Many thousand baseburners are sold every year, and many of them prove unsatisfactory, not altogether from faults in the stove, but from various causes, such as poorly constructed flues, poor grade of coal used, or very often, poor management in regulating the stove. Baseburners get their name from the way they distribute the heat through the base, up and into the room by special flues in the stove. The prospective purchaser should examine the special flues for heating the base so he may understand their principles and also that he may know bow to take proper care of the Stove. In buying any kind of a heating stove the first thing to be taken into consideration is the size and number of rooms to he heated. Include in this consideration height of ceilings, and number of windows and doors in the rooms. Where there are children running in and out, or where there is a large family, it will take more heat units to bring about the required temperature than will be required in a place where there are less people to open and close doors. This helps to account for the many different experiences various families have with exactly the same kind of a stove.

With a baseburner, the largest size will curtail the coal bill, as it takes practically no more coal to run a large stove than it does to feed a small one. A small stove will not do the work of a large one, as it has not the capacity, and will radiate only the amount of heat which its capacity will allow. On the other hand, by proper adjustment of the dampers, a small amount of heat can be obtained from a large stove, and when more heat is wanted, the stove, being large, can provide it.

The more nickel-plating a stove has the more it will cost, and this is not essential to the making of a good heating stove. In order to give good service nickel-plating should he done on copper, otherwise it may rust and give much trouble.

In buying a baseburner a large heavy fire bowl with heavy grates should be well considered. The stove should be constructed so that by removing a few bolts and the front doors the bowl may be taken out without tearing the stove to pieces. This is advantageous when a bowl cracks or wears out, as most of them will do in time, with no discredit to the stove.

Some baseburners have small openings near the top of the magazine, as an escape for the carbonic gas that comes from the coal, allowing it to pass through the fire and flues of the stove and out the chimney, rather than into the room, thus endangering life by suffocation.

To start a baseburner, charcoal is valuable, as it does not blacken the mica doors, as does kindling or wood. When a baseburner is once started, it should not go out until it is taken down for the season.