Help identifying this Austrian product

7 comments

1. text on the top (3rd pic) says “When plate is glowing, oven is too hot” just for info.
   Its pretty standard oven, nothing special, sells für under 100 EUR used here.

2. Back to memory-lane….. Exactly the same oven my grandparents had.

3. The levers in image 3 are likely adjusting the airflow. They are supposed to remain open when lighting the oven and should be mostly closed when it reaches the operational temperature. By all likelyhood, the left lever with P might regulate the primary air intake while the right lever might optimize the exhaust gas composition.

4. I think the company „Lohberger“ took over the brand in 2004. For example you can see the Celus Logo on the Lohberger Cook 40 oven.

5. Die schweden haben österreichöfen, die Deutschen Wiener Würstchen. Kurios

6. great wood stove OP! grew up with something similar for heating/cooking/hot water, so I’ll give some pointers on efficient use.

   first of all, do you have a big metal poking stick? it’s the first thing I’d get, comes in very handy for manipulating burning wood within the stove, clearing the grating, manipulating the levers (yours look like they’re the type that you stick the tip of the poking stick into), collecting little pieces of ember that fell out onto the floor, opening the top, and manipulating the oven in general especially when it’s hot.

   proper use:
   rake over the grating to make leftover ash and wood pieces fall through and into the drawer below. alternatively, jank the top lever labeled with “R” on it (Rost = grating) afew times. raking the grating directly normally works better.

   empty the ash drawer. you don’t have to do it all the time, but make sure it doesn’t get too full since that limits air flow from below if there’s huge mountains of ash, or if the ash is already reaching all the way up to the grating.

   get a fire started using old newspapers, kindling, and some soft wood. use two to three pieces for starters.

   for this stage make sure the other top lever, labeled L (I guess for Luft = air?) is on the topmost position (many horizontal lines = lots of airflow)

   close the top door and let the wood catch fire. for this stage, I normally preferred having the bottom door open, since that lets in even more air.

   once the first batch of wood caught fire (at least one side is fully engulfed in flames, if there’s proper draft, you should hear it “roaring” in the oven once you close the upper door), put on some more, you can use a slightly bigger batch now if it fits. close the door again and let that catch fire as well. make sure to leave some air gaps between the wood, ie. don’t pile it on too densely, burns better that way. when you have black wooden leftovers, or black ash, you know that something didn’t burn right, probably because of not enough air. ideally, all that’s left will be very fine grey ash, then you know it burned correctly.

   when that second batch caught fire, it’s time to close the bottom door, and put the L lever down about halfway (roaring sound will reduce), it reduces the burning intensity, making piles of wood keep longer and requiring less visits to the oven. also uses less wood! if you need a big fire quickly to warm up the room, and to cook something on the top, continue using the higher setting instead.

   now you just need to visit the oven from time to time to put on more wood. ideally, you have a second batch with hard wood that will burn much slower, and is more energy-dense. keep putting those on, checking from time to not let the fire go out. in the beginning it might be helpful to put on an alarm, once you’re used to it, you’ll develop a sense for it. at home we always would get nervous when we couldn’t hear the fire anymore, and go check automatically. it can be very soothing, hearing a fire makes the place feel alive and cozy, I really missed that with central heating. 🙂

   when you’re away for a while, but want to keep the fire going, put on a big pile of hard wood, let it catch fire properly, then close the lever L nearly all the way (lowest setting with air, ie. one line). if you feel you have enough ember (no flames visible, just a pile of glowing ember remaining) and want it to keep warm as long as possible, put the lever all the way down into the lowest setting. that should keep the oven warm until you’re back, sometimes even throughout the night.

   then, if there’s still a pile of ember present, you can normay restart the fire by opening the air lever, putting on some soft wood (or even just with kindling, if the embers are not big anymore), and then starting again from there.

   what else is there to say?
   I don’t know with your oven, some have a way to lower and raise the grating, that’s to allow for bigger pieces to be put in top, but lowers how much ash you can accumulate before you have to throw it out. if you have that, I’d leave it on middle setting. the ash is great for putting on compost, make sure to not put on too much at once, put it on in layers with other stuff in between. oh, and the solid door on top can be opened using the poking stick, it’s only for cleaning the oven out, only do it when there’s no fire going (or if you want to see in your room how much smoke the chimney normally pulls away). any other flaps, doors and grilles I see on your oven look like they’re protective, avoiding burning ember to fall out. watch out especially with not perfectly dry wood, it tends to crackle and small ember pieces might jump really far. oh, and smaller wood pieces burn better, but also faster; if you have a choice, it’s best to have smaller soft wood and bigger hard wood pieces.

   avoid the mistake of choking the fire by not letting the wood catch fire fully before putting the air lever on a setting that’s too low. as long as there’s flames, you shouldn’t put it on the lowest setting. if wood hasn’t caught fire properly, you probably also shouldn’t put it on the “one line” setting. depends a bit on the oven, length of the chimney, etc, but you’ll probably not get a proper burn, creating more smoke than necessary and wasting wood (black leftovers). worst case is if you choked the fire by not allowing enough air by piling wood on too densely, then it’s normally a good idea to clean out the oven and start anew, that normally works better than trying to make a fire on top of leftovers, with not enough air from below, that gets frustrating quickly.

   take care in high summer, especially if you have a long chimney, when the sun heats the chimney it might lead to conditions where you have no updraft, because the hot air cannot rise in the chimney. that means all smoke will not go out the top, but into your house. if it’s not necessary for cooking, maybe just don’t use the oven on such days, wait until it cooled down a bit in the evening, or start early enough in the day when the chimney isn’t so hot yet.

   if you’re stuck in such conditions, but need to get the oven going, it’s necessary to yank out the warm air (sorry, don’t know how to translate *durchreißen*) that’s stuck on top by creating a quick flash fire. open all air intakes, use a batch of newspaper, light it, and stick it in by hand, hopefully you’ll create a flash big enough that the air will start rising out the top, might need a few tries.

   enjoy your oven!

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