Vermont Iron Stove works "The Elm"

[wkpoor]

Man is that a neat stove. I like the looks of. Think I'll keep an eye out for one myself. Might even call to see what he charges for the rebuilt ones. 30yr old doesn't bother me. Thats what heats my house now is a 30yr old Nashua.

[Islander]

My neighbor has one, and actually it was passed on from another neighbor.

It is a nice looking stove, but technically nothing special.

They use it to heat a garage now. Great beer drinking stove.

We had a New Year's Barbecue this year. We were laughing that it was "Extreme Barbecue"...we were grilling steaks at about 10 below and must have been a 40 MPH wind. My Vermont Castings grill delivered the goods...and the stove kept us toasty (I can't list the other toasty items...).

My other neighbor had it first in their living room. Heated a whole small house quite well. I remember times where it must have been 80 in there. After that, it was in their garage too. I guess that's where it started the beer drinking reputation.

I think it went from living room to garage based on wood consumption. They burned a good 4-5 cord a year in it for supplemental heat. No secondary burn, and not a high tech design....a descendant from a barrel stove.

But it works great for beer drinking, and at least you can say you have a friend in Vermont that uses one for toast!!

[fishercat]

a little uncommon and pricey when one comes up for sale.i prefer the non EPA stoves.they were simple and worked.

[Spotted Owl]

If you are looking they're out there. Patients will be your friend. The one we got was $100. Hard to beat for a winter project. Figure we might be into it for around $250 all a round. It's a 24" 1980 non cat non anything rated.

Make no mistake this is a barrel stove. Only the ends are cast and pressure fitted with tie rod squeeze bolts.

Today we took the grinder wire cup to it and cleaned the surface rust and scale.

Wait for a few parts and then paint and it will be done. So far so good and good times with my boy. Memories made can't beat that and don't wanna try. Many a sodas will be downed around this after we are done.



Owl

[TreeCo]

Originally Posted by fishercat

a little uncommon and pricey when one comes up for sale.i prefer the non EPA stoves.they were simple and worked.

.......EPA stoves are simple and work better!

[coog]

Originally Posted by TreeCo

.......EPA stoves are simple and work better!

You are both right. I'm sure a lot of you heard today's news reports about the effects of car exhaust and woodsmoke on children.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1106084243.htm

I don't believe any "scientific" report I hear on NPR, but I know where this will lead.It's nice to look at my chimney when my Jotul is burning all out and seeing no smoke.It is plenty hot inside, but it takes more work than some of the old stoves I've had.Believe me, it's a religion for these people.They will call you a child abuser if you use an old stove.

[fishercat]

Originally Posted by TreeCo

.......EPA stoves are simple and work better!

i own both and strongly disagree.

[fishercat]

Originally Posted by coog

You are both right. I'm sure a lot of you heard today's news reports about the effects of car exhaust and woodsmoke on children.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1106084243.htm

I don't believe any "scientific" report I hear on NPR, but I know where this will lead.It's nice to look at my chimney when my Jotul is burning all out and seeing no smoke.It is plenty hot inside, but it takes more work than some of the old stoves I've had.Believe me, it's a religion for these people.They will call you a child abuser if you use an old stove.

i don't have all the ailments that kids now seem to have with this new cleaner environment hogwash.

[Longshot]

We've been slow-roasting in front of an Elm for 32 years. Great stove! Replaced the baffle once in that time, and just this summer broke the ole' boy down and replaced all the gaskets and the back casting [ a split developed, either as a result of a casting weakness, or it was caused by a log striking the back when thrown in]. Either way, the stove owes me nothing at this point, yet it continues to deliver.
It was encouraging to find that Steve Slatter [ original co-owner/designer] still has the molds and is able to get parts cast. He proved to be a very cooperative gentleman and the instructional videos on the website were unquestionably helpful.

[TreeCo]

Originally Posted by TreeCo

.......EPA stoves are simple and work better!

Originally Posted by fishercat

i own both and strongly disagree.

Then you're doing it wrong!

Please explain what kinds of problems you are having with an EPA stove and maybe we can walk you through it.

Originally Posted by fishercat

i don't have all the ailments that kids now seem to have with this new cleaner environment hogwash.

Your hogwash is showing!

[demographic]

Is the centre section of these stoves (the basic cylinder shape) cast as well as the ends and what kind of diameter and thickness is it?

[Spotted Owl]

Originally Posted by demographic

Is the centre section of these stoves (the basic cylinder shape) cast as well as the ends and what kind of diameter and thickness is it?

The center is a steel barrel 3/16 thick. It is the only weld on the stove for ours, to bring the rolled barrel together. Ours is the 24" log noncat and the barrel is 19&3/16" O.D.


Owl

[Nonprophet]

Originally Posted by Spotted Owl

The center is a steel barrel 3/16 thick. It is the only weld on the stove for ours, to bring the rolled barrel together. Ours is the 24" log noncat and the barrel is 19&3/16" O.D.


Owl

Yeah, it's interesting to note that there's never been a single report of the barrel of an Elm stove failing. That's one of the things I like about these stoves so much, they're built really, really well and they're very simple. A complete tear-down and rebuild would take all of a few hours in terms of air-tightness, as opposed to most cast iron stoves (especially Vermont Castings) where they use stove cement instead of gaskets to seal the various panels/castings together. Lots of rusted bolts and complicated internal workings (air control cables/chains), not so with the Elm stove--end gasket, front gasket, door gasket, four tie-rods. Doesn't get much more simple than that. And of course "rebuilding" a steel stove is usually cost and time prohibitive.

Add to that the fact that more than a fair number of people in this and other wood burning forums are having problems with cracked welds on their square steel stoves. Most of the stove manufacturers seem to be stepping up to the plate the fix these faulty welds under warranty, but it's still a huge hassle--call the dealer, dealer calls the manufacturer, pull the stove, take it in for repairs, re-install it..........all in all something I don't want to have to mess with. And, most stove warranties are only good for 5 years..........

I think the barrel design has a couple of big benefits over square stoves:

1. Only 1 weld and never a failure. No stress points around doors, flue collars, blower mounts, etc.
2. The north-south loading of the logs (a cigarette burn if you will) ensures longer burns.
3. As the fire burns down, loaded logs will naturally roll onto the fire/coals.

In terms of efficiency, it's worth noting that the Elm stoves did come in a catalytic stove and they were reputed to be 72% efficient which is right up there with today's EPA stoves. Lastly, people are retro-fitting the non-cat Elms with secondary burn tubes (I'm going to do that to ours....) thus greatly increasing efficiency.

I know you can go down to Lowes and buy a new Englander EPA steel wood stove for about $900 (and they're great heaters) but they're about as plain-looking as they come and while there are numerous 30 year old Elm stoves still burning, I doubt that an Englander (or any other budget stove) would last nearly that long and they're nearly impossible to rebuild once key parts start to fail......


NP

[demographic]

Originally Posted by Spotted Owl

The center is a steel barrel 3/16 thick. It is the only weld on the stove for ours, to bring the rolled barrel together. Ours is the 24" log noncat and the barrel is 19&3/16" O.D.


Owl

Thanks for the info, I was being wildly optimistic and hoping that that section was made from cut down propane cylinders which over here are 320mm in diameter (without looking at a tape measure I guess that's about 13") and the bigger ones are about 360mm which (again without looking at a tape and I'm guessing here is about 15"?).

Seems I was wrong, never mind, at least I know and cheers.
Scott.

[fishercat]

Originally Posted by TreeCo

Then you're doing it wrong!

Please explain what kinds of problems you are having with an EPA stove and maybe we can walk you through it.







Your hogwash is showing!

not saying i am having trouble with it.

for one,they seem to have smaller fireboxes.due to all the EPA crap.second,it seems to take a lot longer to heat up.

the wood is dry.i can have a fire going in the house and one in the garage.the old Fisher seems to smoke a lot less.,heats up faster,keeps a fire longer.