Stove ready
December 17th, 2009. Post by WendyIt’s been raining, so work is inevitably progressing at a slower pace than I’d like given the urgency in getting the yurt dried out. A couple of days’ work now has the stove stripped down, rust removed, corroded and sheared bolts replaced, and reassembled and tested.
It goes! With no leaks.
This is a lovely little old cast iron Danish woodburner manufactured by L Lange & Co of Svendborg that’s been sitting in my garden shed since I took it out of our previous home. The garden shed has played host to the River Tweed several times in the last 5 years, so the stove was pretty rusty. When we first got it, it had been out in all Scottish weathers in a friend’s garden for several years, so this is the second time I’ve stripped it right down and put it back to rights.
I would love to know more about these stoves. I haven’t been able to find much information on the internet, so if anyone out there knows anything interesting about them, please post here. In particular I’d like to know if they’re designed to take fire bricks. From the looks of the interior, the extent of the flanges on the stove floor, the absence of fixing points, etc, it doesn’t look much like it, and there were none when we got the stove, but I’d like to know for sure.
More rain expected tomorrow, so don’t know yet when I’ll be able to get the stove installed – it involves taking the crown cover off the yurt which is not a good idea if it’s raining.
Meanwhile, this is my temporary home at Quinta das Abelhas.
Tags: L Lange & Co, wood burning stove
December 20th, 2009 at 12:13 am
are you sure you haven’t just bought this new?Joke…you have done a great job with it Wendy.
December 29th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
hi there, from south wales u.k!! have just acquired a lange stove myself, seems very similiar to yours and also flued from the back… one distinct difference with my stove is the window in the front door instead of the bird on yours… having looked inside the burn chamber i agree that the stoves never had fire bricks fitted.. Hope this helps… good luck with fitting the stove!!
January 10th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Thanks Dave. That’s good to know. I’ve now got the stove installed and running and have noticed, with a good burn going, when I blow out the candles at night the back of the stove glows red hot. I think I might try and source some of that lightweight firebrick which can be cut to size and see if I can fit some at the back of the burn chamber at least. Just thinking about its longevity …
November 7th, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Hi there – we have just been given an l.lange stove – it has no baffle at the back and we’re thinking quite a lot of heat is going up the chimney – did you put in firebricks, and did it help?
November 7th, 2011 at 7:50 pm
Mine has a baffle pushing heat forwards before it can pass up under the top plate and exit through the rear flueway. Yes I did put firebricks in. I couldn’t get the lightweight ones here in Portugal, so I just used a couple standard firebricks at the back of the burn chamber to keep direct heat off the back of the stove, which is what I was most concerned about. It doesn’t glow red hot at the back any more and runs fine, though the size of the burn chamber is reduced by the firebricks.
November 27th, 2011 at 7:55 pm
Hi, I have just discovered an identical stove to that shown. When found it had no fire bricks and the design intrigued me so it has become a small/slow renovation project.
I assumed it is a wood burning stove but I am intrigued as how the ash is emptied as there does not seem to be any removable ash pit or tray!!
Does anyone know the age of the Stove? I would love to know more.
November 27th, 2011 at 10:13 pm
Hi Geoff. Yes it’s a woodburner. The lack of grate is a giveaway since wood burns happily on a solid surface while coal, etc, needs a flow of air underneath. And as for emptying, you just scoop the ash out after it’s built up a way. It’s a great little stove and chucks out a good heat. I have no complaints at all about mine.
November 28th, 2011 at 7:15 pm
Many thanks Wendy. I will continue with the renovation and look forward to using the stove. I already have a multi-fuel ‘Clear View’ which I use almost continually. I tend to watch the flames rather than the TV.
Also I seem to have made logging a hobby which I enjoy very much. Gives me exercise and also is productive in this day and age of high fuel costs.
Regards Geoff
November 28th, 2011 at 8:32 pm
There’s no doubt it’s nice to watch the flames and you can’t do that with this stove unless you leave the door open, but going into our 3rd winter with it now I have to say I love its simplicity. When I first put it back together, I was comparing it with other small stoves like the Mørso Squirrel, Stovax Brunel (which I’d fitted in our living room) and Clearview Pioneer 400 and had difficulty getting my head around the lack of grate, ashpan, riddling mechanism, etc, etc, and thought it a rather inferior animal for that.
I was wrong. It’s nothing of the sort. It lights quickly and easily with no fuss and has the place warm inside 15 minutes. In fact we have to be careful how we run it as it can get the yurt up to 35°C without much difficulty which, even on a cold winter’s night, is just too warm. And the lack of ash pan means you can be much more relaxed about emptying it. I’ve let the ash build up to the bottom of the door before now and it makes no difference to how the stove runs. It lights faster on a reasonable bed of ash – the insulating qualities of wood ash mean there’s usually some warmth still in there even 18 hours after the fire burns out.
We don’t try to keep it in overnight. I suspect I’d probably need hardwood and a longer flue to do that, but in any case it warms the place so quickly there’s no need. We have a large saucepan on the stovetop which is our hot water supply, and it also acts as a radiator overnight. Even when it’s a few degrees minus outside, it’s never been below freezing in here.