My brother just moved into a place and this is the stove in the basement. The previous owner was burning wood in it but to me it doesn't look like it was ment for wood.
Looks like a wood furnace to me, but I've only seen a few in my life. Maybe some of our old timers will recognize it.
How would the operation of this be different than a wood stove? We cleaned the stove pipe and the inside out today and he wants to give it a try.
The handle on the right closes off the damper. There is a grate in the bottom, I think there are some heads that lok like you could use a tool and shake, they are behind the bottom door.
I'll bet the handle to shake down the ash is that square tube welded to a crank handle on top of the unit in the right pic.
So what the difference between a furnace and s stove? I thought a furnace would have piping hooked up to it.
The blanked off plate in the front "used to be a tempered glass" window. Don't laugh, does is say ACME anywhere?
I'll have to take a look at it again or have him check. I was there yesterday to help him clean the stove pipe and replay some bad sections.
My buddy was no help!!! .... This is just a guess??? I saw one of these in a basement in Connecticut when I was stationed up there. It may be either an "old" ACME or US stove. Thats my guess. Did it have a blower or could have a blower? Water connections or pump anywhere? I'm 90% sure it was for a coal fire!, but I have been wrong
Hmmmm. Nice, if you don't have to display it in the middle of a room somewhere. Nice that you are able to burn coal in it as an option. Having" piping hooked up to it" is up to the homeowner/hvac installer.
An actual wood furnace will have a squirrel cage and a fan control to turn it on with. It'd also have a plenum connection coming off the top or at least a large round take -off or two on top. The combustion air looks to be manually adjusted, and it sure looks odd with the fire box sitting so high above the grate location. However its not so far out of location for an old coal stoker. But then again, the lower front looks nothing what a typical stoker would've looked like UNLESS that lower door is a shop-fabbed door covering the typical location for an automatic stoker. I doubt that thought though as the doors are obviously identical. Could that round plate at one time been an opening for a combustion air fan for a wood fire? Maybe. Many a time we removed automatic stoker assemblies and converted them to an 'Upshot' natural gas burner and cemented closed the remaining area formally occupied by the stoker tube. The stokers typically had a tube and an auger that turned verrrrry slowly (when the auto-fire controls required more fuel) to gently force more coal up through the center of the grate assembly which at the same time forced the 'clinkers' (by product of expended coal) off to the side. Most times daily the homeowner would have to reach into the firebox with long three fingered tongs to grip the clinkers, retrieve the brittle but hot pieces and drop them into an empty coal bucket. Also many coal stokers had circular grates that rotated in opposite directions when the handle was moved back and forth, not unlike the old Lennox "Torrid Zone" first generation wood furnaces. The last old stoker I tore out had to be '76 or '77, but you'd be surprised just how many old stoker to natural gas conversions are still in use in the old areas of St Louis yet today. Btw, this was a real basic description for a stoker and not specific for any particular brand....official disclaimer here. That being said, could this be an old coal stoker???.... I don't know without having the opportunity to actually look it over in person. It sure looks inconvenient to use for having been specifically designed for wood only. It actually looks kinda small to have been designed specifically for coal also. However, there were as many variations of stoker design as there were automobiles and all basically were the same but each different at the same time. So now that you are totally confused... I'll be quiet now. More detailed pics of the insides, back and blower (if equipped) may help come to a conclusion though. Looking again at the pictures, I think its a wood stove.... whatd'yaguys callit.... a smoke dragon?? Dang..I typed waaay too much here.
