Wood Cookstoves "Still Selling Like Hot Cakes"

Wood Cookstoves "Still Selling Like Hot Cakes" FARM HOME Food 26-6-28 Knox Stove Works, Knoxville, Tennessee, has been making wood cookstoves since 1911. They introduced their very modern-looking "Mealmaster" wood cookstove to homemakers in 1938. Surprisingly, that stove is still a big seller today, 64 years later. Company owner Joe Anderson says the Mealmaster and the company's other wood stoves have been selling well in recent years. Customers run the gamut, from cabin owners who don't have access to utilities, to people who just want to cut their utility bills. The Mealmaster has a firebox lined entirely with the same firebrick used in steel and iron melting furnaces. He says firebrick lasts three times as long as cast iron linings in other wood cookstoves and is less expensive. The stovetop is made of heavily reinforced castings. Stove comes with a 6-gal. hot water reservoir, but can be ordered with a cast iron water front that allows it to become the heater for a 40-gal. hot water tank. The outside is finished in enamel and is available in white, black or almond. Anderson says the oven design allows heating on five sides. The oven is heated not only by the fire box side and three flues around it, but also by flue gases passing over the entire back oven plate as they rise from the bottom flue. "This method assures even heating throughout the oven," Anderson says. Knox recently introduced the "Todd Stove", an old-time looking stove designed to incorporate the best features of 15 cook stoves originally produced in the early 1900's. It's more showy than the Mealmaster, made of solid cast iron and steel. The trim is nickel electroplated. It can be ordered with a porcelain finish in black, white or almond, and has double overhead warming cabinets and a built-in oven thermometer to help keep the baking temperature just right. The Todd stove features a large ground and polished cooking surface, with four griddles and two simmering plates. A 6-gal. stainless steel water reservoir is standard. Like the Mealmaster, it has a firebrick-lined firebox and it's insulated throughout with silicate aluminum, including the oven door. Several models of each stove, as well as a number of options are available. Prices start at around $1,000 for the Mealmaster and $1,300 for the Todd Stove. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Joe Anderson, Knox Stove Works, 1318 Proctor Street, Knoxville, Tenn. 37921 (ph 865 524-4113; fax 865 637-2461; E-mail: knoxstove1@cs.com; Website: http://www.knoxstove.com).

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