How Many BTU's From My Franco Belge 1475?

Curious question for you all:

I don't have any kind of manual for my FB 1475 (this is the long narrow rectangular shaped stove with the side flu vents) since I bought it used. I'm wondering if anyone knows what the BTU raiting is for my stove. I thought I heard somewhere around 40,000.

I'm heating a 1500 sq ft. two story farm house (well insulated with mostly replacement windows). I found a website where you can calculate how many BTU's of heat you need, based on where in the country you live. You multiply that amount by the square footage of your house to get the total requirement. According to the map, PA is between 40 and 45, which would be multiplied by my 1500. I'm overcompensating and going with the 45 which makes my requirement at 67,500 BTU's to heat my home sufficiently. Has anyone else heard of this formula? If this is accurate, I have a feeling that my stove might be undersized.

I''ve got to use what I bought because I really knew nothing about the BTU stuff before I bought it, and it was one of the few stoves that would actually fit on my fireplace hearth. It's a great stove, but I'm wondering what the best burning method is going to be for me without overfiring this stove, especially when the temps will be in the teens and low 20's at night (or during the day).

Thanks for any input, folks!

Hey folks! (again...)

FYI: I was nosing around the internet and found a website with someone who did a type of "consumer's report" on coal and wood stoves. I discovered that my FB stove puts out about 45,000 BTU's. The review had more positive things to say than negative about the stove. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how my stove handles the cold weather this winter. I had to laugh. The article is from 2005 and at that time, they were charging around $70.00 per ton of coal! That's a far cry from the $230.00 that I am currently paying! Does that seem extremely under priced, or is it just that inflation has gotten out of hand?? .....crazy!!

I ran Francos for years. Had the larger one and the smaller one.
They give a nice even heat, but don't over fire them. They start
to crack and warp.
Coal was $70.00 a ton back in the early 80's .

I just bought a 10-475 franco belge the literature that I have says that it a 44.000 btu. as far as settings gose from what I have read any where between 2&6 depending on the outside temp. (if you type in franco belge there is quite a bit of good info out there on this stove) I have a parts list and manual that I got on line if you want I will try to email it to you

tsb wrote:I ran Francos for years. Had the larger one and the smaller one.
They give a nice even heat, but don't over fire them. They start
to crack and warp.
Coal was $70.00 a ton back in the early 80's .

Yeah, I've been getting the same recommendations from others too about not overheating it.

So how would you define overheating the stove?? Running it higher than maybe #6 on the thermostat??

memco man wrote:I just bought a 10-475 franco belge the literature that I have says that it a 44.000 btu. as far as settings gose from what I have read any where between 2&6 depending on the outside temp. (if you type in franco belge there is quite a bit of good info out there on this stove) I have a parts list and manual that I got on line if you want I will try to email it to you

MEMCO MAN,

If you could email me the manual, that would be great. I'd appreciate it.

I wonder if the $70 / ton they were paying in 2005 was for bit coal, not anthracite coal.

Use common sense. Over firing is heating the stove past it's design limitations. Generally speaking, that means you can run it at any "number" it has on it's dial or whatever the primary draft control is. Over firing is caused when someone exceeds that like for instance, leaves the ash pan door open, or props open a bi-metal thermostat door. It should not overfire using it's legit controls, but again, use common sense and use a magnetic or some typo of thermometer. I would think 600 degrees would be about as high as you'd want to go for any length of time.

Steve Zee,

Thanks for this very good advice. I appreciate it. I do have a magnetic thermometer on the top of the stove. I've come close to 600 degrees already, but as you said about using common sense, one knows that this is pretty hot and that you should probably back the stove off. 600 degrees is really cooking!! You can actually feel the stove being pushed to its limits. It's too much.

BTW: I was a former wood burner for a few winters, and I remember the one time I went downstairs and the stove and the pipe were actually glowing because I had chucked so much wood in it and opened the dampers. Talk about overfiring! I''m sure many of you have experienced that at one point or another.

Anyway, I can't say enough for how great the coal heat is. This is the most even and consistent heat I've experienced. And I don't have to fool around with it every few hours as I did with wood. I told my wife last night that I feel so much less "nervous" burning the coal. I was always preoccupied with creasote and potential chimney fires when I was using wood. I sleep sound at night now!

Good day to you all!!

I tried to link the folder to this link and could not attach it any suggestions

Can you send it to my personal email?? I think you can do that if you go into your user control panel, and then send a private message.....

I sent you the link the only way I send you the manual is threw my outlook email which I would be glad to do that for you but I need to know where to send it.

send it to [email protected]

thanks!