Just had a neat basement discovery in our old farm house! What I thought was a stored away propane stove is actually hooked up and ready to go (the basement is not a place I spend a lot of time poking around in, kinda creepy...long story), plus one side is propane and the other side is either a coal or woodstove. I can't tell which since I have zero experience with cookstoves. The brand is Home Comfort. Looks like the oven will heat either from propane or the wood/coal side but I'm not sure. The flue I have to wonder about if it's ok for wood. It runs up the same chase as the furnace flue which is not a fireplace chimney, just a flue chase chimney (I think). Kinda neat!! I ran a quick check of archives here and Yahoo and couldn't find much. Does anyone know anything about these types of stoves? It's all white with no overhead warmer part. No reservoir.

TIA

-- Susan (smtroxel@socket.net), October 27, 2001

Answers

Susan, you might need to get someone to come out and look at the set- up to see if it's safe. If the stove and the furnace are actually using the same flue, that isn't good. If there are separate flues in the same chimney, then you are probably all right, but you should still have someone look at the chimney to make sure it's safe before you use it. Sounds like you have a useful find there! Warming ovens and water reservoirs are nice, but the essential thing is just to have a way to heat and cook if the power goes off.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), October 27, 2001.

Had one of those years ago in Idaho, worked great.

A few years ago, found another one and refurbished it and put it into our house next door. Propane on one side and wood on the other. Great combination. Haven't used the wood side yet, propane works fine, but in Idaho we heated the whole house with the wood stove side. House was insulated with 1 ft. of sawdust. Obviously, sawmill country.

-- bruce (rural@inebraska.com), October 27, 2001.

What a great find !!! Aren't you going to share your "creepy basement" ( or do we call them cellars in old houses, is it an old house?) story for Halloween with us ?? Well anyways....I have a cook stove but with a small wood box in it and I need to tend it very frequently to keep it going. Still glad to have it though and sure does heat !! With the propane please have it checked out by a person that really, really knows something about them. Had a patient years ago that was badly burned in the upper body because she went to light the wood part of the stove and the propane made it blow up !! Malfunction somewhere with the propane. I wouldn't be scared to use it though just get it checked out well. Perhaps the lady of the house years ago canned in the basement where it was cooler on those hot summer days. I'd be curious to find out a little history on your house...just might be interesting !! Good Luck !!!

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), October 28, 2001.

I have one, only mine is all wood cookstove with a resevior. All white with no overhead warmer. There is a website, www.antiquestoves.com, I think, that has a pic of one that is like mine only half gas and half wood. Very expensive. There is an old thread in here somewhere we talked about the stoves. Make an outdoor kitchen out of it in the spring, for all you cooking and canning during the warm months. Does it have an oval stove pipe comming out of the stove? Mine does, and it's a weird shape to match flues. I found mine for 100, it's in very good shape. Neat find!

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), October 28, 2001.

Thanks! No big horror story with the basement, it's just old, dark, smelly, low ceilinged and full of stuff to where you can't hardly walk around. Mostly from my great aunt in law. Neat lady, she lived through the depression and did not throw away one single solitary thing!! You wouldn't believe what all is tucked away here and there and to the rafters in the outbuildings and etc. etc. We've gone through some of it to make more storage room which has been interesting except it's all a haven for brown recluses so we have to be really careful. I'm looking forward to talking to her about the stove to see if the wood side is useable, I'm pretty sure the propane side is. We'll also have to get a pro over to check out all the gas connections and the flue to make sure everything's in order.

-- Susan (smtroxel@socket.net), October 28, 2001.