# Classic Sierra Stove



## bob95065

This is the Sierra wood stove that is in the house we bought in August.  I had trouble with it so I pulled it put nd fond put the PO shoved it in a fireplace and didn't put a liner in.  You can read more here:  https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/smokey-fire-need-help.114998/

Anyone have an idea of how old ths stove is?  Anyone knw what model it is?  Do you know where I can find parts or a manual?  I want to remove the steel plate in the front with glass.

Is this a stove worth keeping?  It seems like a solid built stove.  I ave an EPA rated stove in the font of the house that is very efficient.  I am worried this one ill go through a lot of wood.


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## BrotherBart

That is a Sierra Hearthstove Classic Turbo-Burn Model 2000T. Most probably made between 1979 and 1987 in Harrisburg, Virginia. You are right, it will eat a bunch of wood.


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## bob95065

Ever see one with glass in the front?

This stove is in a family room with a vaulted ceiling.  Our house is long and narrow with this stove at one end and an Avalon Ranier I installed at the other.  TheAvalon heats the main living area.  We want to use this one to heat the family room when we use it.  I isn't a big room so I don't think we would use too much wood because we wouldn't need to bun too long to get the room warm.

My plan is to put a chimney liner in and see how the Sierra works.  I can always replace it with a modern stove later.  I would need the liner no matter what.


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## Heatsource

even if you add glass it will not stay clean. old stoves didn't have air washes to help keep it clean

you could call SPI for a manual and further info
800-527-4790


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## BrotherBart

The old Sierra manuals pretty much just consisted of clearance info, which is on a plate on the back of the stoves, and "put in some wood and light a fire". I had the T-4500 insert and the manual was useless.


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## campcop70028

bob95065 said:


> Ever see one with glass in the front?
> 
> This stove is in a family room with a vaulted ceiling.  Our house is long and narrow with this stove at one end and an Avalon Ranier I installed at the other.  TheAvalon heats the main living area.  We want to use this one to heat the family room when we use it.  I isn't a big room so I don't think we would use too much wood because we wouldn't need to bun too long to get the room warm.
> 
> My plan is to put a chimney liner in and see how the Sierra works.  I can always replace it with a modern stove later.  I would need the liner no matter what.


I have the same stove with glass. I like it, it does well for us.


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## bob95065

campcop70028 said:


> I have the same stove with glass. I like it, it does well for us.



Does the glass stay clear?


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## campcop70028

Yes, for the most part. after repeated use it will need to be cleaned. I would think that is normal after several uses though.


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## Mialt

bob95065 said:


> Does the glass stay clear?


When I burn high-quality wood in mine, the glass stays clear enough to see the fire, but not clear like window-glass. If I burn lower quality species, or keep the fire choked back for a day, the glass turns black, but will "clear" again with a good hot, cured oak fire. I figure it is a gauge to how healthy my chimney is on a given day. I went through two cords of wood keeping a 2000sf 1790's farm house above 55 all winter in 2013-14 - a really cold winter!


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## coaly

Here's the air wash intakes in window frame with glass door;




1977 Farm Show Magazine article;
"It represents a brand new way of making a wood stove," says Jim Cook, president of *Self-Sufficiency Products*, a Minneapolis-based firm which has introduced the new Sierra stove.......
http://www.farmshow.com/a_article.php?aid=1092


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## Shwammy

I am looking into buying one of these same stoves very soon, I searched long and hard for a Fisher Mama Bear to no avail, (read the Fisher forum's, became a bit of an addict). I guess there's still one more Mama Bear out there for Coaly to snap up if he likes what he sees.
Anyway, I'm looking to heat a 6-8 inch pine log 2 room house , no insulation except in the vaulted ceiling that's about 11 feet high. It's basically one big room (about 900 square feet) with a small separate bathroom in the front corner, a fire place centered on the east wall, and a 10 x 15 bedroom added on where the backdoor was. I have a 6 inch stainless steel liner run up the chimney (about 12 foot long)
I live in North Carolina, near the Virginia border in the center of the state. I moved into this house a bit rushed in December of 2013 and heated it all last winter with just a Glowfire 301 (Jotul 602 knockoff). Needless to say it was insufficient at heating this small airy home for more than a few hours. I had to help it along with a baseboard heater I installed to plug into the dryer outlet. The Glowfire is not in very good shape and needs new side panels. They are warped and cracked up nearly to the top as the side burn plates are missing/nonexistent in these models. I'd like to make some new side panels at my work but that's another forum post.
Sorry for the long intro, but on to the original topic, The Sierra stove, being a side loaded rear flue stove puzzles me a bit as to modifying it. I want to put a baffle in it and replace the sheet metal with glass, as well as putting a guard behind the glass to keep it safe and maybe an air wash and secondary air.
I work in a lazer cutting and metal fabrication shop so I can get all kinds of leftover materials to use, pretty much any grade and thickness of stainless or mild steel I want at scrap prices, although larger pieces are harder to come by as we reuse much of the scrap.

Baffle (stainless steel, how thick? 2.5 inch air gap sound okay?)
Pieces the size of what I envision a full length baffle would need to be won't be too hard to come by. Plus I can weld it or bend it to whatever I need. I do want to keep the design simple though. It wouldn't be so much of a problem if it wasn't a side loader. I'm baffled (pun intended) at how to put a baffle in it though as I'm concerned it will have a tendency to want to throw smoke and flame out the top left corner of the door. Maybe this isn't a problem, or wouldn't be on this stove since it has plenty of clearance above the door opening to place a baffle. Obviously I'd like to make the parts from sheet metal. I could go so far as to have a design cut out on one of the lasers at work holes drilled for mounting, whatever, but I'd like to just keep it simple and mount a plate or two in there sitting on some brackets, depending on what will fit through the window or door.

Glass, Glass Guard, Air Wash? (Obviously buy it from that glass place, you know, what's it called? How thick?)
Now I could go to extremes and have a new frame cut out for the front and put a damn door on it with glass and air wash in it, all lazer cut and TIG welded stainless with some fancy outer design, but once again I'd like to keep it simple. Perhaps just a new outer frame (it appears to go together that way) with a small amount portioned off for an air wash. Or just put a piece of glass in the frame ( at least temporarily, hopefully) and put in a guard behind it. For the guard I can use numerous scrap pieces where it would be the leftover sheet that smaller parts were cut from. Pretty much just picking a thickness and finding a pattern that looks nice.

Secondary Air (What size tubing? What size holes and how many holes and any ideas on how to meter it and? and? and? and? and? and?...*head explodes)
The real bear, no pun Coaly, don't abandon me, the bear reference is in no way pointing to Fisher stoves, honest! The real bear is setting up a nice intake. If I'm going this far I want to make a nice looking one so... Plus just how much air do I need and what size/how many holes in the pipes and, and and and *head explodes again. I have a good selection of stainless tubing as we make jigs for use in industrial ovens as well some parts for the ovens. I can get round, square, rectangular.....

Sorry for the long post, any thoughts would be appreciated.


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## coaly

In my defense, I only have one Mama Bear.   It's a brown one and in my cabin. You didn't mention the square footage of your cabin, but mine is 800 sf. and built with an open center room where the stove is. 3 very small bedrooms, bath and front mud room. No insulation on solid log walls, cathedral ceiling about 14 feet at the peak. Mama was ok here in PA, but as I've insulated and finished the ceiling it's too much. So I'll be switching to a Baby Bear. Don't want to, since it's easier cutting and carrying 24 inch lengths, and the larger top is needed for the only cooking and water heating.


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## bob95065

You can have my Sierra if you come get it.  I'll help you load it.


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## Shwammy

LOL Bob, sounds like it needs some work. If I get mine working right I may be able to have some of those parts cut out for you if you're interested. Coaly the cabin is out 900 square feet and full of leaks. To give you an idea it was enough leaks that just by putting inch square foam strips in the gaps between the foam ceiling panels about 10 feet of the peak over the old stove I was able to sustain a higher temperature in the house for a longer period of time. I'm considering installing an outside air intake next to the hearth on the door side of the fireplace but with these leaks it may not matter a bit. Anyway, I got the stove and have started tearing it down and fixing it up. I have the window/piece of 3/16 steel that the previous owner had put in it removed, almost all the fire bricks are out now (got dark on me), and I replaced the bolts for the draft caps with some stainless ones, unfortunately there is still a wiggle but my local Ace Hardware didn't have the bolt I wanted to drill and tap everything out with to fix the wobble completely. Gonna have to search a bit more for that one. I'm drawing up plans for a baffle so our programmer can set it up on the computer and we can cut it out on one of the lasers. I'm going to make a box that looks like an upside down dryer outlet which projects outward more than the little baffle plate that's in there (I think I'm going to just leave the (factory?) baffle in there). the vent cover looking thing will also have a crescent moon shaped piece attached on top spaced in such a manner as to have equal clearance around the flue except a bit more at the door end so as to keep the flames away from the door by giving a shorter path. Does that sound like a good idea to you guys? I'm considering making it a bit wider on the ends than the center or perhaps just grinding it down if I need to. Probably the latter would be a better solution (can't add metal as easy right). Also I am considering cutting the crescent with a wavy line of sorts on the outer edge. I hope there's no interference with the side door smoke and fire wise. Any thoughts on that? I figure I'll bolt it in and then weld if in if I like it.


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## bob95065

This stove needs no work, the chimney needs work.  They opened the flue and shoved the stove in hoping it would vent smoke.  It didn't.  The stove and room were hardly used in the winter.

The tag on the back said it was made August of 1979.  Like I said it was hardly used.

Just think of the epic drive you could make from NC.  It would be the trip of a lifetime.  Maybe you could go north on the way out and south going home.


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## Shwammy

Had the same thing going on at my home sometime before I moved in. No sign of a liner being installed but there was a nicely bent piece of metal covering the fireplace opening with a hole in it much like what yours looks like, the fireplace was clean of soot but very black. The landlord insisted (smartly) that I have the chimney inspected of I planned to use it to run my liner. The flue is in good shape, just the firebox is not made of firebrick as the home is very old so it's chipped a bit. I lined it like he said and ran my pipe. I may use the old cover/end of chimney connections in conjunction with the Sierra, just gotta drag it out and measure to see if it will work.

I spent yesterday grinding on it, fixing up the plasma cut window opening and cleaning out the firebox to put new brick back in it. Tomorrow I'll make a cardboard mock up of the baffle. I'm thinking of taping it in place and using some smoke bombs to test it with a camera inside the box. It appears the window glass will be about $80 including gaskets and everything. Trying to sell my little scooter to finance it. Perhaps I could drive the scooter to Cali and trailer the stove back with me instead.


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## bob95065

The Sierra is pretty heavy.  It may be hard to tow it to North Carolina from California behind a scooter but you are welcome to try.


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## Shwammy

LOL, I'll pass, I already have one so... I do have a question though. It seems something has gone awry with the inside part of the door handle where it closes. It appears that something was on the end at one time and has come off. All I have is a piece of rod bent in to catch the triangle inside. It holds closed but seems like it could be knocked open pretty easy. I guess my question is what's in yours? Aside from that things are going well. I've decided to make a firebrick baffle 4 wide with a lengthwise section of two bricks on top. We have some stainless angle that was cut down to just over 2 foot each and has been sitting on a rack unused for months. Way more than I need too. My plan is to make a rectangle of it and set it in similar to the angle of the original baffle using more of the stainless angle, with another rectangle holding the top two out over the fire. I'm considering using light firebrick up there as well to reflect the heat and get a better burn.


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## PrairieChicken

I grew up with that stove in my parents living room. It put out some heat for sure. We'd go get 2 cords at a time in the mountains (CO) and split it all by hand...  great memories.


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## lefties

PrairieChicken said:


> I grew up with that stove in my parents living room. It put out some heat for sure. We'd go get 2 cords at a time in the mountains (CO) and split it all by hand...  great memories.


60 yrs old and still split mine by hand.....I would love to have that stove.


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