaceable as are the grate and any other part for the stove. Larry will ship parts almost immediately. The 507 is not in production any longer and getting parts for the stove gets harder every year. Repairing the case of the 507 can be done, however, with the enamel paint you will never have the same look. You can not purchase any of the 507 case parts new, just used if you can find them. The company that produced the fire brick is still in business and will sell you brick for the 507. Some of the 507 internal parts seem to be no longer available.

I can keep going on and on but I will stop here. If anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer them. In summary and closing. For me the 507 is a real bad to the bone performer. I have burned my 507's for many years 24/7/365. One winter I only had the one 507 and, if I remember correctly, pushed the stove to a burn temp of 875 F the entire winter with the only damage being the cast burn plates above the brick. I burned coal against them which ruined them. The Chubby can take a pounding as well. I have pushed a Chubby Sr to 750F for over thirty day straight trying to keep my shop warm in -45F temps. No damage to the stove, however, Larry told me it probably has shortened the life of the grate and burn pot. Both stoves can an do perform very well. I like the looks of the small foot print of the 507 and the nuclear rated heat it produces out of such a small frame. The 507 can hold its own against, in my opinion, any stove on the market. The Chubby stove without the factory installed blower system falls below the performance of the 507 even though it produces more BTU. It just doesn't radiate heat well. The Chubby Sr with the factory installed blower system is another story. It has the ability to out perform the 507 on the coldest days due to its increased capacity to produce larger amount of heat and move that heat out of the stove through its very efficient blower system. I would never purchase a Chubby Sr without the factory installed blower. If you keep in mind what each stove was designed to do and area it was designed to heat, each stove has its place. Both stoves are solid performers in their own respect.

Dcrane,

I currently have four Chubby stoves. Two Chubby Sr's with factory installed blowers, one without and a Chubby Jr. I have too many to count 507's which include two currently online (one red and one green) and a large number of other coal stoves I have gathered over the years. I keep four 507's on display in our family room /coal museum and three of the Chubby's I own. One of the Chubby Sr's (blower model) currently is connected and heating my shop when needed. The rest are neatly put away in storage. I now rotate stoves I have in my collection in the shop so I can enjoy them. I made the mistake this spring on passing on purchasing a stove your father produced. It was in like new condition, however, the distance I had to travel to get it made my decision not to purchase it. I should have driven the distance. I will have one just give me some time. I'm going to stop now before this post crashes the system for being too long. Remember think snow.

The snowman.

jpete,

What? Its not done? I thought you had finished the rebuild. I can understand, burn pots, grates and such are not cheap items. Keep me posted and post some pics when you finally are able to finish the stove.

The snowman.

Pardon the pun, but it went on the back burner after me getting laid off. It's cosmetically perfect but functionally useless.

The cost of all the parts is roughly equal to a ton of coal so we know who wins that match.

"who wins that match. " Damn Jeff, another pun??????????????? You're on a roll this morning.

Snowman - Thanks for the really nice post on the two stoves. I've always really loved the Jotul's and still look to see if I can buy one... Have had several opportunities and not gone through with it... If I'd known they burn stove coal, I would have jumped on a recent one I almost bought. Thing is, I really don't have any need or place to put one... I know - what the hell does that matter? right? The Glenwood distributes heat better than I could ever have imagined, so I'm never taking that one out from where it is, and to run another stove on this floor, I'd have to put in a chimney. But I just don't really have any place to put one... I am going to put a hot water heater in my basement to run a series of hot water system ideas I have, but that's not in the forefront at the moment... I may start this fall on that, or I may wait till next summer. The layout of my house just doesn't lend itself to any more chimneys. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to do the chimney for the stove in the basement. I have too many projects... I want to put in a forge in my garage, it's under my first floor bedrooms, that will be a chimney that I'll probably put on the outside of the house. Then, I want to put in the water heater, another chimney, and I already have two chimneys... Yikes! I just may have to buy a new house to get a Jotul....Now that makes for an expensive stove... LOL

dj

p.s. I forgot to add in the chimney for the chemical fume hood I need to put in for my workshop in the basement...

Owning both a Jotul 507 and Chubby Sr myself, I concur with everything Snowman said in his comparison of the two. I will add that the newest grate style (center pin firepot) that Larry sells is much better than the older style. I bought the updated grate and I'm very happy with the shaker action.

JRlearned,

Thank you. I heard the old style grate was a little difficult to shake down. I heard it would bind against the fire pot. The fire pot with the new style grate was a wise upgrade to the stoves. I heard in earlier versions of the Chubby Sr, a cast ring was installed above the grate in the fire pot to keep small pieces of stone or what ever from lodging between the grate and the fire pot. Would be interesting to hear from some one who has experience with this elusive ring.

The snowman.