Final suggestion on 'exploding' E2

tjnamtiw said:

Wood Heat Quakertown sells Hitzer coal stoves. Swap out the E2, get a Hitzer 608 Stoker, spend 1/2 the cost per btu on fuel and be one heck of a lot warmer. You live in Pa. Use your natural resources. Use your brain. Don't believe in old wive's tales and 50 year old stories of coal furnaces. Do your research. You aren't made for pellets.

http://www.woodheat.com/index.php/products/stoves/coal-stoves/hitzer-608-stoker.html#Specs

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Man that sucker is HEAVY.

Bkins said:

Man that sucker is HEAVY.

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You a wimp? Thats what furniture handtrucks are for. Besides, it would be professionally installed. If I had coal available, I'd have one over a pellet/corn unit in a minute.

SidecarFlip said:

You a wimp? Thats what furniture handtrucks are for. Besides, it would be professionally installed. If I had coal available, I'd have one over a pellet/corn unit in a minute.

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Yea, I guess I am a wimp in my old age. After having dealt with 400 lb wood stoves and pellet stoves over the last 40 years I'd say adding another 100 lbs. makes it a heavy sucker. I'd have been burning coal if they weren't so troublesome many years ago. They have gotten much better to the point that if I was in a area that rice coal was freely available I would of would of bought one over my two pellet stove. As it is getting pellets in my area tends to be problematic at best.

Heat, and lots of it is a good thing, especially when you start to get older.

I agree with the heat thing, I'm in my mid 60's and a bit stove up from years of farming. Years ago when I lived in Eastern Ohio, I heated with coal and loved every minute of the steady warm heat. That was chunk anthricite in an Iron Fireman coal stoker in the basement. I'm a old wimp too, so I use every mechanical advantage to move heavy things.

Exactly what I posted in that thread

tjnamtiw said:

That's because it's actually heavy gauge STEEL.

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I have a older wood stove in my garage that is 1/4" plate steel that weighs 400 lbs. it's a Garrision One stove that was somewhat before its time with reburning the spent gases. I know I'll never be using it again. It's one of those things I just can't bring myself to sell as I bought it new and, well, I just really liked it.

400 lbs. is heavy enough for me but I have not looked at a stoker coal stove so maybe not. Why does it need to be that stout?

I'll have to look at one and see where the 2-1/2 bags of extra weight is.. Do coal stokers also radiat their heat?

I burn coal to supplement a pellet stove in another part of the house when the temps drop into single digits and below. It's an old Warm Morning that I bought somewhere back in the 70's. Good long burn time on a hod full (about half of a 40# bag) of stove coal and throws radiant heat well. Sometimes a bit finicky when maintaining a fire after shaking it down and adding coal, but once going well it's good. The Warm Morning is also a non-electric heater that can run during a loss of power.

I would not buy a new coal stove if and when this one fails, but would likely look for one used that's similar to what I have. I try not to use the coal much except when I have to as it does produce quite a bit of ash which isn't particularly easy to find a place to dispose of it. Last summer I bought a 1.2 ton pallet of 40# bags that cost $289 delivered with the pellets. The current price is now at $319 and I would foresee more increases as time goes by due to government and environmental restrictions. I used to buy bulk coal years ago dumped to a trailer at about $100/ton. Probably in PA it would be much cheaper.

Got it running today with temp at about 10F and windy.......

tjnamtiw said:

One lesson in freshening the fire is to FIRST add some coal BEFORE shaking down. Get that new coal emitting blue ladies, add a little more, blue ladies, and THEN shake down. If you can't do that because the fire's too far gone then, in my experience, you will probably have to start over.

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Poor placement of words in the sentence. For about 35 years have been adding the coal before shaking down with the lower draft and flue damper wide open. Warmer days when I back it down it just needs a bit of help with the chimney draft to get the fire back up, so add some kindling wood on top to get the air pulled through the coal.

Blaschak stove coal here as well. Like you say the size is pretty inconsistent. Fines/dust isn't too bad, but maybe making the longer trip to GA the bags get bounced around more and results in more fines.

Bringing back memories of my Iron Fireman in Ohio back when. I used to get lazy and if the fire went out or got too low, I piled on some anthricite and stuck the oxy-acetelyne rosebud in the pile. That got her going quick.