Coal pellet stove or furnace - do they exist?

[woodgoon]

A few weeks ago my cousin was trying to convince me that there is such a thing as a "coal pellet" stove or furnace... but my Google searching has yet to locate such a beast.

Does anyone know if this is just so much (coal) smoke he is blowing?

Thanks!

 

[daydreamer]

Are you talking about a stove that burns coal and wood pellets or just coal pellets? I found this about a coal pellet stove.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/coal-pellet-stove.php

 

[Titus]

A few weeks ago my cousin was trying to convince me that there is such a thing as a "coal pellet" stove or furnace... but my Google searching has yet to locate such a beast.

Does anyone know if this is just so much (coal) smoke he is blowing?

Thanks!

Do you think he may be referring to a stoker?

These coal stoves, furnaces, and boilers all operate much like a pellet stove, furnace, or boiler. They generally use what is referred to as rice coal (very small pieces) fed from a hopper. Unlike pellets, coal is quite hard to get burning, so you don't have any self-igniting features. The feed rate is just dialed way back to an idle burn when no heat is being called for.

Here's the Harman DVC500 coal stoker stove. Looks a lot like their pellet stoves IMHO.

 

[Michael6268]

Leisure Line stove co actually has developed a auto ingniting feature. Not sure if they are going to put into production yet.

 

[Wet1]

Yes they do exist... and they are cats meow IMO. If you can get rice coal for a decent price (and I would think you could in OH), they are an excellent option. Keep in mind coal contains far more btu per pound than wood pellets do, so you get a lot more heat out of a ton of hard coal than you will out of a ton of pellets.

Anyway, yes Harman makes the DVC 500 as Titus pointed out. They also made the 44 Magnum.
http://www.trading-post-ct.com/_stove_fireplace/mfg_Harman/coal/stove_44magnum.html

Both are excellent stoves. Very similar in design and function to their pellet stoves, but built more robust to handle the higher temps of coal.

Alaska Stoves also makes some coal stokers as well. I don't know much about them, but I hear they build an excellent product also.
http://www.alaskastove.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=13&Itemid=29

 

[Sting]

Lots of chat about coal stoves here

http://nepacrossroads.com/

 

[Michael6268]

Leisure Line
Alaska
Harman
Keystoker
Reading

these are all makers of stoker stoves.