Identifying Your Whitfield Stove
Lennox purchased the Whitfield brand in the late 1990s. There is a distinct difference between Pre and post-Lennox Whitfield stoves. Pre Lennox Whitfield stoves were made between 1984 and 1999 and all use a thermal snap disc (Low limit proof of fire switch) on the exhaust blower housing to establish “Proof-of-Fire” by measuring the flue gas (exhaust) temperature. Whitfield models that were made by Lennox do not use a Thermal snap disc for this function with the exception of the Cascade model, which was sold by Lennox unchanged.
Whitfield stove models manufactured by Lennox were fitted with an optical switch called a “Photo-Eye”. It’s a sighted control just like many oil burner are equipped with. Obviously, with the exception of the Cascade model, all of the stove names changed but if you cannot find the listing nameplate on the stove, figuring out which proof of fire switch your stove has will help you at least get into the proper era of Whitfield stoves.
Original Whitfield pellet stove models made by Pyro Industries prior to the acquisition by Lennox Hearth were:
Legend, Advantage (Sometimes called Advantage I), Advantage II, Advantage II-T, Advantage II-T-C, Advantage Plus, Advantage Plus Insert, Quest, Quest Insert, Quest Plus WP4 and Quest Plus Insert WP4, Cascade, Renaissance*, Waterford Erin* (Whitfield Renaissance made for Waterford in Ireland but many units were never shipped and were sold in the Northeast), Prodigy* and Prodigy II*.
Whitfield pellet stoves models made by Lennox Hearth were:
Whether you have an original Whitfield or a Lennox branded Whitfield, it’s important to be able to identify your stove and tell the difference between the two, especially if you are not the original owner of the stove. It’s not uncommon to find a 30-year-old Whitfield stove still in service, however; with an absence of service people over the decades, many Whitfield stoves have been “doctored up” with parts that are not original to the design, but still manage to keep the stove working. Mismatch parts can cause the stove to operate slightly out of specification and can cause poor performance or problems that cannot be fixed until the proper parts are used. That said, there are some parts that can be swapped between the models and there are some that cannot.