FISHER Grandma and Grandpa Bear Details (Fireplace Series)

[coaly]

Welcome to the forum,
No flat top doors were nickel or brass plated. They were painted black ONLY. Stove Bright Satin Black is closest to original. Many highlight trees with silver or white paint. That was not original.

If you have a hammer drill that can switch from rotate only, or hammer and rotate (masonry drilling) or hammer only, a chisle in it in the hammer only position breaks them right up. An air chisle works good too, but the air exhaust blows dust around so much you need a resperator and eye shield. (should be used with electric hammer drill as well) Otherwise a hammer and chisle isn't bad on a double door stove. Hold the chisle with vice grips or a chisle holder. The deep Mama and Papa is much more difficult. Ear plugs are nice since you will be close to the door hole you're working through. Once one gives up, it gets easier. Draw a diagram of how they are installed. Rear first, then sides, then bottom. Ace Hardware is the cheapest I've found by the box. They are easily cut with masonry blade in circular saw, dry. Score and snap. They cut clean.

 

[Fort Wisers]

Well we had our plans set to pick up a papa bear but found this gem close to home (grandpa bear).
It has some surface rust on the ash fender, and some of the bricks are cracked but all in all it's in good shape.
It got dirty and soaked on the way home, so I gave it a quick clean and had a small fire, with it's rear hanging half out of the garage, to dry it off.

It has a baffle plate already in place.....
It came with the fireplace mesh front (don't plan on using that much), four bear paw feet (not sure if that's proper for a grandpa of this generation? but my wife likes them, and that counts for something) and the guy even insisted I take his antique poker/shovel/broom set.
$250.....thought that was an ok deal.
I'll be happy to push the jotul F118CB out the back door of the cabin and put this old beast to work!

 

[webby3650]

That sounds like a good deal. Just curious, why do you hate the 118 so much?

 

[Fort Wisers]

That sounds like a good deal. Just curious, why do you hate the 118 so much?

Apparently the original 118 was a great stove...the new EPA version has such a tiny firebox that we either get 2 hour max burn time with some real heat output or we have to choke it down so much, to try and get some burn times out of it, that it throws no real heat.
Looks great, but it's all for show......

 

[webby3650]

The old 118 was great, I'm surprised it doesn't do better. I'm running my Fisher Grandma right now. It's heating great! Your Grandpa should run you out of your cabin.

 

[Fort Wisers]

The old 118 was great, I'm surprised it doesn't do better. I'm running my Fisher Grandma right now. It's heating great! Your Grandpa should run you out of your cabin.

Yeah it seems the F118CB isn't like the original! After having a disappointing weekend installing the stove and then being semi-chilled through that night, we came home and did some research.
It seems there are more people unhappy with the new Black Bear than there are fans.....wish I would have read the reviews BEFORE buying that stove, oh well, live and learn.

Anyhow, I'm highjacking the thread now!

Nice looking Grandma
I'd rather be roasted out of the cabin then huddled around a stove wanting more heat

 

[chadb]

Interesting thread. I bought an old house about 7 years ago that came with a fisher. I've tried to replace it with a newer stove twice now and it quickly gets put back where it belongs. I heat the entire house with it (2,000 sq ft.). It looks like I have one of the Virginia made stoves. I have the doors under the top hinges with the bent handles. The width of the stove at the top plate is 27 3/4. I will be making a new baffle soon. I'm also considering adding secondary burn tubes. I'd much rather improve this old stove than get a new one. "They don't make them like they used to" definitely applies to steel stoves. The fisher puts out more heat than anything else I've used. I just wish it used less wood and had fewer ashes left over to shovel out every day.

 

[theherbman]

Hi I am new to this forum.
I live in France and converted my Grandma Bear so that it heats water for rads. This was done back in 1993 and has worked well since then. The boiler is angled so that it forms a baffle but not as much as the baffle was and it does not touch the sides and leaves a gap of around 3ins on both sides, otherwise the boiler would not go in. The question is would it be a good idea to fill in this gap either with steel or firebricks. I am in the process of changing a few bricks that is why there are none in the photo.

Regards Mel

 

[coaly]

Welcome to the forum; Yes, I would close it off on the sides. The deposits on the boiler should protect it from galvanic corrosion if dissimilar metal should contact it if the deposits are as heavy on the top as the bottom. Lime in firebrick would not be good for contact with copper.

 

[webby3650]

France? Wow! Is it that common for Fisher stoves to make it overseas? That's pretty amazing.

 

[coaly]

Yes, they were made in Europe and many fitted with water jacket or "back boiler".
Here's a thread that mentions Henry Eaton, who was the first President that took over for Bob. He was responsible for the England expansion.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/fisher-stoves-in-england-uk.86181/
Fisher International was US, Canada, England, and New Zealand. (where they are still made) (broken link removed) We just can't have 'em over here.

 

[webby3650]

Wow! Thanks, I had no idea they were, or still are made elsewhere. Cool!

 

[theherbman]

Thanks for that bit of info Coaly. One more bit I now need. I cannot find the old baffle I took out strange because I have the old fire bricks and as a rule never throw anything out. I may have used it to weld up some holes on the Land-rover. I cannot remember the depth of the thing. That is from front to back. I remember there being cut outs on the front corners but not the size of them and that it is 23 in wide and around 1/4 in thick. I ask this as I have to remove the boiler for a while as I am changing the heating pipes. Not really a winter job but needs must. I will use thick stainless steel for the boiler side extensions. Thanks again.

Regards Mel

 

[theherbman]

Hi
I have trolled through the posts and Coaly has already answered my questions. New baffle made in place and fire working the farmhouse is now nice and warm. In all it took longer to go and buy some new bricks than do the job. I had forgotten how much heat the grandma bear gives out as a lot of the heat went on heating the water for the rads.

Regards Mel.

 

[930dreamer]

I found this Fisher stove today, has the star & 76 on the right door. Is $300 a good price? I'm looking for a wood stove for my shop, I already have a gas furnace. But with the cabinet shop next door free hard wood is plentiful. I've read a newer EPA stove is a better buy but the cost goes up also. Thank you.

 

[tommyg]

If that is a fire screen on top of the first pic it may be. I have looked into those and they are not cheap when you can find them. The stove looks good just needs some cleaning. Looks the same as mine. I sand blasted and repainted mine. Found mine at a garage sale for $50. I think I got lucky on that one. If you want make an offer and go from there. Good luck.

 

[Todd67]

I found this Fisher stove today, has the star & 76 on the right door. Is $300 a good price? I'm looking for a wood stove for my shop, I already have a gas furnace. But with the cabinet shop next door free hard wood is plentiful. I've read a newer EPA stove is a better buy but the cost goes up also. Thank you.

Looks to be in good shape. I bought my Mama Bear for $300 and it had a little rust on it, but it had been used to heat the home it was taken from. The rust was from 3 months of summer storage in a storage unit. I replaced the firebricks, welded a crack where the top meets the left side, removed the rust and re-painted it and heated my house with it last winter. I wouldn't trade my Fisher stove for a new stove no matter how good they claim the new ones are. We cook on our Fisher stove and we bake in a Coleman folding camp oven that fits on the Fisher stove top. It heats our 2 story house like a champ, 1680 sq ft.

 

[tommyg]

I have used mine for 3 winters now. Before I bought mine I was looking at the EPA stoves that was to be smoke less and have all of the fancy tubing to increase the efficiency and produce more heat. The problem I found was that the wood they advised to use had to be several seasons dry. That means you could not just cut in the summer and burn that winter. I would like to now in over 30 years if those stoves will produce the same results as when they were new like the fishers do. I love my stove. It is one of the best things I have done to my house.

 

[EddieOne]

I'm new to the forum, great info on here. I just acquired my Fisher grandpa bear and will be restoring it for use this winter. I'm curious about the maker of my stove, and found this 5 inside the right door (see pic). Coaly, can you tell me anything about it?

 

[EddieOne]

 

[EddieOne]

 

[coaly]

Welcome to the Forum;
First, it's a Grandma. Won't take much to make it like new.

Since the doors were purchased from Bob in Oregon, door markings don't mean much about the stove itself. Only the foundry and pattern they came from. The first doors had a different style tree, taller with much more space between branches. This is the second style, but still had the round seal area for a round rod welded to stove front that was used on the star doors only.

Obviously it's the Bicentennial, and first year the Fireplace Series double doors existed. As long as yours was made in Arizona, it would have been Flagstaff. Stan Cheney is mentioned in the Fisher Stove Story that drove Bob nuts, so he had Carol "get rid of him". Imagine his surprise when he sees him with a loaded pick up truck and Stan says he's going to sell stoves in Arizona! He became a licensee to build them in September of 1995.

The draft cap bolts are adjusted out way too far. When the caps are closed against the door, the bolt head should just stick out far enough to get a wrench on. Sometimes the nut has been tack welded to the bolt, so they are not easily moved. If it was put together that way, in typical Stan fashion I'd leave it alone. There was only one Stan.

The outlet on top looks smaller than the normal 8 inch. Is it a 6 ?? Could just be the picture angle.

You will want to put a smoke shelf baffle plate across the firebox top before use. Lots of info and pictures in the baffle thread.

 

[EddieOne]

I see. It is a 6 inch, which I did think was odd? I picked it up from a guy in southern Utah, where he said it was kept in a local small town bar for its early years, before being housed in his farm shed for the past 10 years. I was just reading the baffle info on here late last night, and found it to be very useful. Why do you suppose it has the 6 inch instead of the normal 8?

 

[coaly]

As customers ordered stoves at the showrooms, these stove stores were usually in front of the shop, so leg length variations, or side vent configurations could be made. If someone had a 6 inch flue in their chimney, the salesman would make sure it was a good drafting chimney and if they felt it was OK, they would sell them a stove for the chimney. After all, you should always buy the stove for the size chimney you have. The reason for 8 inch on the double doors was due to open burning with the screen in place. With doors shut, that is much better than 8 all the way up. The square inch size of the firebox is actually smaller than the Papa Bear that has only one door, but is 6 inch. So it will phisically work with 6 inch. Later codes were written stating the flue must be the same size as the stove outlet or larger, never smaller. But many reduce these double door stoves from 8 to 6 with no operation problems even during open burning.
If you have an interior insulated 6 inch chimney, and baffle it, you're going to get the maximum BTU from that Grandma.

 

[EddieOne]

As customers ordered stoves at the showrooms, these stove stores were usually in front of the shop, so leg length variations, or side vent configurations could be made. If someone had a 6 inch flue in their chimney, the salesman would make sure it was a good drafting chimney and if they felt it was OK, they would sell them a stove for the chimney. After all, you should always buy the stove for the size chimney you have. The reason for 8 inch on the double doors was due to open burning with the screen in place. With doors shut, that is much better than 8 all the way up. The square inch size of the firebox is actually smaller than the Papa Bear that has only one door, but is 6 inch. So it will phisically work with 6 inch. Later codes were written stating the flue must be the same size as the stove outlet or larger, never smaller. But many reduce these double door stoves from 8 to 6 with no operation problems even during open burning.
If you have an interior insulated 6 inch chimney, and baffle it, you're going to get the maximum BTU from that Grandma.

This is my first freestanding stove install, so that said- what would you suggest as the perfect insulated interior chimney? I was planning to just use single wall from stove to cieling, then obviously triple wall through roof and so on. I was under the suggestion that simple single wall black pipe will supply extra heating for the 9 ft until it reaches the cieling.

Thanks so much for the replies, very useful..