Replacing fire brick liners for Chappee 8033 - mystery?

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Chappee8033fan
New Member
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue. Jan. 11, 2022 3:22 pm
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Chappee 8033
Coal Size/Type: normally wood fired, nut coal occasionally

Post by Chappee8033fan » Tue. Jan. 11, 2022 4:09 pm

I've been burning a Chappee 8033 for about 5 years now, using it keep my garage shop warm. I normally burn wood, as my friendly neighbor objected to the coal smell one year, and as she's a good friend I switched back to wood, which has been my go-to fuel for about 50 years. I bought the stove locally from a homeowner who inherited it, and wasn't interested in using it. While well used, it was in quite good intact condition, and mostly by reading this forum learned how to use it and burn coal (briefly). I find it a delightful and reliable device, and early on realized (like almost all solid fuel manual stoves) one cannot let it run away from you, as it's hard to bring it home!
So, after years of use the fire brick liners developed cracks, but held together. Until this year, that is. A few chunks popped out. I looked everywhere I could think of for replacement brick tiles (there's 6 bricks and they're of a custom design to fit tightly). I figured it was a long shot to find any, and was correct as couldn't find any. Until last week I searched Craig's List in Eastern Massachusetts and low and behold there they were! An old timer formally had the same stove, wore it out and disposed of it, but thoughtfully kept the replacement fire bricks it came with (he's a former millwright, and sensible). I drove that day an hour to pick them up, had a perfectly pleasant transaction (how about FREE?), brought them home and went to work. I removed grates, etc, cleaned the stove, removed the 2 rear cracked bricks, and slowly realized (correctly?) that the top of the stove had to come off in order to insert the bricks in place (held there by retaining projects from the firebox ceiling pieces that seem to be hung somehow from the stove top. However, ain't so easy to get the top off. As a matter of fact, damn difficult, and haven't been able to do so. All the while I'm thinking why is so difficult to merely replace the liner (of a finely designed device). It doesn't make sense, but I'm stymied, and lest I make a fatal mistake with top removal, I should find someone who knows more about this than I do (probably not too hard). Can anyone here steer me in the right direction, with either the proper method of liner replacement, or to someone who would know? It's a Chinese puzzle to me, and I don't know the trick!

Meanwhile, we're in a spell of multi-year lows here in the northeast, so I reassembled the stove with the chunks of brick, and limping along to keep my shop from freezing until I solve the riddle. Somewhere on this forum I read of a user who had 4 or 5 of these stoves, so I bet they know!

Cheers to all for a warm and prosperous New Year!
Regards, David K


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