The Rolls Royce of Stoves-The Base Burner

009to090 wrote:I am seeing a price of almost $10,000 for it . Wow!!!

that's the beauty of living in the USA, we have this thing called the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution, it guarantees Freedom of Speech. This thread is an example of such freedom, upholding the fact we are all entitled to our own opinion on things such as stoves, etc- and I'd like to exercise my rights as well, being an American Citizen born/raised here for 51 years now, and family living here for 113 years, and 5 generations, correction now it's 6 generations.

this is an old thread but well worth reviving

$10,000 for a vintage BB coal stove ?? - do the math, I'm heating my home with coal at the cost of $400/year with a Harman Mk I modern stove

for the asking price of that vintage BB stove, I can heat my house for 25 years. By then I'd be 76 years old, if I live that long.

is it worth it ? No. You can't win for losing in the long run.

it's obvious there is some serious hype and speculation being done with these BB stoves. Truth be told, they are not even equal to the best new stoves, and inferior, as the BB stoves are missing one critical element. they lack a fan to blow the heat out of the stove. That alone adds more efficiency to a new stove, than all the multiple passages inside an old BB.

a fan pushes more heat than multiple pipe passages. If you have a fan, you don't need pretzel like internal pipe passages, one simple heat exchanger is enough. Airflow over the heat exchanger removes a massive amount of heat from the stove, pushing it into the room.

just like the cooling fan and radiator on your car does. See, technology has progressed in 100 years.

If the claim to fame for a vintage BB is 10' or 12' of additional stovepipe passage inside the stove, you can just add that length outside a new stove and achieve the same effect- a huge outboard radiator. Heck, the old hot air furnaces did that with ducting that were installed in basements and cellars- they weren't "base burners". They added ductwork to the stove and ran it to upstairs rooms with registers in the floor. They moved the radiating heat directly to the rooms.

these BB stoves were parlor stoves, not main heating coal furnaces. A furnace that heated an entire home, was much larger and more complex.

the steel and cast iron on a vintage stove, is also inherently weaker than new castings which use a more precise metallurgy and nickel content.

read the lines on these threads, then read between the lines. The reason they don't make stoves like that anymore, is it's like going to Hades to light a match. The people saying they are "better than any new box stove" have not tried many new box stoves, how would they know ?

Okay CC we know your opinion of Base Burners. It's time to let it go. No need to keep beating a dead horse.

coalcracker wrote: that's the beauty of living in the USA, we have this thing called the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution, it guarantees Freedom of Speech. This thread is an example of such freedom,

No it isn't because what I say goes here. I welcome all opinions but you're beginning to tread a fine line when you dig up numerous old topics. This will be the last one.

Richard S. wrote:

coalcracker wrote: that's the beauty of living in the USA, we have this thing called the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution, it guarantees Freedom of Speech. This thread is an example of such freedom,

No it isn't because what I say goes here. I welcome all opinions but you're beginning to tread a fine line when you dig up numerous old topics. This will be the last one.

This is a dictatorship (like all forums and web master sites!)
CC is learning... just like me and many others have over the years, he is very passionate and intelligent, I kind of like his enthusiasm... Richards yelled at me a few times too lets not forget
I hope CC stays with us!

CC
It appears to me that the only Freedom of speech(or opinion) that you deem worthy is your own.
Baseburners arent for you we get it. This thread is for those who like and appreciate the workmanship and understanding of those that made them some 100 years ago. Too, I havent read anywhere of someone trying to talk you out of using your stove, glad your happy with it, really! It seem to me that you might let others enjoy what they do and not have anything more to say about it , not because of the first amendment but because its the right thing to do

Waldo

waldo lemieux wrote:CC
It appears to me that the only Freedom of speech(or opinion) that you deem worthy is your own.
Baseburners arent for you we get it. This thread is for those who like and appreciate the workmanship and understanding of those that made them some 100 years ago. Too, I havent read anywhere of someone trying to talk you out of using your stove, glad your happy with it, really! It seem to me that you might let others enjoy what they do and not have anything more to say about it , not because of the first amendment but because its the right thing to do

Waldo

Thanks Richard and Waldo, my sentiments exactly.

Many of us, contrary to your belief CC, have tried box stoves and compared. The truth is that today it is much easier to produce a welded box type stove and is not cost effective to cast iron to meet the price points and profit margins of volume buyers.
There is no where near the foundry capacity that we once had to make these old beauties, many that are still heating homes 100yrs. later.

Coal Cracker,

1st, that is an extreme example of a stove ($10,000.00) and by the way, that company is way over priced on that stove, maybe $7,500.00 tops, probably less as they are trying to sell it is a work of art. Your stove is a good stove, but it is not a work of art with nickle finish. Most Baseheaters can be bought from $1,800-$2,800 and the fact that they are still here, well over 100+ years later, it really puts a dent in your argument, if this is one, that you make. Second, show me any modern box stove over 100+ years old. You can use the Baseheater until your too old and still turn around and sell it for more than what you paid for it, can you do that with your stove? Of course not! You have a good stove...so do a lot of us. Any time, without using a mpd, you can have a stove at 550 and put your hand on the 6" pipe going up the ceiling, it's an amazing thing, I don't care how old or new a stove is. Again, I think you have a good stove, when your stove turns 100 its called a great stove!!!!!

Lot of good points here.
And about the 8 or 10K for antique stoves, base burner or not, that is not the regular pricing. But if those antique stoves were priced like many other antiques things, the price would be a lot more...higher
Anyway, if I take my 2 base burner together, I still very far from the 8K and no modern stove can get these antique out of my house. These stoves heat my house, not the stove pipe
P/S, I got a ""squared"" Vigll before the antiques. Not a bad stove but not an antique one.