# Riteway Model 37



## dink28m7 (Jan 27, 2013)

Good afternoon to everyone. I have an old riteway 37 that I am trying to do a little refurbishing on and am looking for any one that still has a riteway 37 in use. What I need are some pictures of the flue area from the inside of the stove. There is a baffle or plate welded in behind the removable draft baffle plate and I need a good picture of that area. Thankyou


----------



## davidbradley360 (Jan 7, 2014)

I've got one of those too. I have the lid off it to replace a few firebricks and brick retainer. Here's a few pictures I already took. If you need more closeups let me know.


----------



## davidbradley360 (Jan 7, 2014)

just an fyi, one thing you want to do with that, is burn it in direct draft mode only. that means keep the top damper valve wide open, so it exhausts from the top. that stove design had a lot of issues. it's an old design and was a tech breakthrough when first released, but the design has not weathered the test of time well. let me explain:

if you close the top damper and put that stove into "indirect mode" using the mid-level flue exit, the flue path to the chimney is actually shorter inside the stove, by 4 inches. what this does is send more heat up the chimney. a lot of people buy those stoves and simply can't get them to work right in indirect mode. the ones that burn it using direct draft mode i.e. top outlet have good results. fwiw, it will also burn anthracite and bituminous coal.

I'm probably going to BLOCK the mid-flue outlet on mine and just use it as a conventional box stove, like the old Atlanta or Sears Homesteader. The low level flue exit was a feature that didn't really work all that well. What it did do was enable the entire box to be filled with wood, and burn at a slow smolder, and attempted to burn the smoke in the side combustion flue. but unless that flue is 275 degrees or hotter at all times, that system won't work- and preferably it should be 400 degrees to get the smoke to ignite on secondary ignition. to get a 400 degree flue temp you'd have to be burning it at 700-800 and that would be overfiring it.

basically the stove works a whole lot better as a conventional box stove with top outlet and manual pipe damper, if you need one.

another issue is, that design is nowhere near airtight. the air inlet control area at bottom, leaks into the upper flue area at top, through the small gap crack between the 2 firebricks in the combustion flue, that are slanted. I shined a flashlight down in mine and could see a slit of light in the inlet damper area. to really run that stove well, it should be completely resealed.

that stove is still sold by DC Machine (Riteburn) and Hitzer (models 75 and 82) today, as a coal stove. but it still has all the same inherent nuances as the original Riteway design. if you look around on the net you'll find that a lot of people have problems with them brand new. all that has to be done, is keep the big damper lever in the UP position and use direct draft top exhaust. better yet do that and BLOCK the bottom mid-flue exit completely, and block the drilled secondary air holes in the flue. they only kill the draft in the stove.


----------



## davidbradley360 (Jan 7, 2014)

here's a picture of the drilled secondary air inlet holes, in the flue. these will pull draft away from your fire and send room air up the chimney. it would be a good idea to block these with metal tape, or nuts/bolts. there's a cover held on by 2 screws that covers up the holes but pulls the air from under the cover bottom.


----------



## Fred Wright (Jan 7, 2014)

I sure remember that. Was the first stove I ever owned. Got it free from a guy in Fairfax VA. The nephew and I delivered a load of wood and saw it setting in his garage. He'd only used it one season and pulled it because they didn't like it. Said if we wanted it, he'd help load it.

That stove was heavy... took three of us to wrassle it around on a handtruck. We set it in the basement where the chimney thimble was, it would heat the whole house once you got it going. And it burned clean. I never found much creosote in the flue. But man, that thing wolfed down firewood.

The last winter I lived there, the bracket holding the shaker grates broke loose... it was just a tack weld holding the whole thing in there. The missus filed for divorce before I could get around to fixing it. 

Dunno what happened to it after that and didn't really care.


----------



## davidbradley360 (Jan 8, 2014)

the stove has a large firebox capacity, but it has a few design quirks and issues. it was marketed as dual fuel coal/wood stove. today I doubt it would be clean enough to use as a wood stove in regulated areas. the problem is, it has some issues burning coal too. it was designed primarily as a wood heater with coal as an afterthought. there's a thread up online that addresses some of the issues. if you burn one, you'll get more heat out of it in direct draft mode.

here's the thread

http://www.**********/talk/threads/riteway-hitzer-dc-machine-coal-wood-stove-design.121426/


----------



## greendohn (Jan 9, 2014)

I run one those in my garage when I'm out there fettling. It's designed a little different. No shaker grates and no firebrick...I got it from the original owner who says it was bought that way. It's never been re-worked.
I can try and take pics and post if anyone is interested. I have the original owners manual. Sorry, I don't know the model # as I sit here, but could include that also if anyone is interested.
I have struggled the "auto damper" and I think it's because the magnet under the flap is weak. I have been playing with some small magnets I bought and I am getting close to making it work,, somewhat,,
I installed a damper in the flu and run the stoves' damper wide open, I rarely fool with either one unless it starts to overfire, which is rare.


----------



## davidbradley360 (Jan 9, 2014)

greendohn said:


> I run one those in my garage when I'm out there fettling. It's designed a little different. No shaker grates and no firebrick...I got it from the original owner who says it was bought that way. It's never been re-worked.
> I can try and take pics and post if anyone is interested. I have the original owners manual. Sorry, I don't know the model # as I sit here, but could include that also if anyone is interested.
> I have struggled the "auto damper" and I think it's because the magnet under the flap is weak. I have been playing with some small magnets I bought and I am getting close to making it work,, somewhat,,
> I installed a damper in the flu and run the stoves' damper wide open, I rarely fool with either one unless it starts to overfire, which is rare.




sounds you have the slightly smaller model 2000 ? IIRC. it was wood burner only, grates that didn't shake, stationary grates. IMHO that one was a better wood burner than the M37. the combustion flue was located on the inside of the sheetmetal body, in the firebox area, instead of outside the firebox like on the M37. that's how the modern side burners are configured as well. or you may have a model 35c ??
yeh that thermostat is a little quirky. I had the one apart on this M37 yesterday. the cam wheel was installed cocked and crooked from the factory. I had to take it apart and ream the mounting hole for the knob spindle so the knob was straight. now it works smoothly. those tstats really don't move all that far from ice cold to hot. I tested this one on my existing coal stove by resting it on the hot stove, marking start and finish points of the bimetal coil. the end of the bimetal spring only moved 3/4" through the entire travel of heating up. so basically those were made to open and close the flap on the inlet damper by about an inch of so, from full closed to an inch open, to maintain a set temperature.
you can get replacement new tstats, they are WAY overpriced- about the price of a used stove. They cost $110 plus tax/shipping NOS. pretty sure you can use a Hitzer or DS Machine unit, as the Hitzer 75/82 and DS Riteburn are knock-offs of the old M37. Hitzer also makes a model 55 which is a knock off of your model 2000.
if you read the manual on those Riteways, they were made to get going, heat up the area to desired temp, then JUST BARELY CLOSE the main inlet air flap using the tstat knob. as the tstat cools off the spring winds up and opens the inlet valve flap again, and lets more air in and heats the stove up then it will close again. so the stove will cycle in that range.
another option is just install a spinner draft on the inlet area, and remove the tstat and factory magnetic damper control flap. then just run it as a manual draft controlled stove.


----------



## Eric Modell (Jan 9, 2014)

We just started burning an old 37 a few weeks ago, and it it puts out heat with with the combustion chamber closed. I have found that I can get it going faster with the damper closed and some extra through the ash pan door.


----------



## greendohn (Jan 10, 2014)

davidbradley360, you are correct, I have the model 2000. I took a look at the owner's manual yesterday.
I've wondered about trying a "choke pull off" coil spring like was used on auto carburetors of yester-year. Remember those?? They mounted to the exhaust manifold of the engine and would expand and open the choke plate as the engine warmed up..( all of this as an experiment)
Anywho, as Eric Modell mentioned, I use the ash pan door sometimes too if the stove isn't throwing enough heat. I have also thought about putting a "spinner plate" type of draft on the ash pan door and leaving the "flapper" air intake closed. I had an Ashley stove years ago and the bimetal controlled flapper worked very well. 
I picked up an extra pump for my owb not long ago and have considered running a water to air exchanger into the garage and doing away with the wood stove in the garage, but, I think I would miss poking around and fooling with a wood stove!! Been a lot of meat cooked and some fish fried on that old stove, whilst me and my pals sipped cold frosties!!
Thanks for the feedback, 'bradley360, you guys be safe. Peace.


----------



## ray berry (Jan 3, 2023)

davidbradley360 said:


> just an fyi, one thing you want to do with that, is burn it in direct draft mode only. that means keep the top damper valve wide open, so it exhausts from the top. that stove design had a lot of issues. it's an old design and was a tech breakthrough when first released, but the design has not weathered the test of time well. let me explain:
> 
> if you close the top damper and put that stove into "indirect mode" using the mid-level flue exit, the flue path to the chimney is actually shorter inside the stove, by 4 inches. what this does is send more heat up the chimney. a lot of people buy those stoves and simply can't get them to work right in indirect mode. the ones that burn it using direct draft mode i.e. top outlet have good results. fwiw, it will also burn anthracite and bituminous coal.
> 
> ...


This guy is spot on. Been using my very old riteway 37 wood stove for over 40 years. Got it when it was 40 years old, rebuilt it s bit, removed the upper (downdraft damper) and i's awesome. Have 30' of 8" flue in the chimney chase so any heat in that goes into the house. Which I had a newer model. Anyone? [email protected]


----------

