Baltimore Heater vs. freestanding Stove

I showed my wife the pictures of jmslesotho’s beautiful Baltimore Heater and she would like to have instead of the Stewart that is now in place. Of course she’s never been pleased with the appearance of any of my cylinder stoves .

Basically she wants the floor space back.

So, can anyone with experience operating both (of similar firepot size) say definitively which will produce more heat.

I’m assuming it’s the free standing stove...

My guess is the free standing would produce more heat because it’s exposed to the room on all sides. Although the baltimore heater would look quite nice with your set up.

I agree with Tommy. Bring the same stove out into a room, rather than tucked into a fireplace, and it should extract more of it's heat to stay within the room because of an increase in surface area convection.

And don't forget that by moving it out, your not just adding convection circulation heat gain of whatever is inside the fireplace, your also adding whatever length stove pipe is needed for the free standing as more heat extracting and radiating surface area. Each foot run of 6 inch pipe adds 1.5 sq ft feet of radiating area.

The old timers knew this, that's why you often see such long horizontal runs of stove pipes in the old pictures.

Paul

Agreed.

I will certainly follow the BH restoration thread for heat output results though

I think though if she gets a Baltimore, I should at least be able to get a large range with gas sidecar

Compromise...I like it

tcalo wrote: ↑

Tue. Nov. 20, 2018 7:16 pm

Compromise...I like it

Hahahahaha

Well not a fair comparison but my old Hitzer 983 did a good job at heating the house with It's blowers going ( on the noise aspect)but the Glenwood is lots better in that department plus It's silent while doing It's job and she's a looker to boot , although I can see her point about the floor space!

So the Baltimore heater IS half way into the chimney. However, once everything gets into balance the whole chimney warms up and that radiates into the room. We love the saving of floor space over a 16" free standing base heater. We would need a calorimeter to solve this but I can tell you this it is a great heater and at least as good as the Wings Best in our application.

So CN, you have your BH installed and running?

If so, was the Wings running in the same flue before you installed the Baltimore?

Hi Scalabro, I used the Sunnyside in a faux-foyer getting the heat from the front of the stove but also extracted the heat produced at the back of it using my air handler and ductwork...to capture most of the heat and send it to the whole house.. If someone have a room… located at the back of the Heater or an upstair room to send the warm air there it can become a super heating machine. But a lot of other ways to install them are possible. I never regret having that Baltimore Heater.

Salutations

So CN, you have your BH installed and running?

If so, was the Wings running in the same flue chimney before you installed the Baltimore? Yes.

With the Wings, little got into the chimney as the temps were about 130* entering the chimney. So little chimney warming. I agree with Pierre, a prodigious heater. Tough to make comparisons and I am not claiming one is better than the other.

Simon has a good point about the brickwork eventually heating and radiating heat. Should be an inside fireplace and chimney though for best effect.

The Baltimore heaters were available in different firepot sizes much the same as the Parlor stoves.

The tin shroud that surrounds the two indirect back pipes has a damper which when opened allowed the captured heat to be directed to a second flue leading to registers on the second or third floor.
When this damper is closed the heat escapes thru the open filigree in the cast iron surround and back into the room.

That coupled with the radiant heat from the mica windows makes for a pretty efficient room heater and sized right will keep you warm and toasty.

Plus they are really nice looking.

Paulie

I think it is a sum and difference issue. If you have good coal and the ash pan is telling you you are efficiently burning the stuff then where is it going? Sunny has a base heater type recirculation - do they all? I totally agree all that heat going to the back the stove must sink into an interior brick chimney. Those tons of bricks heat up and you get the heat back in a pleasant way. I have measured the heat going up the chimney from the upstairs chimney via old stove port and the smoke is pretty cold. So the coal is good, ashes tell me I'm good so it's getting heat into the house somewhere.

Now the bad. When I start to push the stove larger chunks of coal appear in the ash pan and Pierre tells me I need to leave a layer of ash down there. It's complicated and I am still refining my technique. The fact that a QC world class engineer tells me it is possible encourages me but I am still learning. Like any new (to you) coal stove, the animal is different and requires technique. The bottom line to me is that my BH joins the ranks of very good coal stoves that takes up little floor space and looks dynamite but is a challenge to learn. In the middle of a giant great room it would not be my choice and not recommended for the newbie. Balanced reviews are needed. So S from what you have posted I think you have the right stove for your application, it looks beautiful. If your wife needs the floor space get a new wife.

Sometimes you can learn from wood burners ... hahahhahaha.

Great info thanks Gents!

CN, you bring up a good point.... are all “Baltimore Heaters” return flue stoves?