I Have My Base Burner (BB)

nortcan wrote:

SteveZee wrote:Pierre, remember we speaking about the check damper and how nice it would be to have a lever that opened and closed it without my having to pull the ash pan? Well, today I was shop vacuming around the stove and low and behold where the "elbow" meets the back pipe base, I found a thumb pull that operates the check damper! Sheesh, it was there all the time! Here is a pix. There was not too much that they didn't think off back in the day!

Very happy for you. And honestly I was very surprised they had not some devices to work the check damper from the outside.

These ""old timers"" should be very happy up there to see how happy we are when using these great Heritages from the past in our so ""advanced"" days.

Yes, I had to laugh and thought about our conversation when I found it! Embarassing but very cool!

LOL, Steve the younger call that: getting older.
Me (a little older one) I call that beeing honest, but honestly don't do it too often

One other thing I never said when comparing the 2 stoves together was about the ease to use the Bride is the all around (3 sides) the fire pot mica windows.
Very nice to see all around the fire pot base, when shaking the outer round grate, you can see the hot red glow at the base of the f. pot. And never need to open the ash door to see the glowing pieces falling in the ash pan when using the center grate.
Before burning the Bride, I was shure the lower mica around the fire pot would become full of ash/dust on them after the first shake but they are the ones that stay 100% clean.
Nothing to do with efficiency but just pleasant to use.

Hi all.
Some words about the little Bride. If someone has a very small place to heat, a small stove like a small base burner is really nice to get. My small living room is 10 X 16 F.
Well insulated but has many windows. Before beeing a living room, it was only a concrete patio. So the livingroom's floor is now over that cement floor/slab, with ridgid insulation board on it. Before, the floor was always cold from the cotinuity of the cement slab having 1/2 outside and 1/2 inside portions.
So fun to be warm but not over heated.
Now I'm looking for a substitute for the good Vigll. A fireplace insert like on photos would be the best to fit in my faux-foyer. They called them Windsor or Baltimore Heater. Some, like the one I wish to find (at a reasonable price) are working like a base burner, and some are also double heater.
But that type of stove/insert is not as common as other antique stoves.

Hey Pierre, I havent seen you post in a few days and I thought maybe you came to the this side of North America to buy a stove.

That first stove you have pictured is a real beauty, I have a smaller fireplace opening but do these stoves come in different sizes and what is the average size ?
What kind of grates have you found on them, any with the prismatic styles ?
Any other pictures of the rear of the stoves ?
What I the second pipe in the third picture ?
Do there seem to be alot of these around, I rarley see any pop up for sale ?

Nice post, I am looking forward to learning more about theses stoves.
Lombard Street in Baltimore huh, I should drive over and get a picture of what is there now at the address listed.
Keith

echos67 wrote:Hey Pierre, I havent seen you post in a few days and I thought maybe you came to the this side of North America to buy a stove.

That first stove you have pictured is a real beauty, I have a smaller fireplace opening but do these stoves come in different sizes and what is the average size ?
What kind of grates have you found on them, any with the prismatic styles ?
Any other pictures of the rear of the stoves ?
What I the second pipe in the third picture ?
Do there seem to be alot of these around, I rarley see any pop up for sale ?
Nice post, I am looking forward to learning more about theses stoves.
Lombard Street in Baltimore huh, I should drive over and get a picture of what is there now at the address listed.
Keith

Really Keith, I don't know where to go to find the good one. The first picture shows a stove rebuilt for expo only and is not functional. But very nice. The second one is too $$ for me but very nice. I think they were quite large but not shure if there were some smaller.(I will send measures later). There is one pipe on each side of the center one. On the present pic. you can see the upper connection to the stove. When the damper is closed the gasses must exit from the 2 upper connectors then down to the base and finally exit from the center pipe to the chimney. Yes not a lot around.

nortcan wrote:

echos67 wrote:Hey Pierre, I havent seen you post in a few days and I thought maybe you came to the this side of North America to buy a stove.

That first stove you have pictured is a real beauty, I have a smaller fireplace opening but do these stoves come in different sizes and what is the average size ?
What kind of grates have you found on them, any with the prismatic styles ?
Any other pictures of the rear of the stoves ?
What I the second pipe in the third picture ?
Do there seem to be alot of these around, I rarley see any pop up for sale ?
Nice post, I am looking forward to learning more about theses stoves.
Lombard Street in Baltimore huh, I should drive over and get a picture of what is there now at the address listed.
Keith

Really Keith, I don't know where to go to find the good one. The first picture shows a stove rebuilt for expo only and is not functional. But very nice. The second one is too $$ for me but very nice. I think they were quite large but not shure if there were some smaller.(I will send measures later). There is one pipe on each side of the center one. On the present pic. you can see the upper connection to the stove. When the damper is closed the gasses must exit from the 2 upper connectors then down to the base and finally exit from the center pipe to the chimney. Yes not a lot around.

Ok I see the flue path now that you describe it, that is really interesting having the 3 pipes in the rear. I would really like to see this work in person, I bet it is amazing efficency and heat output for what looks to be a smaller size.
Any information to the style grates used and what size firpots these type stoves come with or maybe I missed it ?
Are the grates in the background for the pictured stove ? Looks like a baseburner style firepot there also ?

nortcan..... Thinking about replacing the VigII I really don't think you will find a stove to fill her shoes. The heat that the VigII puts out and the small amount of coal she requires to heat your home cannot be found in many stoves. The adjustments and modifications you made to get her where shes a fine heating machine and now your thinking about replacing her with another. I would have to really re-think this one out. I say keep the VigII This is only my opinion from down here. Viva the VigII

Keith, I don't really know the grates in these inserts. One model in the expo stove is on the present photo. Not shure for the grates at the back of the stove/insert, around $4,000. and has a 16" fire pot, plus almost on the West Coast. I'm in negociations with the seller but the price is quite high cause the change asks for many modifs (Nothtifications ) in the faux-foyer to be able to install an insert in it. Usually they are about 33" W, 32" H and 30" D.
don't forget they are inserts.

I would not want that stove.

It looks, judging from the looks of the cast iron that it was heavily rusted at one point to develop those deep pits. The shaker grate looks to me to be not very effective and very primitive also.

buck24 wrote:nortcan..... Thinking about replacing the VigII I really don't think you will find a stove to fill her shoes. The heat that the VigII puts out and the small amount of coal she requires to heat your home cannot be found in many stoves. The adjustments and modifications you made to get her where shes a fine heating machine and now your thinking about replacing her with another. I would have to really re-think this one out. I say keep the VigII This is only my opinion from down here. Viva the VigII

buck24, if we back up a few monts, I would say the same as you said. I could even say that the Vigll is near a perfect stove.
If I was keeping it, I would make the fire chamber adjustable so the stove would be full size or smaller in just a few minutes from a sort of sliding kit. I also would make a wood burning permanent device. It would be like the new EPA wood stove having gasses burning tubes at the top. By rotating a lever at the air inlet port, the combustion air would be send in the top tubings for wood burning and in the other position would send air under the grates for ant. burning. A special bottom plate would be placed on the grates for wood burning but would permit to send wood ash to the ash pan. The front doors would keep the holes to make the glasses air washed................Why a wood burning option? Having options is always a good option!
Slowly I prepare the wife to the idea, but I should go very slowly. Changing the V2 for an antique insert is all a change but love can make a person crazy, I think?
But I apprecite your comments buck and nothing is done yet.

franco b wrote:I would not want that stove.

It looks, judging from the looks of the cast iron that it was heavily rusted at one point to develop those deep pits. The shaker grate looks to me to be not very effective and very primitive also.

The grate shown on the photo is from the stove/insert rebuilt for expo only. And I also don't like the way it should works, I don't want a grate system worst than the one in the V2
If I could get one stove/insert at a good price and in good conditions but having poor grate system, I think that the grates could be changed for a more efficient model but the size and some other points still to be check before changing a grate for an other one. But I'm not 199% shure if it's possible to do so.
The best I could find would be one not rebuilt, so everything can be checked.
Is there a way to see the condition of a cast iron part? I mean when you said : "rusted at one point to develop deep pits", some time we see parts having pits on them, according to you is it a warning and how to decide if : still good or scrap?
Thank Franco

A stove with the cast iron deeply pitted means it was badly stored at one point, maybe for years. If the cast is that bad then surely any steel is much worse. Also those pits will always be there and always detract from the appearance, possibly weaker too. Look at the nice smooth appearance of the cast iron in many of the pictures of antique stoves.

franco b wrote:A stove with the cast iron deeply pitted means it was badly stored at one point, maybe for years. If the cast is that bad then surely any steel is much worse. Also those pits will always be there and always detract from the appearance, possibly weaker too. Look at the nice smooth appearance of the cast iron in many of the pictures of antique stoves.

I agree, it looks like that particular stove sat for quite some time unprotected. Someone just sandblasted (not very well either) and sprayed it with paint. I can see why its just for "Expo". Those Baltimore heaters were popular in cities for heating apartments. You take your time and you'll find the right one Pierre. The first 2 pictures you posted look like nice examples.

I read somewhere that there were more than 300,000 of these inserts during the old days.
But I just don't know where they all are acually