Coal insert - Hitzer 983

I saw this model at my local stove shop earlier today and thought to myself "that thing is a tank, I bet it THROWS HEAT."

If I was thinking coal, it would be a hitzer.

Have you read the post here.." Just bought a Hitzer 908...It is very interesting and may inform you quit a bit.

Personally, I think coal is a bit over the top for you. It's not 'set it and forget it' like pellets are and even with a stoker unit it still takes finesse to start the fire, no auto igniter in a coal stove.

You wont regret going with a Hitzer. I owm a Hitzer50-93.
Dont worry about it being "over the top for you" ??
Most likely you will start it once and leave it going. Lot less work than pellets. If you read this forum regularly you will quickly learn pellet stoves break down and need constant cleaning. All I hear lately is "deep cleaning" , "leaf blowers to clean" etc. Its like a 2nd job for a lot of people on this site. Your stove is a handfired. No moving parts or electonics to break and no internal cleaning every few days. I clean mine once a year end of season. Check pipes for ash build up mid season.

625 lbs. what a beast, as long as you can find coal locally which should not be a problem here in PA. I would be all over that Hitzer

The Hitzer 983 is NOT a stoker stove but a hand fired stove. If you couldn't properly run a Quad, I seriously doubt you can properly deal with a hand fired coal stove. You need a stoker to have any chance of keeping it going. Hand fired stoves are the hardest to keep going for the newbies.

Edit: Hitzer doesn't make a stoker fireplace insert but they have a gravity fed hopper design, which COULD work for you. The Model 503 EZ Flow Hopper Insert is the one. http://www.hitzer.com/products/stove/Model-503-E_Z-Flo-Hopper-Fireplace-Insert/

Or you could just get your money back and go to another dealer who handles stoker inserts like Keystoker.

When I burned coal in a surdiac stove, I loved the heat and the blue flame when all was well, but when it went out, it was a groan to get started and if you overtired it on startup, you could easily warp the grates which I did on more than one occasion. There was a dust issue back then with anthracite coal but I had build delivery and I understand the bags of coal are not dusty at all. Also, fly ash from coal is very light and it is easy to make a mess. Having said that, I will admit that the stoker stoves I'm reading about here have captured my interest.

You still have to manually start a stoker with the same procedure as starting a hand fired (no auto ignite). Coal (hard) is finiky to start. IMO pellets are more convenient than coal but coal is a more consistent heat (once the fire bed is established) but just shaking down a hand fired unit improperly can extinguish the fire. There is a bug learning curve involved thats absent entirely with wood pellets.

SidecarFlip said:

Personally, I think coal is a bit over the top for you. It's not 'set it and forget it' like pellets are and even with a stoker unit it still takes finesse to start the fire, no auto igniter in a coal stove.

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I can only speak to the process of starting my Hitzer 608.

1. Put 2 or 3 handfuls of coal on the burn area.
2. Put wood chunks we had going from wood stove on coal.
3. Give it 2 minutes.
4. Turn on unit, thereby kicking on combustion fan.
5. Done.

It's been lit for about10 days, without the need to restart.
It's 37 here today. Thing has been running on "0" feed rate since last night, which means it's feeding the lowest rate possible.

When it comes time to restart again, when I don't have a fire burning:


1. Put 2 or 3 handfuls of coal on the burn area.
2. Put handful of wood pellets on coal.
3. Add lighter gel.
4. Light with Bic.
5. Give 2 minutes.
6. Turn on stove. Done.


In the long run, I fully expect the 608 to be less work than a pellet stove. The feed mechanism is NOT an auger. It is a steel plate that slides back and forth, just like that quarter game you see where the quarters are all laying there and a plate is sliding back and forth, tantalizing you to put a quarter in to overload and cause the quarters to fall out.

My good friend has a dual coal/wood stove. He loves it. Burns coal in the cold months and wood in the shoulders. Sure, coal requires more energy to start, but it's not more "difficult" than wood - it just requires a different system. Just get your system worked out and you'll be fine.

I know this for sure - more people by the millions have burned coal over the years than have burned wood pellets, and they managed.

...Hobroken... by all means, get that Hitzer, sooner the better........

Starting coal fires has never been a problem for me.
Handfired- small hot wood fire and start adding smalll amounts of coal on top.

Stoker even easier- handful of wood pellets a little gel starter and turn it on low till it catches.

Hobokenkitchen said:

You're the other one who has consistently been condescending.

Everyone has been nothing but helpful and raised useful questions/ concerns.

You two have too. If you could hold on to the sarcasm and condescension it would be a much more pleasant place to come and ask questions.

I'm out.

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I changed ny opinion, go get one. have it installed and live happily ever after.....

Coal Ivy said:

I can only speak to the process of starting my Hitzer 608.

1. Put 2 or 3 handfuls of coal on the burn area.
2. Put wood chunks we had going from wood stove on coal.
3. Give it 2 minutes.
4. Turn on unit, thereby kicking on combustion fan.
5. Done.

It's been lit for about10 days, without the need to restart.
It's 37 here today. Thing has been running on "0" feed rate since last night, which means it's feeding the lowest rate possible.

When it comes time to restart again, when I don't have a fire burning:


1. Put 2 or 3 handfuls of coal on the burn area.
2. Put handful of wood pellets on coal.
3. Add lighter gel.
4. Light with Bic.
5. Give 2 minutes.
6. Turn on stove. Done.


In the long run, I fully expect the 608 to be less work than a pellet stove. The feed mechanism is NOT an auger. It is a steel plate that slides back and forth, just like that quarter game you see where the quarters are all laying there and a plate is sliding back and forth, tantalizing you to put a quarter in to overload and cause the quarters to fall out.

My good friend has a dual coal/wood stove. He loves it. Burns coal in the cold months and wood in the shoulders. Sure, coal requires more energy to start, but it's not more "difficult" than wood - it just requires a different system. Just get your system worked out and you'll be fine.

I know this for sure - more people by the millions have burned coal over the years than have burned wood pellets, and they managed.

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The difference between your 608 and a 683 is like night and day. But if Hoboken learns how to properly shake down and feed the 683, she should have no problems. Remove dead ashes, open bottom air all the way, put a layer of coal on top of fire, wait for blue ladies to dance through the coal, shake down, load the stove with coal to the top of the fire brick, wait for blue ladies again, and then lower air flow to the heat you need. That's it.
No condescension in that one. Just the facts, ma'am.

Hobokenkitchen said:

And those are useful. Exactly what we need.
Thank you.

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I'd still lobby for the 503 gravity feed. Should be about the same price.

https://www.lehmans.com/p-3131-large-hitzer-coal-heat-stoves.aspx?show=all

this is the 503 with the gravity feed. $1849. I bet you paid way more than that for the E2!

Hobokenkitchen said:

And those are useful. Exactly what we need.
Thank you.

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There is a certain level of satisfaction in running a hand fired coal Stove. There is a warmth in the house like no other heat, no question. There also is a certain level of task involved. You can't miss the window of opportunity to reload the stove. If you do that too late into the previous burn cycle you snuff the stove out. No amount of tinkering with hot coals and tenderly adding fuel will save the fire and after you waste a whole bunch of time you end up just refiring the stove from scratch anyway, generally speaking. With that said, obviously when you need to be home you need to be home to tend the stove and in this way hand fired coal stoves are different from stokers or pellet stoves. The latter giving you more leeway if you are out shopping and time runs by or have to work and extra hour or two one day and can't be there to tend the coal stove. And this has to be done day in and day out, sick, healthy, indifferent, the stove doesn't care. That is different from stokers or pellets stoves. Some Stokers run for days on a full hopper of coal. Same for some pellets stoves or certainly an extra couple of hours when needed.

Secondly is building a good solid coal fire to begin with in a hand fired coal stove is nothing like wood or a stoker. Absolutely there is a learning curve, one I learned very well myself some 35 years ago fwiw !! You have to have that desire in you though or running a coal stove will get very old very fast. I used to keep pallet slats on hand ( broken pallets, mostly hard wood ones) and I would split those slats into about 1-2" wide pieces ( need a hatchet is all) maybe 9" long and build a grid in the stove 3 -4 layers deep, criss cross each layer tick tack toe style. Light that sucker off with balls of news paper and get the wood fire raging. When fully involved start with a scoop at a time throwing in coal. There comes a point where the fires has burned down to wood coals and the anthracite is on top licking with blue flame. Let that catch pretty good and keep loading coal, every 30-40 seconds. You will see a red glow in the ash door when you open it under the shaker grade and blue flames on top of the black coal. You got it, you won !

That's lighting a hand fired coal stove, a stoker a whole different thing. Now every time you decided to return home too late to catch the refueling of the stove. you will end up cleaning out the stove of all hot ash and coals and starting over doing what I just described above or a similar system. So if you want to mess with hand fired know the circumstances.

Hobokenkitchen said:

More than double.
I'll look into this model as well.
Thanks!

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Watch the video on the link of how to tend the EZ Flow. A lot less work but they still owe you a bunch to break even. Do they sell any other brands of coal stoves?

SidecarFlip said:

I changed ny opinion, go get one. have it installed and live happily ever after.....

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Seriously man, why are you like this?
Guy is just asking for help. Why all the nastiness?
Why is it so hard for some people to be nice? Or, at least, to resist from being constantly demeaning, insulting, and pejorative?

It's really easy to give advice/input that is constructive. It really is.