# New guy in northern MD with a Sierra?



## bluedogz (Oct 9, 2011)

Hello all-

I'm originally a New York City boy, and work happened to bring me just north of Baltimore.  New home had a Sierra wood stove (I'd tell you more, but I don't know any more) that got me into the whole thing of heating with wood.

My original intent in this intro was to post the model of stove I have to seek info.  Problem is, I wiped the dust and crud off the ID plate on the back, and the writing came off too!!  Nothing is legible but the embossed serial number!

So, I'm hoping to get a better ID on this thing.  It seem Sierra no longer exists?

I'm hoping to learn all I can here.... I have 5 acres of cherry and black locust that just begs to keep me warm....


----------



## begreen (Oct 9, 2011)

Welcome bluedogz. If you can post a picture it would be a lot easier to ID. Sierra has moved and morphed, but it's still sold. If your unit is an older model, BrotherBart is your main man. He had one for a generation of use. 

Sierra's website:
http://sierraproductsinc.net/pages/woodstoves.htm


----------



## fossil (Oct 9, 2011)

I had a Sierra in a weekend place on the South Fork of the Shenandoah when I lived in Northern Virginia.  It was a small-medium stove...more than enough for the place it was in.  It was an end loader with two air control knobs in the loading door.  Nice fixed viewing window in front.  It had a damper installed to facilitate start-up by making the airflow through the firebox pretty much straight up the flue...shifting positions after a good fire was established simply forced the incoming air to travel the full width of the firebox before finding its way out.  It had a couple of air slides on the front which served to provide a rudimentary airwash.  Nothing fancy, that's fer sure!  I don't know whether or not I can find a pic of it, but I'll take a look.  Rick


----------



## bluedogz (Oct 9, 2011)

I couldn't find a photo online either... still working on getting photos posted here.

It's 27" wide, dual front doors, two air supply louvers at the bottom and a single damper on top.  Front-loading, for what all that's worth...


----------



## fossil (Oct 9, 2011)

That's a much larger stove than mine was, and of a completely different design.  I looked for pics...have plenty of the outside of the place, no such luck on the inside.  Rick


----------



## BrotherBart (Oct 9, 2011)

I don't know the model number of that one. If that lever on the side isn't the flue damper then that is one of the ones they tried to get EPA compliant in the late eighties by putting a cat combustor in it. The double doors mark it as mid-eighties production. Before the employees showed up for work one morning and found the doors locked down in Harrisonburg, VA.

The baffle in the top of the firebox should be removable to see if that is the cat model or if that is just the flue damper.


----------



## Dune (Oct 9, 2011)

5 acres of cherry and locust. Perfect.


----------



## bluedogz (Oct 9, 2011)

BBart:  The side level appears to me to be the flue damper; it operates a plain old metal slide that opens and close the flue at the top, nothing more.

Dune:  I haven't even had to cut down any trees yet!  Deadfall and storm "damage" has done me nicely.  Hurricane Irene left me a couple winters' worth... I reckon about 200 feet of locust trunk no less than 12" around.


----------



## tickbitty (Oct 10, 2011)

It looks like this one that came up on google image search, except once I actually open the link, for some reason it only shows part of the pictures... if anyone else can get the pic to come up all the way you should be able to see if that's it by seeing the rest of the front of the manual shown here:

http://www.foundvalue.com/photo/sierra-wood-stove-or-fireplace-insert-25-good-cnd-59620


----------



## bluedogz (Oct 11, 2011)

Tickbitty, the photos in that link are not my stove, but the picture on the front of the manual is!

FYI, I can't get the full pictures to open either...


----------



## tickbitty (Oct 11, 2011)

I got it by copying and pasting, but it doesn't give any name of the model on the manual anyway.  HOwever I guess it might suggest a date because there are two stoves on the front.  I'll try to paste it here.


----------



## bluedogz (Oct 11, 2011)

Very nice.... got the whole photo that time.  The one on the left of the blue page is me.

Boy, for the first time Google is not my friend.  Found lots of links to current Sierra prducts, but nothing for this dinosaur.


----------



## tickbitty (Oct 11, 2011)

Well, I do think it looks like the name "hearthstove" might be included in your model, if that helps...


----------



## bluedogz (Oct 11, 2011)

Figured that... but that doesn't seem to narrow it down much.

Emails to Sierra seem to go off into the Black Hole of the Internet...


----------



## BrotherBart (Oct 12, 2011)

What is it you want to know. If you are looking for a manual, ya ain't gonna find it. And I can tell you that the Sierra manuals pretty much said "Light a fire." "Don't burn your house down.".

All of the clearance info was on the plates attached to the stoves.


----------



## bluedogz (Oct 12, 2011)

BBart- that's my worry- I tried to clean that plate off with a damp paper towel, and all the print came off!

I figured some sort of manual would help prevent my asking dumb questions (as I've already done in other threads...)  I'm relatively new to the wood heat thing, so I figured I'd start by RTFM and go from there.


----------



## BrotherBart (Oct 12, 2011)

Just ask'em here. That is what this place is for. I had a manual for my Sierra and didn't start doing the stuff right until I stumbled across hearth.com. In fact pretty much every question you will have will show up in one thread or another in the next few weeks as people start lighting up their stoves for the season.


----------



## bluedogz (Oct 12, 2011)

So much for Sierra...



> FYI...  Sierra Products, Inc. is not the
> original Sierra stove manufactures.  The Sierra Stove Co. located in VA. went out of business in 2003ish, and we SPI (Sierra Products Inc.) took on only 6 of their product lines and have been manufacturing them since 2004. You will see based on our web site the six stove's in which we continue to manufacture under that name.  If is not found on our web site, then we do not manufacture it and could not provide any information.



<<sigh...


----------



## BrotherBart (Oct 12, 2011)

They went out of business long before 2003. They closed down October 3, 1993. The people in California are the second ones to buy the name since Harrisonburg shut down.

BTW: Your stove was called the Turbo Burn Hearthstove and was made from 1983 to 1986 or so. List price in 1985 was $699 when I bought its big brother.

It is called turbo burn because they didn't put gasket material on the top of the glass panels in the doors so secondary air goes through that space and under the baffle creating a crude secondary burn. Mine would have rolling blue clouds of gases burning under the baffle.


----------



## bluedogz (Oct 13, 2011)

BrotherBart said:
			
		

> BTW: Your stove was called the Turbo Burn Hearthstove and was made from 1983 to 1986 or so. List price in 1985 was $699 when I bought its big brother.
> 
> It is called turbo burn because they didn't put gasket material on the top of the glass panels in the doors so secondary air goes through that space and under the baffle creating a crude secondary burn. Mine would have rolling blue clouds of gases burning under the baffle.



Thanks Bart!

These 'rolling blue clouds' seem similar to what I described in another thread...but those don't happen until the stove is ROARING hot.

Also seems like that gasket-less air-wash system might have been intended to keep the glass clean?  I haven't inspected mine but will when I get home.


----------

