Maine Wood Heat Company ALBIECORE Owner's Manual

1

OWNER MANUAL

ALBIECORE™ HEATER OPERATING AND 

MAINTENANCE INSTRUCTIONS

The Maine Wood Heat Company has been 

designing and building masonry heaters for 

nearly 30 years.  We have been an integral part 

of the development of masonry heaters in the 

United States from the beginning and are very 

pleased to still be a part of this very significant 

technology today.  We welcome you into this 

ever-growing family of heater owners.  We 

are grateful to have played a role in the new 

heart of your home and we offer the following 

information to help you become familiar with 

your heater’s operation and care.  Your new 

heater should serve and warm you for many 

years to come. 

Warm Regards,

Albie, Cheryl, and Scott Barden

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR HEATER:

Your heater is equipped with one or two sets of 

loading doors each of which have primary draft 

slides.  You also have an ash box door with a 

draft slide and if you chose to have a bake oven, 

you will have a bake oven door with a screw out 

draft control.

In addition, your heater is equipped with a 

sliding shut off damper with a wooden handle, 

as well as a by-pass channel with a pivoting 

weighted handle.

Finally, if your installation called for it, you may 

have a cast iron pivoting ash dump located on 

the floor of the ash box.

C

LEANOUTS

AND

SOOT

DOORS

: 

In the basement, your wood heater flue typically 

has an 8” x 8” cast iron soot door at the base of 

the chimney.  It should be kept tightly closed 

except when inspecting or cleaning the chimney.  

You also have an 8” x 8” cleanout door mounted 

on the second or third course of the heater’s 

block foundation.  Its purpose is to give you 

access for annual or biannual ash removal from 

the heater above.

If you have a second flue on the chimney it too is 

equipped with an 8” x 8” cast iron clean out and 

a 6”or 7” galvanized thimble to service a gas or 

oil fired appliance.

C

ARE

DURING

CONSTRUCTION

OF

HOUSE

:

It is very important to understand that your 

heater should not be used by anyone but 

yourselves.  If anyone fills the heater with trash 

or kindling or construction scraps, the firebox 

could over heat and cause stress cracking.

While the house is being completed the bench 

and heater cap should be covered with plywood 

and workers should not be allowed to use the 

bench as a ladder, storage area or workbench.  

The same should apply to the cap area.