Brian G NY

I was just reading the stove pipe cleaning from yestrrday, and I see u said u have a black box stove in your basement. What kind do you have? I have a Thermo control In my basement, hooked to the baseboard water, just was wondering if you had the same kinda stove.

It"s a cast iron Taiwan made stove and the tag that was on it is long gone.
I believe the name may have been Scandia; probably a knockoff of some of the very well built Scandinavian stoves that were being sold
back in the early 80s when air-tight stoves began becoming popular.
I bought if from Sears in the mid-80s for $80.
It was a customer return and had a quarter inch thick build up of creosote on the inside.
Obviously the prior owner knew nothing about burning wood!
It was put together rather shabbily with poor quality furnace cement so I completely dismantled it, did a little grinding in critical places and reassembled it with high grade refractory cement.
I like the way it burns; from the front to the back like a cigar but it is not an efficient stove by today"s standards.
I used it as my primary heat source for about 10 years in my previous residence.
Instead of firebrick, it has two cast-iron plates which hang down from each side from hooks.
Because I used it at near maximum output, those plates warped badly and sort of disintegrated around the lower edge.
These stoves used to come up for sale fairly frequently and I have bought two (each for $20) over the years just for the side plates.
I am familiar with the Thermo-Control stoves. They were originally built right next door to me in Howes Cave and they have a very good reputation. I am fortunate to have kept my cheap box stove going for all these years but I don"t think you can ever wear out one of those Thermo-Control units. My brother worked at their plant for a few years back in the 70s or 80s.

Ya I'm very happy with the Thermo-control stove I have. My fathers is over 30 years old, and he just replaced the 3rd water coil because it wore threw. Now there all stainless steel coils. I think my brother had the cast iron type like u have for my dad to heat his garage with. Same thing happened the cement burned out and it would leak, or at least you could see into the firebox when it was burning.!