Shenandoah FP-I

Greetings all! I'm a new guy here and was wondering if anybody was familiar with the Shenandoah FP-I/ FP-S stoves? I decided to put a stove in my basement this year because of the ridiculous gas bills I get every January, but I couldn't afford a new coal burner. I found this stove for what I think is a good deal and I'm trying to learn as much as I can as fast as I can. I'll post a pic as soon as I figure out how to do it on this site. Anyway, the stove is an FP-I jacketed wood/coal stove with a shaker grate and twin blower fans. It is in really good shape, as far as I can tell. The gaskets are all good and the fans work. I cleaned it up and hit it with a couple coats of stove paint. I intend to do an outside burn this weekend mainly to cook the paint before installation. The only issue so far is that the collar might be a little undersized. It measures exactly 8" ID but I had to crimp the crap out of a piece of snap lock to get it to fit and it still doesn't seat all the way. I guess I need an adapter. Anybody got any comments, concerns? Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forum. Can you post a picture of the firebox and grates?

Rob,

It will be tomorrow evening before I get a chance to take any more pictures, but I will post one.

I might add that I intend to burn bituminous coal primarily because that is what I grew up with and I can get most of it free. The stove did have anthracite in it when I cleaned it out but I think the original owner hauled bit up from KY and only switched to anthracite after retiring from trucking.

We dragged the Shenandoah out into the driveway and fired her up with some good east KY bit coal. Everything seems great.

Rob,

Here's a pic of the firebox.

It looks like only that round grate in the center moves? If so, you will need to make a poker to help knock the ashes through the grate. That is a big firebox, it should make some serious heat with bit. coal.

Yep, the center part of the grate rotates, I just wish I had the handle extension for the shaker. I can make one easy enough, though. Anyway, I had it fired up in the driveway for two days and was impressed with how much heat it put out and how little coal it burned. I finally found chimney materials as cheap as I'm likely to, now it's a matter of getting it all together. Also, I found an adapter to fit the flue collar so that's sorted.

BrantSFGDS wrote: Anyway, I had it fired up in the driveway for two days and was impressed with how much heat it put out

I thought I felt a little warm up here today

Well, we got it installed today! Much thanks to my Dad and stepson for all the help.

I got the stove installed just in time for the worst of the weather. I've been burning wood for the time being because that's what I have access to at the moment. I've been learning the stove and it's pretty consistent. I'm not used to burning wood and didn't know what to expect but I was surprised that the max burn time I can get is 5 hours and that's with the stove full and both dampers closed. It will hum along with a door temp of 300-350 degrees loaded up with dampers closed.

A buddy gave me a bag of Blaschak anthracite the other day and I threw in a few pounds last night on top of a good bed of coals then I stacked 4 logs over that, closed the dampers and went to bed. This morning, the wood was gone but the coal was still there and hot. I put on a layer of coal and a load of wood and she is still going strong. I an to burn straight coal once I have the time and money to get a load. As for now, I've just been trying to get an overnight burn and wood alone wasn't doing it but I think I've found a good combination. I wish I had enough anthracite to run it straight for a few days so I could see what the stove would do loaded up with the stuff. Anthracite is newer to me than wood, we burned bit coal back home so this is a learning experience.

One thing is for sure, this stove would be useless without a damper in the stove pipe. My chimney has such a strong draft and this is an older stove that is not airtight so I have to close both dampers to slow it down. Otherwise, it looks like a blast furnace, lol. Once the grate is completely covered with a bed of coals, the airflow is cut down and the stove is easier to regulate but this thing has a huge grate and it takes a while to build up enough coals to cover it.

Well, since it's going to be Down In single digits again, I decided to pick up a couple bags of Blaschak and put a full load in to see how things go. I fired her up about 2 hours ago and I have 20 Lbs in so far and it's burning really nice. This is the first run with a full load of coal.

It looks like you have a small ash pan, (wood/coal stove I assume), and grates just above that so empty the ash pan before you load her up for the night and enjoy. After a couple days of non-stove tending but 15 minutes will be a treat, enjoy. Mike.

Well, I choked it down too much before going to bed and I woke up to stove full of cold unburned coal. It was cranking pretty good and I should have left her alone but I'm new at this anthracite stuff. Anyways, I lit her off when I got home tonight and I think I've got her dialed in. I'm curious to see what the burn time is.