Using a Vintage Montgomery Ward Franklin Stove

The house we live in is a rock house built by my father in law in the 1950's. At that time it had two fireplaces one upstairs and one down. Both were built using a metal heatalator system encased in stone. The one upstairs was inspected last season by a sweep and still functions fine even though I'm sure it's not very efficient due to the 4' firebox. However, over the years a water leak went unchecked in the lower fireplace flue and the metal heatalator box has rusted out. I found an antique Montgomery Ward Franklin stove/insert and was hoping to make it useful. If I'm not able to make it work, I still love it and I plan to still use it as decoration so nothing lost. Today I am trying to find out what is needed to make it safe. When we had a local sweep come out they told me that they couldn't work on it and could only sell me a zero clearance insert. However, aesthetics vs heating is my primary concern. What I want to know is if I install an insulated flue liner, is there some way to line the firebox either with metal or fire brick to make a stove of this type safe to use. When fully inserted there is about 1" clearance vertical, 6-8" clearance right to left and about the same front to back. Thank you all for any ideas or suggestions you can offer.

you mean a whole 1/2 hr has gone by and no one has suggested what an improvement a rocket mass heater would be, and how much money it could save you?.

others may pick up this thread who know exactly what a franklin stove insert looks like and what it's characteristics might be, if you are really attached to it and come hell or high water you want to adapt it to your specific fireplace.

It would seem however that you already understand some of the inefficiencies trying to heat this way, and compared to rocket mass heater technology even the best efficient woodstove setups are only about 20% as efficient as a rocket stove, so if you aren't familiar with that technology, there's lots of stuff on utube and paphlets and dvds and the like that would be good to look at before you pursue trying to hook up this woodstove just because you bought it already. http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp before you invest lots more time installing and countless years feeding an inefficient system, at least look at this link to an introduction to rocket mass heaters

they are fun, creative, and every bit as charming as any old cast iron or steel stove (imho) plus use 1/5th to 1/10th the wood of a regular wood stove.

Think about it anyway, and if you do want to try and hook up the franklin insert it would be helpful to include pics of the fireplace and stove

welcome to Permies

LOL Rocket Mass Heater..... I'm sure it is great and much more efficient. As already stated, not my number 1, 2, 3 or 4th concern. It is simply for it's cuteness and to maybe add some warmth to a very unused space. Thanks

It will be useful to have pictures of the damaged heatalator, pictures of the woodstove, and any other pictures that might add substance, to your descriptions, i know a little, and there are others who know a whole lot more that regularly contribute.

If the chimney to the downstairs fireplace is damaged to the point where it needs an insulated flue insert, the chances are that you can just continue that insert straight down to the stove and just eliminate the heatalator completely, or you can probably find prefab heat recovery units that might fit where the damaged heatalator is currently. some of them have electric fans and some just use convection, but a lot depends on the exact nature of the individual fireplace and the way the original heatalator was constructed.