My wife and I purchased a house in SE MN which has a Fisher and I have some questions about it: 1) What kind do we have? The stove has two doors each with air screws left door FIS at the top and three Pine trees with the center being the smaller,and the right door handle opens stove HER at the top and three Pine trees with the center being smaller. It is over 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep. The top has two planes the front steps up to the back by about 6-8 inches about midway. 8 inch pipe it sits on four legs with brass bear claw feet. I was told it is big and trust me from what I seen in the stores it looks big. 2) Is there any maintinance required ? It is has pantined (rusty looking brownish color)How do I make it Black ? 3) Is there anywhere or anyone who makes a glass door(s) for it ? I went to my local wood stove store to see if they had one and they said they never heard of Fisher and recommended I buy a new stove. Funny all my friends with new stoves have problems. Mine just looks ugly. Thanks in advance Jim

-- Jim Douglas (jdouglas70@yahoo.com), March 05, 2002

Answers

I've got a new wood stove and I've used older ones as well. I prefer the new stove, but there are some disadvantages to them. They tend to spill more smoke into the house when you feed them and when you first fire them up and you can't really turn the dampers down and let it smoulder the way you could on older stoves. The firebox is also somewhat smaller relative to the outside dimensions of the stove. On the other hand they burn cleaner and more efficiently and with the glass doors you can watch them burn and you get more radiant heat. I find I can overcome the tendency they have to burn too quickly by feeding them large pieces of wood, particularly before going to bed. There are ussually still hot coals there eight hours later and the firebox is still hot. When the stove burns clean you get more heat and your chimney stays creosote free so you don't have to worry about a chimney fire. If you've got a good stove though I wouldn't mess with it. Just take a wire brush and maybe some paint thinner to it to remove the rust and dirt and then paint it with stove paint. You can ussually buy spray cans for about $6 each and it's available at most hardware stores. Good luck on finding a glass door. There probably are none available. Older stoves ussually didn't have them and they wouldn't work well anyway. New stoves have what's called an "airwash" to keep the glass clean. Without it creosote will quickly build up on it.

-- kurt (curtislarson177@hotmail.com), March 05, 2002.

Is it just me or are there a lot of Fisher stove questions lately? Get some approved black paint for BBQ's and spray it after wire brushing. Or use blacking on it COLD and then fire it up. There is a screen available to let you watch the fire. Glass doors would probably defeat the purpose of the massive cast iron heater that is a Fisher. And probably too hot for glass too... I am very pleased with my Fisher and it has saved me thousands of heating dollars. Mine is a fireplace insert. We also cook on top of it. Enjoy!

-- Gailann Schrader (gtschrader@aol.com), March 05, 2002.

Jim, I think I may have the same model as you. My Dad found it at an auction, and we put it in an old house we're re-habbing in TN. It has the pine trees and the knobs. Mine has a screen so you can watch the fire. I don't have a problem with smoking. I use stove blacking on mine. You can find it at any hardware, I would think.

-- Judy in IN (whileaway3@cs.com), March 05, 2002.

I think your woodstove store is trying to sell you a new stove. I have heard of Fisher stoves for years and all I have heard has been good. They are wonderful heaters. I don't know if you have gaskets around the doors if so check their condition and get new if you need to replace them. Does the stove have fire bricks inside? If so check the condition of them. Check the stove for any holes. I woud use stove black on it. You might have a wonderful stove. I am not sure but I think Fisher is still in business. Keep cchecking on you stove.

Renie

-- Irene Burt (renienorm@aol.com), March 05, 2002.

you probably have a Fisher Grandma or Grandpa model. those two flavors had double doors. I used a Grandma for 3 winters in a retail store. worked great. my favorite wood heater. given three hours notice, i could run you out of the place on the coldest day of the year - incredible heat output! those models are not cast iron but plate steel and darned thick stuff, too. heavier than sin on a miner's concience. Fisher did not make glass doors for those models (or at least to my memory) but did have a sort of "clip on" screen so you could burn it like a fireplace. those models came in either stove black or a kind of strange grey color from the factory. normal black stove paint would work just dandy on it. the bear claw feet and nickel embossed doors were the fancy additions to that series. congratulations on your find. i wish i had one....

-- (cracker@nospam.com), March 05, 2002.

That's a good find. They're good stoves and will last forever. I've got one just like it.

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), March 06, 2002.

We have a Fisher in our living room and a Pioneer Maid wood cookstove in our kitchen. We love them both. Fishers used to be THE woodstove to get back in the 80's. Sounds like you have a keeper to me! We painted a 55 gallon barrel stove before (used to use that before we got the Pioneer Maid) with high temp black flat paint. We had to burn it outside with a hot fire though before we brought it in because it smoked from the paint. After that it was no problem. The paint never did come off, we used it for years. It was a bright ugly blue before we painted it, so I'm sure brown would be easy to change.

-- Sharon (chessyemailaddy@notreal.com), March 07, 2002.

I have a Fisher Grandma woodstove that my husband and I purchased in 1982. It has saved us a bundle in heating expenses in 20 years. The only thing I have a question about is whether anyone knows where I can get a new baffle plate and some lining bricks. I sure would like to hear from someone with that information. Thanks.

-- Laura L. Stanley (hogwarts@wmis.net), March 13, 2002.

Laura,

Firebrick can be purchased from most fireplace dealers. Fisher didn't make their own any way. if any of yours is left, measure it so you can at least duplicate the size. If not, any is better than none. If by "replace the baffle plate" you mean the metal plate inside the stove that fit over where the fire is built, you'll have to get someone to cut out what's left of the old one and weld in a new one. (i am curious as to how in the world you managed to destroy the old one?). just use plate steel of a similar weight for the replacement.

-- cracker (cracker@nospam.com), March 13, 2002.

Cracker, after many years of using my Fisher stove the internal baffle plate stretched and warped into a curve. Because the curved shape went downward, it took up space where I could have loaded firewood.

You are right, the old baffle had to be cut out and a new piece of 5/16th plate steel welded in.

--Happy trails, CF

-- Cabin Fever (cabinfever_mn@yahoo.com), March 14, 2002.