Burning wood in Glenwood #6

 
KingCoal
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Post by KingCoal » Sat. Jan. 15, 2022 10:46 am

I will start this with a link to another thread from the archives

posting.php?mode=quote&f=7&p=633391

If I find more I’ll post them


 
KingCoal
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Location: Elkhart county, IN.
Hand Fed Coal Stove: 1 comforter stove works all iron coal box stove, seventies.
Baseburners & Antiques: 2014 DTS C17 Base Burner, GW #6, GW 113 formerly Sir Williams, maybe others at Pauliewog’s I’ve forgotten about
Coal Size/Type: Nut Anth.
Other Heating: none

Post by KingCoal » Sat. Jan. 15, 2022 10:58 am


 
KingCoal
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Location: Elkhart county, IN.
Hand Fed Coal Stove: 1 comforter stove works all iron coal box stove, seventies.
Baseburners & Antiques: 2014 DTS C17 Base Burner, GW #6, GW 113 formerly Sir Williams, maybe others at Pauliewog’s I’ve forgotten about
Coal Size/Type: Nut Anth.
Other Heating: none

Post by KingCoal » Sat. Jan. 15, 2022 11:01 am

Another Glenwood Adoption Finalized!

Very important post by user Pancho near bottom of page 3 but whole thread full of info
Last edited by KingCoal on Sat. Jan. 15, 2022 11:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

 
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Sunny Boy
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Post by Sunny Boy » Sat. Jan. 15, 2022 11:06 am

Yes, several members posted about burning wood in their GW #6. But they have not been posting on here in a few years.

A search for "Glenwood #6" and looking back a few years, should bring up posts about using wood in GW base heaters.

One thing I remember was, in more than one post, Sir William strongly recommended against using wood in it.

When I bought my steel-bellied #6 from Wilson (wilsonswoodstoves) he had been using wood in it. Ran so hot he had to place extra heat shielding under it to protect the wood floor. :o But having a welded plate steel bottom pan he made, no worries about cracking the original thin casting. And while I've never run it with wood, it's held up beautifully to my running it very hot with coal ! ;)

Paul

 
KingCoal
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: 1 comforter stove works all iron coal box stove, seventies.
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Coal Size/Type: Nut Anth.
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Post by KingCoal » Sat. Jan. 15, 2022 11:16 am

Spark Guard and More - Problems / Solutions Glenwood #6

Some good conversation in this thread regarding wood

 
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Coal Size/Type: Nut Anth.
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Post by KingCoal » Sat. Jan. 15, 2022 11:20 am

Wood Plate in a Glenwood No. 8...Works Great

I’m pretty good at this search thing, only 15 more pages to go 🧐

 
KingCoal
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Coal Size/Type: Nut Anth.
Other Heating: none

Post by KingCoal » Sat. Jan. 15, 2022 11:22 am



 
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Post by Hoytman » Sun. Jan. 16, 2022 1:22 pm

Sunny Boy wrote:
Sat. Jan. 15, 2022 11:06 am


One thing I remember was, in more than one post, Sir William strongly recommended against using wood in it.


Paul
One of the links William said this...
wsherrick wrote:
Mon. Sep. 21, 2015 12:06 pm
No cord wood, seasoned or otherwise, shall be placed in any of my stoves, ever; unless the whole world goes foobar.
Nothing more to be said about it.
I knew this when I brought it up in the other thread. However, just because “he” said this doesn’t take away from the fact Glenwood put the word “wood” in the castings of their stove. The question can be as simple as why? A simpler answer might just be because it could burn wood as well.

I think there has to be more to it than that though. Glenwood designers seemed to have put a terrific amount of thought into that stove for burning anthracite to have also just placed the word “wood” on there as a marketing ploy advertising 8-10 hour burns. If that claim is true, then fir that time period they were also way ahead of their time with wood as a fuel.

I will do further reading to see if anyone talks about or discovered how this stove might go about burning wood that long.

I have an old pre-epa wood stove here built in the 1970’s and it certainly won’t burn wood even close to 10 hours. Even my modern Lopi wood stove only claims 12 hours.

 
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Sunny Boy
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Post by Sunny Boy » Sun. Jan. 16, 2022 2:00 pm

William never really explained why. I suspect it was because he was very pro-coal. Yes, I know about there is the word "Wood" on the door. I see it few times each day. :D

My own experience with wood was running a few cords of wood through the kitchen range in the shoulder months. I came to believe it's really called "shoulder months" because that's where the pain of cutting/splitting wood always got me. :lol:

Coal is so much less work that it was easier to just run the range on coal 24/7 in the "shoulder months" and damper it down rather than have to throw wood in it every 3-4 hours,.... or go through the hassle of starting a fire every time we wanted heat and to cook. Since we also cook on the range because coal is far cheaper than pro-pain for the gas stove, all that messing around with getting a wood fire going got old in a hurry. Plus, I didn't have to clean creosote out of the range flues If I didn't want to run it hot enough to reduce creosote and, in the process, overheat the kitchen. :roll:

So, the only wood fire the GW#6 has had was small kindling fires to cure the new firebricks. Otherwise, the GW #6 does not get run in the "shoulder months" because the range takes care of keeping the chill off the house. The #6 is only needed when it gets cold enough for "coal months". ;)

Paul

 
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Post by ASea » Sun. Jan. 16, 2022 2:26 pm

I'd say go ahead and burn some wood in it. In direct draft mode. Good hardwood with the proper plate. But they were truly built for coal. Coal is where they shine. The Modern Oak and Oak Stoves were meant to be dual fuel. But anyone who was anyone when these stoves were built burned coal in them. Everyone stay warm. And burn coal so the Ghost of William doesn't haunt you!

 
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Post by Hoytman » Tue. Jan. 18, 2022 9:29 am

If I had a #6, and I do not, I would only burn coal in it just because too many on here, including William, suggest only using anthracite coal in these stoves. I just thought maybe someone had the skinny on why Glenwood may have been so inclined to "advertise" wood burning with their stoves and I thought maybe they had put some special thought and design into it being way ahead of their time.

Lots of reading in the links above.

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Tue. Jan. 18, 2022 10:36 am

I think what Sir William was concerned about with not using wood in the GW #6 is the faster temperature swings of wood increasing the risk of cracking that thin bottom casting - which many #6 & #8 have had happen. Coal heats up the castings more slowly and has much more steady operating temps then wood. That reduces thermal shock on the cast iron.

Because of that bottom pan weakness in the #6 and #8, Willson started making welded plate steel bottom pans. Mine is the prototype, which he ran on wood and then sold to me. He ran it so hot that he had to make a special heat shield for the wood floor under the stove. I've done similar additional shielding with a fire rated stove board and on top of that is a large pan filled with ash. I've run my #6 hot - well over 700F on the barrel - and that welded bottom pan has been bullet proof.

Paul

 
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Post by tcalo » Tue. Jan. 18, 2022 11:08 am

My guess is it was a selling point for Glenwood, a marketing ploy if you will. They captured that many more customers (wood burners) by advertising their stoves as multi fuel. Technically these stoves can burn both wood and coal. One fuel better than the other, but both non the less. So why not advertise as such and gain more of the market share.

 
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Post by dlj » Tue. Jan. 18, 2022 8:25 pm

The first number of years I owned my Glenwood #6 I burned only wood in it. In fact I didn't even know it was such an amazing coal stove and I had unlimited amounts of wood. I've owned this stove since around 1970, I'd have to think about when I got it, might have been in the late 1960's...

Throughout the 1970's I lived kinda off-grid and heated exclusively with wood. This stove was a pain in the a$$ burning wood. I almost sold it back then. However with care, you can burn wood successfully in this stove, including in the base burner mode. The trick I found was to make sure you have a very good drafting chimney. I also cut my wood for this stove in 12 inch lengths so they could lay down inside the firebox. Starting a fire with wood from scratch required some finesse as it had a lot of tendency to have puff backs. You really need well seasoned wood. I found well seasoned black locust to be superb in this stove with oak a close second. Ash is OK because it burns easily. I could go on about other woods.

Once you have a good fire going and the stove is running well, you can burn wood without much problem including in base burner mode. When I wanted the fire to go overnight, I would use the two front doors and stuff as much wood as I could in it, then I'd close them, open the top plate and stuff the firebox as full as I could from the top. The trick for longest burn times was kind of wood burning and being able to stuff it full with minimal airspaces between the logs.

For just sitting around and enjoying the heat from the stove, it is a lot easier to run. You just pop in pieces of well seasoned wood every couple hours or so and enjoy. If I had unlimited free wood, I'd use it again. But it would have to be free wood, otherwise give me coal...

dj

 
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Post by Pancho » Thu. Jan. 20, 2022 8:32 am

Burning PROPERLY SEASONED wood in a G-Dub #6 or #8, other than soot on the window, doesn't hurt a thing. You just don't want to over fire it (as with any fuel).

That said, while functional, burning wood for an extended period of time would be a pain (lots of reloading). Also, when I ran wood in my #8, I cut existing leftover firewood into 6" to 8" long pieces (which was a pain in the butt). But to build up and run a fire for an evening to take the chill off, it was fine.

On the other hand, I can build a coal fire and throttle it way down to where it stays running for a couple days...so unless wood is all you have....


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