Now I Got My Godin

I found a Godin 3730 petit round on ebay and picked it up yesterday. Never had a Godin, but I have read the posts on them but still have a few questions:

1. will this petit round throw off enought heat to warmy my 20 X 15 family room that has lots of large windows when the wind chill outside is 20 degrees? The stove seems awfully small with an ash pan the size of my first cell phone.

2. the viewing window is not made of glass, but is some kind of flexible clear plastic. Is this what mica is like? Can't believe it will withstand 600 degrees.

3. front door does not have the typical rope like seal in it and seems to have not slot to install one. Won't this door leak air and prevent a good draft coming from under the coal? Same with the top door.

dsteinel wrote:I found a Godin 3730 petit round on ebay and picked it up yesterday. Never had a Godin, but I have read the posts on them but still have a few questions:

1. will this petit round throw off enought heat to warmy my 20 X 15 family room that has lots of large windows when the wind chill outside is 20 degrees? The stove seems awfully small with an ash pan the size of my first cell phone.

2. the viewing window is not made of glass, but is some kind of flexible clear plastic. Is this what mica is like? Can't believe it will withstand 600 degrees.

3. front door does not have the typical rope like seal in it and seems to have not slot to install one. Won't this door leak air and prevent a good draft coming from under the coal? Same with the top door.

I don't have a Godin but your 20 x 15 room isn't that big. Any coal stove will be able to keep that warm. Is there a vaulted ceiling? No matter, you still shouldn't have problem. Given the small space you'll probably be able to keep the stove in an idle position most of the time or roast. I suspect you'll use very little coal over a 24 hour period so the small ash pan while a pain will do just fine.

Mica can look like plastic at times. It's not really clear though. A light will shine through and it will flake.

If there isn't a slot for the gasket, the stove was not meant to be air tight. That can cause problems with the operation, an over the fire air source is introduced, but a strong draft will pull the CO out the chimney. Me, personally, I'd want to make it as air tight as I could so I'd look at putting a rope gasket on it anyway. I'd use stove cement to attach the smallest one I could find to the doors. I remember reading in previous posts about an individual who did that with a pot belly stove and it worked well. Check the archives by using the search feature in the upper right hand corner. Since it appears that this stove was not built to be air tight, have you checked it for other air leaks? It may be worth doing that. Good luck, Lisa

Close the door on a dollar bill and see if it grips the bill all around. The Godin does not depend on air through the bottom grate but rather through the front grate. It will not burn coal well until it is loaded above the front grate and then to the top flue exit. The burn pattern is front to back.

The top door is machined flat and should be adequate iron to iron.

It hold 20 pounds of nut coal and is rated to produce 17,000 BTU.

Hi,

Welcome to the wonderful world of Godin stoves. I have used them since the mid eighties and have found them easy to use reliable stoves. I am most familiar with the 3721 & 3731 models, they are the larger brothers to your 3730. Both stoves have flat gasket material on the inside of the front door. The material is about 3/4 inch wide and cut to length to fit each side of the door, the seal is made of 4 pieces. The area that is not compressed when the door is closed is about 3/16 inch thick. It is not glued in place but held there by the same bracket that holds the mica window in place.

My Godin stoves are not totally air-tight. Look at the handle to shake the grate. It passes through a hole in the door frame with plenty of space for some air to enter. What I have seen with my stoves is that they are tight enough that closing the air regulator on the front door will quickly kill the fire. What I have also noticed is that each stove is unique. The cast iron parts were machined during assembly to fit right and work together well. The seal between the top plate and rim admits very little (if any) air. I'm not sure if the 3730 has it but on both of my stoves there was what the French called an "Conduit d'air", a ceramic wick in an iron sleeve behind the front fire brick, that introduces a small amount of air from the front door to the top of the coal bed. It helps burn off any gasses in that area giving a more efficient burn and so there is little or no "pop" when you open it to add coal.

17,000 BTU's (5kw) should be plenty to heat a room. My 10kw stove heats a 1,500 sq ft space easily.

cold morning this week, so I fired it up with wood to test it. Tons of smoke poured out of the top between the inner cap and the outer enamled one. What gives? Anybody else have this problem?

dsteinel wrote:cold morning this week, so I fired it up with wood to test it. Tons of smoke poured out of the top between the inner cap and the outer enamled one. What gives? Anybody else have this problem?

Just a thought, but if you have an external chimney or a real short chimney and it has been warm outside it might be tough starting a draft. Did it continue to smoke out the top after it was going strong for a while? There is a spot in your avatar for your location, give us a general location it helps for questions like this when temp or weather conditions might be a factor. I promise no one will come and steal you.

Eric

I used to first take a nice wad of newspaper and burn it to establish draft. I have used tongs to hold a wadded up piece of paper burning right at the entrance of the chimney in the back of the stove. That way I can see the draft begin to work. That's before when I had one particular chimney that would sometimes give me trouble to start a draft. My current chimney just sucks all the time..

dj

I would like to know if possible the size of the fire pot in a 3730 Godin stove (diameter and height) for the 20 pounds ant, 17,000 Btu? Is it a lined fire pot or cast iron?
Thanks, nortcan

Hi dsteinel,

Did you check to see if you have a draft? Open the top of the stove and put something like incense or a candle near the outlet pipe. Even if there is no draft the top of the Godin should be tight enough not to smoke. I watched a friend try to light one with the manual damper in his flue pipe closed. The smoke came in via the open ash door, not the top.

The top of the Godin has 4 pieces of cast iron, they are:

Couvercle - The top cover, a decorative piece that is usually enameled.
tampon de chargement - the loading cover.
dessus foyer - the ring the loading cover closes against.
chapiteau - the outer ring that holds the top of the sheet metal cylinder and firebricks in place. The "dessus foyer" bolts to this ring also.

Did you notice where the smoke was actually coming from? I have seen two different situations. In the first the hinge on the loading cover had been cracked and replaced. As I mentioned in an earlier post most Godins are "adjusted" as they are assembled. In this case the new hinge wasn't exactly right and while the cover appeared to close completely it stayed open a slight crack. Do the "dollar bill" test under this cover to make sure it is completely closed. If not loosen the hinge a little and try to see what is holding it open.

The second situation was a little more difficult to resolve. That stove had apparently been roughly handled when it was moved between houses. The firebrick, dessus foyer, and chapiteau had gotten out of alignment. Some of the bolts holding them together had snapped. This left a gap between the outer and inner rings. It required taking off the top, putting everything back in place and bolting it back together.

Hope this helps.

The Godin body is sheet metal and except for the front grate is lined with a ceramic lining,which extends to the top of the stove. The stove is normally filled almost to the top, so it is all fire pot. I think the outer diameter of the barrel is about 9 inches so the inner diameter would be about 6 inches. I would guess the inner height to be about 16 inches.

Hi Nortcan,

The fire pot is 40 cm high and 20 cm in diameter. The cylinder is heavy sheet metal skin completely lined with firebrick. The top, bottom, and door assemblies are cast iron. While documentation I have seen from Drolet (sp?), the Canadian company that imported many of the Godin stoves, indicates a 20 pound capacity, Godin shows a 6 kg load. Godin rates it at 5kw burning .75 kg of coal/hour.

Hi again Nortcan,

I dug out some old Drolet documentation for the 3730.

Drolet gives the size of the firebox as 400mm (15.7 in) high x 200 mm (7.9 in) dia.

They rate the stove as 4 kw (13,600 btu) capable of heating 120 cubic meters (4250 cubic feet).

Fuel (coal) consumption @idle 0.25 kg/hr (0.5 lbs/hr) @normal 0.6 kg/hr (1.3 lbs/hr).

They state an "autonomy at low combustion rate" of 12 hours.

Adequate draft is stated to be 1,5 mm WG (0.06" WG)

If anybody would like a copy of this Drolet/Godin Installation & Users' guide please PM an e-mail address.

Thanks Franco and KaptJaq for the infos for the fire pot/lining...I'm planning to make a liner fot the Golden B. and your infos are appreciated. Having a very small fire pot will be OK for the small living room where the Bride sits.

kaptjaq, you mentionned a few times Drolet on your posts. Is drolet the importer of the Godin stoves for the Canada? I will see for the infos you mentionned on your last post and come back to you if I don't find out.
Thanks, nortcan, Qc
P/S where are you from?

Nortcan,

I updated my profile with a location; Long Island, New York.

As I have been told there were several independent importers of Godin stoves before the oil embargo of the 1970's. They imported the European domestic models (i.e. 3720 & 3721). When Godin saw the North American demand for their product they developed "export" versions of their stoves (i.e. 3730 & 3731). As the memory of the oil embargo faded and local manufactures developed equivalent hand fired radiant coal stoves the demand for the Godin models dropped. The "export" models were discontinued. These "export" models were very similar to the domestic versions with labeling and minor modifications to comply with local regulations. Drolet imported the stoves for North America from the early eighties until they were discontinued. Until recently Drolet had some parts available but I no longer see them on their site.