Herald 'Fireside Oak' at Wilson's Woodstoves

Hey, some-one lied to me. I was told a while back, that an "Oak" stove, was direct draft. I see this Herald being an Oak, with the split back pipe. (Looks like a dedicated BB). Is it only Glenwood oaks that are only DD, or am I missing something?

Joe,
The backpipe allows the stove to release more heat to the room, rather than, up the chimney. Not a base burner. I have plenty of fire wood(just have to process it), and this stove can burn wood in the Spring/Fall. It really is amazing what these craftsman built 'back in the day'. Spring cleaning is easy-burn wood for a couple days, and, vacuum out the back pipe. Apply polish, close the mpd's, and enjoy the Summer!

S'ok Joe you weren't lied to.

You could say that, "technically" all oaks are "direct draft" because the back pipe, being an option on some, is an add-on and not part of the stove body.

Whereas with a base heater, or base burner, it's not an option that can be added on when buying those models. It's a part of the stove body from the get-go.... unless your screen name is Kingcoal.

Without an optional back pipe an oak has only one choice - direct draft.

Paul

On these Herald 14s, it looks like the back pipe heads down and is connected to the base, that I "assumed" had cavity's or passage ways,like the BBs have. So what your saying is, the bottom of this back pipe, where it sits on the bottom shelf area, "doesn't" head into or around the ash pan area?

joeq wrote:On these Herald 14s, it looks like the back pipe heads down and is connected to the base, that I "assumed" had cavity's or passage ways,like the BBs have. So what your saying is, the bottom of this back pipe, where it sits on the bottom shelf area, "doesn't" head into or around the ash pan area?

Joe, I don't know about a Herald 14 but the back pipes on technically "oak" type stoves have a baffle in them, dividing the front from the back lengthwise, until it gets close to the "perch" you mentioned earlier, where the gasses simply do an about face and head right back up toward the exhaust collar.

no passage ways or chambers under or beside the ash pit. still, a very good stove.

steve

Steve, with all the casting efforts the manufactures made with the "perch" as you call it, wouldn't it've been simple/favorable to spend the "last extra step" and make the chambers for the BB? I've seen the direct draft stoves, that have the stove pipe exiting the top of the barrel, W/O a mount down low for the split back pipe. And I could see this being a "cost effective way" of saving some cash, but limiting the stove. But it really baffles me why the builder/designers didn't finish off these stoves, especially if they went through the trouble to design the bottom plate for a pipe. It doesn't seem to be that much more money or effort to accomplish.

My guess Joe is stove companies designed their products to appease a wide range of customers. Much like anything in today's market, you want more you pay more. No matter how you slice it it's a business.

as you say there is "just a bit" more needed to make these full base heater type stoves, but we need to consider how much of a household budget ( by percent ) was being spent on stoves during the times of the original productions.

at present, we pay MANY more times the original cost of these stoves but it represents a mere fraction of our budget compared to theirs.
but, that wasn't the full intention at the time. the intent was to provide the purchaser with another option between the basic direct draft only oak and at the time considerably more expensive full suspended pot or external bypass, side or under path base burner / base heaters.

it has been mentioned here before that the best of the oaks that had or can be fitted with the divided back pipes achieved "most' but not quite all the results that came with the further developed stoves.

Joe.
In the case of the Glenwood oaks, the base chamber - what Glenwood called the "ash drawer" was the same casting back pipe, or not. The optional back pipe support base bolts onto the rear face of that ash drawer and the removable, nickel plated rear skirt would be swapped for one with a half oval cutout to clear the pipe.

To make it a base heater, that ash drawer would need a more complex casting to make it into an upper and lower chamber. The upper being the ash pan area, the lower being an flue chamber,

Then the lower chamber needs a baffle to divide it top to bottom and left from right, extending from a rear opening almost to the front to make a flue for the gases to circulate in a U-shaped track. Then a cleanout hatch is needed in that base chamber to clean the flues. Then a cast baffle would be needed in the back pipe that can transition the flue gases down into one side of the base chamber and let them exit out the other side of the base chamber. In the base heaters that baffle is cast with a 90 degree twist to it.

And all those parts have to have a way of joining so they seal and bolt together, making more work for the patterns. Plus it makes more work for castings and assembly.

All that extra work raises the price of the stove quite a bit. so as Steve said, it comes down to price and what people can afford at different income levels.

Paul

I guess it comes down to "there's more than meets the eye." (thanks for the clarifications men, and "nice stove, Wilson and Dave".)

Joe,
The design of the base burner is more complex, as Paul stated. The casting on the Herald that holds the back pipe is a separate piece, and is bolted to the base to support the split pipe, and it has a clean out at the bottom.
It's a 'modified' oak. For someone who wants to burn wood, in addition to coal, it's a great stove.
Cheers

D-Frost wrote
" Wilson has a black/white cat, and we would go from one room to another, and the cat would be there, but he wasn't following us. Just a little 'spooky'!"

There's a very dramatic action /mystery/coal novel in that, Im sure, sighhhhh, to be written at a table near a coal range while subzero demons gnash their fangs in despair at the tiny cracks in the windows and doors.

i'm pretty sure that much of that second paragraph should be the first few lines of the first page and chapter.

go for it, you were in the room when the muse walked thru, invite it back and take notes.

seriously,
steve

Wouldnt that be something? Should try. Your suggestion is rather whimsical too, with muses passing through rooms. We coal burners are profound lot, considering how deadly practical we are.

We certainly are. Inspired by Sunny I feel the need to contribute. My grand kids are at the airport and I have spent the last hour making faces in Snapchat and learning bitmoji. The culture runs deep. Oh the Herald, I just love mine so much I can't bring myself to light it up. A Wilson special.