Coalpail.com Forum

Hello all,

Back in June I had posted a thread on a Franco Belge stove I had the opportunity to buy. Well, I moved it into the house yesterday, installed it, and using the "Match Light Method" got a beautiful fire going. The stove behaved beautifully and burned thru the night through manually stoking via the front door.

Prior to picking the stove up, the PO's had removed some of the heavier items to help in my removal - among those things, the Hopper. I'm curious to know if anyone has access to an Operator's Manual, or is familiar enough with these stoves to give me an idea of how to re-install the Gravity Hopper so I can keep the burn on.

Here's a refresher picture of the stove in question - any help is GREATLY appreciated...

I ran Frano's for years. There is really no hopper per say. There is a back plate and a front two piece baffle that sets the depth of the coal. There are side support pieces with notches in them. The front baffle sits on these side supports. Getting the baffles in and out can be a real bar trick. If they are warped at all it is even worse. As the stove ages, the sides warp a little and the baffle swells a little. This makes it even harder to get it in place. The two side supports tend to flop out now and then. I never found a cure for that. I'll see if I have some old pictures of the stoves.
Looking at your picture, I think you have all the pieces. Just make sure that the top of the baffle is up against the front of the stove.
Good Luck

This is not the same model as yours but should be very similar.

richard

I need to say.....this forum rocks. I've joined many in the past, but each of the contributers here has something of true value to add to someone with genuine questions...there...off my soap box.

While the pic you posted was very different from the setup of my hopper, the base of it was enough for me to re-construct the hopper with no issue...it's now full of coal, making its maiden burn (well at least in OUR household).

Thanks to coalpail.com for the wealth of information. I hope to be a contributer as well...

Glad you got help with the hopper intall. I just wanted to reinforce your choice of buying a gravity fed hopper stove. I did a ton of research and asked the helpful folks on this site a zillion questions before making the decission to buy a Hitzer 30-95 hopper model. As far as I am concerned this set-up is the best of both worlds (hand fed & stoker fed). We don't need electricity to operate, and we don't have to constantly hand stoke. I hope you enjoy your Franco as much I enjoy my Hitzer.