Just fired up my Yellow Flame Stoker Warm Air Unit

stockingfull wrote:The stoker does very little work all day -- and sometimes it's touch and go keeping it from going out. I'm nursing it along at about 60#/day, but I think this weekend is about all that'll be worthwhile.

You should be able to get by with less than that, we burn ours year round and between May and August go through about a ton. That works out to less than 20 pounds a day and ours is larger than that. Worth it for us because we have heating the hot water.

That unit looks very similar to my brothers Keystoker and his has a hot water jacket. You may want to consider getting one, the savings by heating the hot water offset the cost of the coal plus the unit will last much longer and you'll have fewer maintenance costs in the future.

I am looking for parts for a Yellow Flame unit. I am in need of the rubber drive shaft coupler and would like to pick up another set of grates. Does anyone know of a dealer? The last time I needed parts I got them from Edward Derr, but I have not been able to get a hold of him.
I have been heating with a Yellow Flame unit for over 10 years. I have done some serious modifications to the control system in the past few. I got rid of the mechanical timer and went to an electronic programmable controller for all of the furnaces functions. I have optimized coal usage down to the handful, and have eliminated the "going out" problem on warm days. I also change the speed of my house supply blower as the bonnet temperature gets higher or lower. It is a great unit and very economical to operate.
Dale, Cowlesville, NY