Saying Goodbye to Our Glenwood :(

It is with a very heavy heart that we will be disconnecting and selling this beautiful piece of history. This type of stove just isn't going to work. We share this house with 2 other families and the start up and coordination of keeping the stove running has proven too complicated and too touchy for us and the others we share the house with. The start up time is a major complaint in the house. Not to mention my housemates all have wood stoves and were against coal to begin with.
We are looking to sell or trade this beauty for a wood stove.
I am wondering if you could provide feedback on what is a fair value for this stove? The stove has all nickel pieces. It also has the bottom back bracket for the back vent to be installed (we do not have the back pipe at this time). The current burn pot has a crack but we cemented it and the cement is holding up great. We also have a spare stove that has a barrel, burn pot and the stand with the legs for spare parts and to be used to swap out the burn pot.
We also have new shaker grates and an ash pan from Wilson that were added this year.

That's to bad but do realize your moving backwards in the heating department burning wood! You should not have to relight that stove at all unless your away for at minimum 18hrs to 24 hrs!
There is some value to the stove as you have a parts stove and new grates, I can't put a accurate number on it but just be patient, they'll come

If they are so against coal, why not keep it and burn wood in it?

Start up time is a major complaint

I started my stove in the beginning of the heating season & shut it down at the end of my heating season.
Even my first yr., 1 time of starting it.

Can you give my mind some relief ??
Explain how start up time is an issue ??

Thanks in advance.

Sorry to hear coal is not working out for your situation. Maybe someday you can get back to it.

In the meantime, as Titleist said, why not wood in the GW ? Your going to trade a wood stove for a wood stove ? Heck, the GW already has the word "wood" right on it.

The performance and ease of use of GW Modern oaks are the equal, or better of many modern wood stoves.

Paul

The home is not occupied at all times. This is a ski home on the side of the mountain and is primarily vacant during the week. It takes at least a solid hour to get the stove up and running. We always start with a clean empty fire pot. Put a pyramid of matchlight grill charcoal on the grates and fill the pot with scoops of coal every 5-6 minutes until the pot is filled to the brim.

The stove barely lasts 8-10 hours before choking out. Every.Single.Time
The beautiful burning coals start to choke out from the outside in. This summer we sealed a crack in the pot with refractory and repeated "incense" tests show it holding up well. We also used stove caulk around the ash door and sealed that up nice and tight - all these tips were from this forum! I do incense tests almost once a week all over the stove looking for a leak and that thing is pretty tight now!

If we catch the stove in time (sometimes at 2-3am which is not fun) we can shake grates, push coal bed down as there is ash underneath that doesn't always come down with the shaking we have to use the toothpick. The coal bed is so choked we often have to add matchlight and the burn pot is half empty so there is another 30 minutes adding coal every 5-6 minutes again.

We are thinking the draft from the chimney is really a strong draw...could look into the second damper but I am already a couple hundred into this (not including the 1.2 ton of coal) and I am being ruled out 5 to 1 to just switch to burning wood as they all have that as their primary fuel source in their homes. One of them actually is a logger and can supply me with cut/split wood at a very low cost.


I do have the wood plate...but the burn pot is small. Standard split wood has to stand up? You cannot really fill up the stove unless the wood is against the barrel which cannot be good?? We burned wood in it once or twice and again the size and shape of the barrel had the wood going out every couple of hours. Are we a bunch of idiots?

Tell me more about wood burning...perhaps I can have best of both worlds. It looks like I can have the wood burning grate sit on top of the shaker grates and then they can burn wood and when I am there I can start the coal?

I don't want to get rid of this stove. Any counter points you can provide is greatly appreciated!!!!!!

Hang around. There are a bunch of 116 stove owners on here. Some have used wood and hopefully they will join in with their experience.

Member DLJ used wood for a long time in his GW #6 base heater - which is basically the same size pot and barrel as your 116 (and the GW 30 Oak). He had quite a lot of good advice how to best do it. If I remember he filled it through the top, right up to the top of the barrel with no ill affects. I think he set the dampers so that the fire was mostly in the fire pot, up to the level of the exit collar on the barrel, but not way up in the barrel.

8-10 hours run times on coal is short of what that stove is capable of. I can get longer overnight burn times than that with my small-ish kitchen range and it only holds half the coal of a 116.

And if a too-strong draft is causing short burn times, adding a back pipe is a good way to help cure that.

The addition of the back pipe will allow you to run the stove slower, so it burns longer, while not giving up heat output to run it slow. The back pipe doesn't just add heat extracting surface area, it also adds resistance to exhaust flow because of it's tight turns and long narrow flues. It would take the place of a second damper, but, unlike adding a second damper the pipe would extract more heat before the first damper.

In other words, with the stove at idle with a back pipe, it will put out heat like it would if you were running it faster, hotter with no back pipe. And because you don't have to run it as hard to get heat, it will run longer on a firepot full of coal.

Paul

An empty house gets mighty cold and needs a huge shot of heat fast. A big wood stove with blower will do that. Heat comes up fast. Coal is for the long haul with a steady fire all week. You need probably triple what the Glenwood can produce and need it now in order to heat that mass quickly.

Under those conditions I can see the argument for wood. A big EPA approved wood stove with strong blower, would be best.

Skips Oak 50 with a backpipe installed would do the job...have him install a 36 inch barrel or additional “can” and you guys can run around naked in 15 or 20 minutes🤪

Naked!!!!! At a ski resort in Vermont, in the Winter! Say it isn't so-I'm shocked, I tell ya!!!!! Have you guys got a hot-tub?
Cheers

Hi specialtg ...newbee here... I'm using coal now in my 2nd home and have lots of experience with trying to warm up a very cold house and it typically takes at least 6 - 8 hours whether using wood or coal for fuel.

I start the Chubby with a wood fire which oftentimes burns much hotter (700 F +) than the coal fire will ...eventually. Once the coal is going of course it burns much longer. The longer, consistency of the coal fire seems to me better able to chase and keep that cold air away. I can leave the house for hours at a time with a coal fire going all the while. There's also almost no midde of the night wakeups to feed the fire.

Hauling wood in from outdoors makes a mess and if you're gathering your wood on your own there's lots of work involved that will keep you off the slopes.

Whatever you choose for fuel good luck.

https://www.antiquesnavigator.com/common-price-gu ... rch=Submit

Is it a simple overfiring the coal at the start?. I have used a 116 and others that are similar, I always stood the wood up with no issues. still burns best with big short chunks. two dampers as someone has said for a strong draft.

How big is the space your trying to heat with this stove,is it all one space or divided into

multiple rooms? These stoves can heat a space but not distribute the heat.

BigBarney

Its about 1800SQFT so not huge but it is divided into rooms. I actually have the house at 70degrees today!!! I am not giving up on coal!

Special,
Do NOT ever give up, never. What Wilson said about adding a 2nd manual damper is a pretty good non-expensive idea, where as, your on the side of a mountain, with heavy winds. Best of luck to you.
Cheers