Harman Mark I New Owner

I finally threw in the towel with burning wood. I have burned and heated with old air tight wood burning stoves from the 70s and 80s for years. Fishers and All Nighters. I still have them and there is nothing wrong with them, however, I just cant stand the cutting splitting and stacking anymore. As well as the constant feeding when I burn. I decided to buy a coal burner and buy a ton or two of coal in my dump trailer and try anthracite out this coming winter. I have done plenty of research so far so I generally know what I'm in for. I didn't want to get heavily invested in this having never burned coal before so I found and bought a used Harman Mark 1 for $200. It needs a few new fire bricks put in it as well as the front glass replaced. I can order the replacement glass from several different suppliers, however, I am unclear on whether or not the glass needs a fiberglass gasket seal between the glass and door to prevent secondary air from entering the stove. Some sources say no the glass gets placed directly against the door and other sources say there is to be a gasket just on the right and left sides of the glass allowing air to enter on the top and bottom edges. If a seal is needed where can I obtain the material? Has anyone ever done this job before?

Go to the harmon or legacy website, there are parts breakdown there. You can get part numbers and search online. My Mark 2 shows gaskets only along sides. I replaced to look like this [ ]. I burn wood shoulder seasons and it soots up where the bottom gasket is. I did it that way to decrease over fire air. Soot burns off when I go to coal. Test your door gaskets before you order parts, may need them as well.

xwood.......
Welcome...Harman recommends window gasket on the sides, like waytomanys pic-[ ]. I purchased my glass and gasket from www.fastreplacementglass.com. That was for a Harman mkll...about $90.....took a week to get here....3/16" thick and cut for a perfect fit. They are in Warren, Pa. They have an order form on their web page. Glass gasket is 5/8" flat, door gasket is 1/2" round.
Cheers

EDIT: above is for large, single load door window. If your stove has 3 windows in the door, fuggetabout the $90.

Thank you for the responses. Was there an actual photo attached in waytomany?s reply. All I can see is [ ]. The more I look at this stove the more I think I jumped the gun on buying it. When I showed up I basically handed the guy the cash and horsed it into my truck without giving it much inspection. I notice now there is a baffle between the fire box and the flue outlet forcing the flue gasses up and over the baffle. Im guessing this is to help with heat exchange to the air blower passages. I see my baffle is burned through... . Is this a problem for proper stove function / safety? Attached are some photos of what I am talking about. I suspect it will burn just fine but will not extract as much heat from the burning coal as it would otherwise with a good baffle. Essentially i will be wasting some heat up the chimney. Is this correct or is this stove scrap? ?

Wow! Sorry, but that is just nuts. Don't do anything until you pull all the bricks and check the rest of the body for rot. I'd bet it's ok, but they burned a lot of wood really hot in it to burn up the baffle. Or they never cleaned it and the flyash that sat on top of the baffle ate through it. If the body is good, I'd fudge a baffle. Or replace it if you can weld. For sure do a thorough inspection before proceeding.

I did not search but I do remember some posts on that baffle. The info on it is on this site somewhere. Besides that, Legacy Stoves should be able to set you up with a baffle if you want to buy new, unless of course there is more rot.

xwood.....
Like wayto....says-WOW! I say do not buy anything until you strip it down and do a good inspection. pull the grates and post a pic(that's where the big $$$$ are). If the grates are decent (usable), and the baffle is the only 'gremlin', I'd repair it. Put a piece of steel in the window, and use it as a "learner" stove.......then decide if it's the right stove for your needs. The Harman stove body is just as stout as the Fishers.
Cheers

I finally got around to working on this stove. I removed all the fire bricks and grates to look things over. I vacuumed out all the ash and found everything to look fine. The grates are in great condition as is all the rest of the stove....except for the baffle. I decided to repair it. What a PITA. It was hard to burn out a bad section working in such tight quarters but I managed to get it done. I had some nice 3/16" plate laying around from an old fireplace damper that i used to make the repair panel. I had to bend it to match the contours of the existing baffle as well as heat up a small area of the existing baffle to "straighten" it. I then welded in the patch. Again very difficult to weld in such a confined area. (They sell new baffles for these stoves but Im not sure how one would be able to install it without cutting it in half or somehow cutting off the top of the stove then welding it back on after the new baffle was installed. There is no way a complete new baffle would fit through the door on the front of the stove.) I had better luck laying the stove down on its back and welding in the horizontal position rather than with the stove upright. Its not pretty at all but it is all sealed up and the gaps are filled in. I am going to reassemble the grates in the stove, install all new fire bricks, new glass, and seals and run it this winter and see how it goes. So far I'm only into this thing for the $200 I purchased it for. The bricks, glass and seals should be around $150 total I'm guessing. I'll update when I get the new bricks and seals installed. I also need to sweep my chimney and get some new 6" stove pipe and fittings to plumb this into my thimble. More to come.....

Looks good........paint the inside with high heat, rattle can, black......just like new!!!!!!!
Cheers

Looks like your good to go. The Mark I are for a smaller space, hopefully you don't have a big home to heat.
I have a TLC, and it heats my upstairs were we live in the winter, just fine. Put some extra fans on it for the colder day's, and you will be fine.

Yes I have a smaller house. 1053 square feet brick ranch from the 1950s. It has had modern batt insulation upgrades in all the exterior walls and newer double pane windows in it. It is actually a very efficient home. My old woodstove easily heated the entire house with just an ecofan sitting on the top of it. The layout of the house and the placement of the stove in the basement is about as ideal as you could ask for for heating the whole place on just convection as well as having warm floors in the other half of the house. I have the wood (now coal) stove for emergency backup as well as burning on the weekends and whenever I will be in the basement for extended periods of time. Its nice to be able to walk around in the winter time in a tee shirt.

You will notice a big difference in coal vs wood. First of all you will have a more constant heat, not that up and down temps, like you do with wood. Second you will not have to worry about chimney fires either, as most of your heat will remain in the stove and not up your chimney. Hard coal burns very very clean. Your chimney temps should only be around 120 degrees at the most about 12 to 18 inches up on the stove pipe from your stove. And finally once you get to know your stove, you probably will only have to load it up about twice a day, at the most. You want to keep a deep bed of coal in your stove and adjust the stove for max heat and minimum burn times to get the most out of your coal.
I have been a wood and coal burner for many years, and there is a huge difference in burning between the two.
On another note you might want to invest in a couple of carbon monoxide detectors, thats if you dont already have them as coal is potentially dangerous if you would happen to have a leak somewhere between your stove and chimney.
There are other things, but you probably already know them. Good luck with your stove, and have a warm winter.
P.S. You might figure on burning about 2 to 3 tons of nut coal per average winter. Just a thought.

Ok. so I replaced all the firebricks and mortared all the joints and seams with firebrick mortar so I should be good to go there now. I also replaced the 1/2" round gaskets on the load and ash doors. I got a new glass for the load door as well as a bunch of 5/8" flat gasket. I am a little stumped on how the glass gasket is installed. Does it just lay flat on the cast iron door and get sandwiched between the glass and the the cast iron door? or does it wrapped around the edge of the glass so there is gasket material on each side of the glass. Or do I put a full 5/8" strip on the cast iron door and a full 5/8" strip on the brass bracket that hold the glass to the door? I know about 5" along the top and bottom edge of the glass do not get gaskets but I'm not sure how the window gasket gets installed..... Thanks in advance

E, people have done both on the glass--flat or wrapped--personally, I'd wrap if possible.

freetown fred wrote: ↑

Mon. Oct. 18, 2021 11:51 am

E, people have done both on the glass--flat or wrapped--personally, I'd wrap if possible.

I wrapped the flat gasket around the glass when I replaced the glass in my MII a couple of years ago. Go easy when tightening the bolts on the holder so you don't crack the glass. Just snug is what you want.