Seeking help to restore Richardson & Boynton "Perfect"

Assuming this old lady dates back to 1915 as that is the last patent date on her front. Missing some parts but would love to get her back to work. Gravity unit. Anyone available to give advice, suggestions, etc? Thank you in advance!

I dont know the brand, but Im guessing its called an octupus heater. All those pipes on top went to different rooms in the house and worked as heat ducts. I used to start a similar stove most mornings at a friends house. It takes a long time to get heat coming out the pipes but worked good if you keep feeding it. Im not going to tell you its efficient.

you kind of have to put yourself back in time to realize why they installed these stoves. The mess was all in the basement instead of upstairs. Heat could be moved to a lot of rooms as you didnt have fans back then to do that. If its like the one I used to load I could throw anything in it and burn it. I wish I knew the size of the one I loaded but I bet it was at least 4 or 5 feet across and had a huge door a small stump could fit thru. it was a monster.

Outdated yes, but they do work. There are mods you could do to get better burn times if you actually decide to try to use it. Expect to use a lot of fuel.

That grate looks like it does not shake. If so, it can only burn wood.

franco b wrote:That grate looks like it does not shake. If so, it can only burn wood.

Oops, I shouldnt have said it would burn anything. My anything included (at that time in the 1980's) things that are not legal to burn in a stove now Mostly wood. I never threw coal in it.

From the ones I've seen, that type of unit generally was designed to burn coal, so even if it now has a fixed grate the base may still have the mounts for shaker grates. If you could clear the grate area and get some pics from above and below, it would be easier to figure out what the options are (if any).

Mike

Pacowy wrote:From the ones I've seen, that type of unit generally was designed to burn coal, so even if it now has a fixed grate the base may still have the mounts for shaker grates. If you could clear the grate area and get some pics from above and below, it would be easier to figure out what the options are (if any).

Mike

I will later this week - thank you.

This unit burned coal when it was used. The first photo is of the coal lumps still within. I will try to clean it out later this week after I get the window units moved from it.

Still searching for a photo of what the unit looked like originally.

I had a similar cast iron Sears in a house I rented. It was my first coal experience. It would pump out some very serious heat, had to open doors and windows mid winter a few times!

I wouldn't mind getting some serious heat! We are lucky to hit 70 degrees with our modern gas unit despite our huge gas bill. Would have to make a lot of changes to comfortably heat this gigantic place.

lake, I have a lot of new old stock furnace grates and parts, however I have no way of telling what is what. clean it out and get some pics. I may be able to help ..............wilson