From 1950 to 2011: Sears Champion to LL Back Vent Pocono

Well, the deed is done! We've laid the old Sears Champion to rest and brought home our new baby.

I cannot thank Murdoc enough for his time, wisdom and help. Adam started by inviting me into his home for an hour and half. He followed that up with fielding tons of calls/txts. The stove arrived and he spent 15+ hours at my home installing electric, measuring/ordering/cutting/anchoring pipe, installing-adjusting the baro damper, positioning the stove, setting things up, and teaching me how to run the coal-trol over the course of more than a week. I'll ask him to chime in on exactly what he did and how he did it concerning the install since I cannot do it justice. He took his time, did EXCELLENT work, and even entertained my sons. I just can't say thank you enough.

Here are some pics...enjoy and feel free to ask us (Both Adam and I) questions along the way.

Outstanding--how come you got her laying on her back

Nice install ! Good luck with the new stove.

freetown fred wrote:Outstanding--how come you got her laying on her back

Fred,

He did that to enterain the boy in the house.

Bear038 wrote:He did that to enterain the boy in the house.

I don't know, but I heard his house tipped over and he had to take the pictures standing on the wall.

No surprise on the very nice looking install...Murdoc did the deed!!

I begged Murdoc to put it in upsided down, but he insisted that there is some "special force" that wouldn't allow the coal to stay on the grate...said the best he could do was to tip it on it's back.

Is there a way to rotate the pics?

Woooo, you must be strong like bull...you picked your house up right again. Good going.

Alright, you're probably wondering how I just did that............frankly, so am I.

Sometimes we just don't need to know! Nice set up Wes Nice work Murdoc.

Looks like it is burning well. Any news to report on how well it heats the house?

Question 1: Where does the heated air get blown out of?
Question 2: How tough is it to add coal to the hopper? Looks like it is kind of tight under the brickwork.

-Rob

markviii wrote:Looks like it is burning well. Any news to report on how well it heats the house?

Question 1: Where does the heated air get blown out of?

It blows right out of the front of the stove. When we add the duct work we will attach the included strip of steel that will force all the air out of the ducts.

Question 2: How tough is it to add coal to the hopper? Looks like it is kind of tight under the brickwork.

At first I thought it would be a tight fit. However I am able to pull the top off the hopper and pour my buckets directly into the hopper. I also have a gallon pitcher that I use for loading that fits perfectly into the hopper.
-Rob

The stove pumps the heat out pretty well. It is a consistent 78 degrees in the basement and that keeps the upstairs between 70-72 degrees so far with the outside temp near 30. Keep in mind that I have no cold air return, vents, or ductwork. I've already talked to Murdoc about running one duct off the stove and over to the top of our basement stairs to see if that would allow us to turn the temps down in the basement, effectively sending half of that hot air directly to the top of the stairs to be sucked into our living room.

Congrats! Ohhh man, you're going to enjoy that bad boy!

Hey, NICE stove!!! Lol...

Thanks for the kind words Wes... You've got one heck of a nice stove there that I'm certain will keep you and the family plenty warm for plenty of years to come...

Here's a few more pictures from my camera... The one unique aspect of this install is the freestanding stovepipe assembly... It is fully self supporting to allow the stove to be pulled/reinstalled singlehanded with ease... The short horizontal run out of the flue collar and the vertical riser are both well anchored to the brick... What you don't see in the pics is that when the riser goes out of sight the pipe run goes off to the left at about a 30* angle for about 2 1/2' before entering a cleanout tee at the throat of the chimney... A very awkward setup that is rather heavy and would be a real job to wrestle with if Wes had to remove the stove from the hearth himself... Instead, now he can just remove the two #8 self tappers securing the pipe to the flue collar and presto, out comes the stove and back in just as easy... The stove does need to be pulled out in order to remove the hopper from the feeder in the event of repair work, cleaning etc... Also, I have become very fond of bolting flue pipe assemblys together using #10-32 stainless hardware... While it takes a bit longer to put it all together it proves to be a much more stout setup in the end... I use only Ventis single or double wall pipe from Olympia Chimney Supply out of Scranton, Pa, very quality stuff and will last a good long while as opposed to some of the other manufacturers and/or cheap snap-lock pipe...

P.S.- the cat-5 cable zip-tied to the conduit is driving me nuts and I will be returning to Wes's place to rerun that inside the conduit and out through the bottom of the duplex box... We wanted to get it up and running in a hurry so we just left an extra amount coiled up and tied up so I can do as I said above... There is also a permanent draft port about 6" below the baro (not in these pictures) for Wes to check and adjust baro... Has a nice cap when not in use and when he wants to check the draft just remove the cap and spin on a 6" stub piece of 1/4 steel tubing (compression type fitting) I gave him...

Oh well, enough already!!! Heres some pics of the anchored pipe assembly and electrical service... Well there ya have it!!!

Murdoc

Murdoc does such an impressive job that I use a picture of his stove setup as my screen saver on my home computer.

The setup he did with his Alaska stoker is text book and so well done that its inspirational.

Very nice job to the both of you!