A series of notes, hints, links, tips & FAQ's for buying & owning a French antique stove
Think if you own an antique or classic car that you would probably drive and cherish it with more care and consideration than a modern one allowing for it's age and limitations. We feel the same holds true with antique and classic stoves.
Where antique stoves are streets ahead is in beauty, style and unbelievable range of shape and colours, Many antique French & Belgian stoves are pure works of art in the attention to exquisite detail or sometimes outrageous Art Deco forms, and to such an extent that sometimes on first sight they can make you gasp with amazement!
view through a wood stove window....
We are introducing 2 new services for antique French stove owners...
A high quality copy of the original stove catalogue page along with probable date of manufacture -
A detailed antique French stove valuation for you to sell, insure or just wish to know... -
Here are some of the factors that are important in choosing an antique French stove with the first 5 at or near the top of the list....
- type of fuel to be burned?
- is the stove for main or occasional heating?
- does it have to fit within an existing fireplace or can you use it as so many French do against a blank wall or chimney breast?
Tip ! Stove rope seals will often bond to the door opening when left closed over an extended period of non use. When your stove is not in use leave doors slightly ajar to prevent this happening, it also has the added advantage in helping with an air change in the room.
Q - how do these antique French stoves compare to modern stoves?
A - this is a really good question. A few antique French stoves will get close to modern stoves for efficiency, the De Dietrich President, the Deville Lily when modernised and the Petit Godin are good examples, but in the main quality modern stoves will have the edge on efficiency and larger heat outputs that cannot be matched by antique stoves. But not everybody buys a stove as a functional room heater solely to heat a space, some also require a stove to look stylish or beautiful, even strange or bizarre and striking. This is where with a few exceptions antique French stoves as a whole cannot be matched. To own a stove that has a masterful design and style quality, an enamel finish of the highest order, plus will allow you to heat a room to a reasonable level too is to have nearly everything in a stove... in our opinion.
Tip ! When is a stove with a door at the front not a front loader?... when the stove is designed for the door window mica to be protected by a grill inside the firebox. There are always exceptions to every rule but in the antique French stove world not many.
As window mica will not tolerate heavy impacts it is important not to operate a stove that requires a door protection grill without the grill being in place, unless only a very small fire is laid.
The method of identifying which stove is which is complicated by the fact that many center grills were often removed and not included when a stove is sold to a new owner.
This was due to two main factors. It is often more convenient to load fuel through a front door and most center grills just unclip. When a stove moves to a new owner these grills are sometimes already lost or are not included with the stove. The second reason is they can burn out with many years of use and replacements can be hard to find.
Here is a link to a Deville Lily stove http://www.stovefinders.com/1841a.jpg It has the standard antique multi-fuel design of a lower grate (or fire basket), a central grill (for door protection), and an upper grill to direct fuel loaded through the top away from the door. As can be seen that if the center grill (which is just a slot in) were removed the door would be completely unprotected with nothing to retain the burning fuel when the door is opened... not a good idea. The same photo shows the fuel loading door under the enamel lid, it's the part with the new white rope seal. This type of stove was designed to be banked up for overnight burning which is not possible without the center grill.
To identify if your stove should have a center grill take a look inside the door opening, there should be one or two small lugs on each side of the opening to hold the grill in place. If you are still not sure you are welcome to write to us with a good photo of your stove and in most cases we can give a definitive answer.
Missing grills can be found from old donor stoves, fabricated from steel, or if there is a good original pattern also re-cast, so all is not lost if your's is missing.
Q - is it a good idea to buy an antique French stove over the internet or via eBay?
A - mostly yes, as being able to scan the whole of the internet or eBay gives you so much choice, millions do every day, just providing you keep a few common sense factors in mind.
- make sure you get a reasonable amount of detail, "a medium sized Art Deco stove" is not enough
- antique stoves are sold in various guises... either fit for use/full working order/restored/excellent condition etc which would in our view describe the stove as ready to plumb into the flue system and use.
- alternatively, a stove described as ' as found ' needs repair/restoration/attention, or requires servicing will need some form of minor to major work to enable the stove to work safely. In a perfect world your seller will have enough knowledge to describe the problem area(s) fully so you are clearly informed on what you are taking on.
- of course it must be taken into account that whatever condition a stove is in that these are antique stoves and they will operate within the scope of an antique, but be clear how the stove is described to avoid disappointment.
- ensure you can see photos of all aspects of the stove with a couple of real close ups of nice detail or problem areas
- we all get a few things wrong but the good sellers will put errors to right quickly and to your satisfaction
- feel comfortable with your seller before purchase
Tip ! Do not clean your stove when hot!! In all cases with an enamelled stove this will leave a stain or discoloration in the enamel almost every time, and stains are almost impossible to remove at a later date.
Q - what is the best method to clean the enamel?
A - clean the stove with a pure soap and warm water... we use Marseilles soap in a block. Once dry buff with a soft clean cloth, and that should do the trick.
Q - what is the fundamental difference between a wood burner and a multifuel stove?
A - a wood burner does not usually have the heat lining to cope with continuous coal or coke burning, plus it does not have a suspended grate to allow coal to burn efficiently. If there is not a suspended grate and the fire box is not lined with either cast iron panels or fire brick, it will not burn coal or coke correctly !
Tip ! There are exceptions to this tip but in the main a pure wood only burning stove will require a larger fire opening or space than an antique multi-fuel for the simple reason that wood has far more bulk. Most tradtional French antique wood burners will load from the RH side ( to utilise fully the firebox capacity ), which will require a space for the stove and room on the RH to load the fuel.
Q - I have been offered a French stove that looks like a wood burner but is supposed to burn coal as it has a grate, can that be right?
A - yes it's possible, we call them hybrid stoves as they originated as traditional wood burners but were either re-modelled by the factory to burn all solid fuels or designed to look like a traditional wood burner but capable of burning coal & coke too. They will have a suspended grate and usually a set of cast iron liners, plus will weigh substantially more than a wood burner of a similar size. They are also fairly rare. Sometimes the added internals were removed to allow for larger logs to be burnt, but at that point it becomes a wood only burner.
Q - why does a multifuel stove need a grate if a wood burner does not?
A - a coal or coke fire works best when drawing air from under the fire and therefore needs to be suspended. A wood fire works best drawing air from the sides with the logs laying on the base on a bed of hot ash. Most multifuels will burn wood pretty well, but wood burners will not burn coal and coke well, and in fact burning coal and coke in a wood burner will damage the enamel over time.
Tip ! Even when a full set of photos & all dimensions are supplied about a stove, most people find it hard to imagine the proportions as applied to the location for their stove. A good way to get a 'feel' for how a stove will look is to find a cardboard box of the approximate size and place it where the stove will stand. It's a surprisingly good method of telling whether the dimensions of the stove you are thinking of buying will suit your space.
Q - what are the advantages of a wood burner stove?
A - most wood burners will burn larger logs than a multifuel, the fact that wood is a renewable fuel and often free !!
Q - what are the advantages of a multifuel?
A - they tend to be top or front loaders as against most antique wood burners loading from the RH side. This allows for a smaller more compact stove design which will often fit inside an existing fire place. Coal & coke will continuously slow burn for much longer periods than wood burners unless the wood burner is large and premium wood (oak,beech,ash etc) is burned.
Q - the stove I have bought does not have a flue outlet/spigot... it's just a hole in the back. How do I connect a flue pipe to it? * please read
A - this is an increasingly frequent recurring problem when purchasing an antique French stove, the stove flue outlet is sometimes missing or damaged and without a flue outlet it is not possible to connect flue pipe safely at all. The problem is solvable but it is better to check before purchase that the stove has a flue outlet. If you are looking at the stove in person it is quite easy to take a look at the rear of the stove to check. If buying via the internet, insist, and I mean insist that you see a photo of the rear of the stove before you buy. Here are explanetory photos of a stove with & without the flue outlet photos
If the outlet/spigot is missing, it's possible to fabricate another. Depending on which type and model of stove as to how difficult the job is, and the level of difficulty will influence the cost. Of course if you are offered a stove at an astounding price because it has no flue outlet, it may be an excellent buy, in particular if you can fabricate something yourself.
Q - I can't find a flue pipe to fit my antique stove, what do I do ?
A - the answer is use a stove flue pipe adapter. There are many different antique stove flue outlet sizes and even different shapes (round, round with a taper and oval). Currently we can supply one size of the antique stove flue pipe adapters, this is 97mm to 125mm adapter internal dimensions in round to round form. Of the range of flue outlet dimensions found on French & Belgian antique stoves, 97mm outside diameter for the flue outlet is probably the most popular. We will endeavour in the near future to add other sizes to our range.
Note - damaged fireboxes
We are fielding an increasing number of enquiries about antique wood burning stove fire boxes. The question usually goes something like this " the xxxx antique stove I have just bought has a damaged firebox... is this repairable? " The answer is in almost in every case yes it is repairable, but with varying degrees of difficulty (and cost). The detail of individual repair methods is a full article in it's own right, and not for this note. But it is important to advise that when buying a stove always look at the inside with a torch, and if buying online look for a good interior photo or as a minimum a good description of the interior.
Minor and sometimes even major damage is not a reason to be put off from buying a particular stove, but knowing what you will be taking on allows you to make a much more informed decision re purchasing. If you wish to use the stove for heating, the interior (fire box) is equally as important as the exterior!!!
Q - I have a xxxxxx antique French stove, can I still buy spares for it ?
A - the answer is yes, no and yes. Service items such as fire rope or window mica are easily available, we supply these from stock. Original stove parts such as a new doors, ash cans, grills or legs have not been available for decades, from anywhere. These same parts are sometimes available as used items from suppliers such as ourselves. We are building a stock of used commonly asked for original parts but as there were literally hundreds & hundreds of models, the coverage is at present patchy. Also stovefinders have now embarked on the long process of having some new original parts re-manufactured, and although we are at the beginning of this project there will be a constant policy of adding new parts when suitable.
Q - what type of wood should I use in my wood burning stove?
A - the short answer is dry or seasoned wood. Most types of wood work very well if they are seasoned for 2 years or more, some types burn better than others and have more heat potential, but when thoroughly dried most wood is a good fuel. Our favourite is Hornbeam along with Beech, followed closely by Oak. That said there are many satisfactory types of wood with a lot depending on what is available to you locally.
Tip ! A simple and efficient method for checking the readiness of wood for burning is to use a common moisture meter. These are bought from DIY stores and online too and shouldn't cost too much. Push the probes into the end grain of the wood and take the moisture content reading. If around 20% the wood will burn very well, if around 15% you are nearing the perfect moisture content for use in your stove.
Q - what type of coal or coke is best for my antique French stove?
A - here is a great website explaining what the purpose of different coals & cokes plus prices too !
Q - why can't I load the fuel through the front door of my antique multifuel stove... there's a grill in the way?
A - there should be a grill behind the door of a multifuel stove, or at least a very high lip and there are 3 main reasons to have it there. (1) to protect the stove window material (mica) from damage (2) to stop burning fuel from falling out when the door is opened (3) to allow many stoves to be filled with fuel above the door level and to retain the fuel. If this grill is missing you should only ever have a small fire in the stove for the above reasons. With a few fairly rare exceptions, most antique multifuels are loaded through the flap under the top lid.
Q - the window material in my French stove appears to be clear plastic, is that right?
A - no it isn't clear plastic at all, but it does look a bit like plastic. It is in fact a mineral called ' mica ' . There is much more detail on our mica web pages, just click on the window mica link at the top of the page.
Tip ! There are advantages too in using a wood or multi-fuel stove in a workshop apart from the purely heating aspect. Tools in a workshop will frequently attract surface rust overnight, but a wood or coal burner will often either reduce this happening or in many cases eliminate it completely due to a solid fuel stove drawing moisture from the air as it burns. Gas stoves and heaters will have the opposite effect of releasing moisture into the atmosphere.
To buy a copy of the catalogue page with your antique stove details shown please send us one good photo of the stove, any model or detail name, any numbers or letters that are repeated on the front castings (inside doors etc), the height and the manufacturer.
On confirmation from us that we have a catalogue with your stove shown we will ask you to send us £5.00 to cover our costs and a little towards our time, and that's it.
A one-off charge of £28.00 will give you an internet delivered detailed and authorative French antique stove valuation for the British market. Valuations for other countries or regions should be sought there.
We will require 10 or more good photos of all aspects of the stove, exterior and interior, a detailed description including any damaged or missing parts and aspects of the stove that are particularly worth noting. Last, whether there are any interesting facts or history behind the stove.
For payment details please cointact us.
