Getting a First Coal Burner

Pete69 · Post by **Pete69** » Sun. Mar. 08, 2009 9:14 am

Your whole plan sounds like a good one except trying to use insulation to seal the pipe around the damper. That is if you can even fit the pipe past the damper. I had to knock a couple bricks out of my chimney and torch the manual damper out completely to run my liner all the way up. It would have been nice to keep the damper but my 150 year old chimney had no Terra cotta lining. I think anything short of running the liner or or using a plate at the smoke shelf would be inadequate.
The code here for wood inserts is a liner to the top. I would be the last one to follow stupid rules and regulations but in this case, this one is for good reason. If you plan to burn wood if necessary, which I do, without the liner the creosote could drip down onto a hot surface and cause a fire in short order. If just burning coal a plate at the smoke shelf would be sufficient if draft was no issue.

CapeCoaler · Post by **CapeCoaler** » Sun. Mar. 08, 2009 9:26 am

Properly sealed at the damper the short pipe past the damper works and is safe.
Chimney is under a vacuum normally...
An inside chimney should be fine with a good draft.
http://www.chimneylinerdepot.com/
Hunt in here for all your parts.
Damper kit
**Broken Link(s) Removed**Ovalize you flex pipe to get it past the damper.
Use 4"PVC inside and gently crush over the pipe to form the oval.

Pete69 · Post by **Pete69** » Sun. Mar. 08, 2009 9:29 am

Yes, but what makes a proper seal?

CapeCoaler · Post by **CapeCoaler** » Sun. Mar. 08, 2009 10:25 am

The high temp insulation.
Just a low pressure seal.
The insulation has an oval cutout for the pipe.

Pete69 · Post by **Pete69** » Sun. Mar. 08, 2009 10:42 am

Like a rigid fiber board or something? He mentioned burning wood, would you feel safe burning wood with that setup?

baldeagle · Post by **baldeagle** » Sun. Mar. 08, 2009 12:10 pm

dsteinel --- As stated by Paulie, Install the liner -- there is a thread on this site showing the installation of an H 503, there are
no photos of the addition of Insulation around the liner -- just follow the manufacturer's instructions and you will get better
draft with the warmer/hotter chimney. The only recret we have on our 503 installation was not raising the appliance with a course of brick and using a permanently open ash cleanout door for makeup air from the basement. We heat our 3 floor colonial (+/- 3800 ft) using just coal to about 10F ........ good luck & Welcome. baldeagle

dsteinel · Post by **dsteinel** » Sun. Mar. 08, 2009 1:48 pm

coalkirk,

I am 20 miles south of Baltimore in Columbia.

Yanche · Post by **Yanche** » Sun. Mar. 08, 2009 2:58 pm

deteinel,

I'm in Sykesville. Retired from APL almost a decade ago. You say your other heat is electric. Is that a heat pump or electric resistance heat? If it's a heat pump you have the possibility of a stoker boiler with an air coil in the air handler. Have you consider that?

dsteinel · Post by **dsteinel** » Sun. Mar. 08, 2009 3:42 pm

Yanche,

my central heat system is two heat pumps which have electric heating coils for backup. Don't know anything about the system you mention.... I am happy that with the help fo this site, I am getting knowlegeable enought to do this coal insert bit. When that electic backup heat goes on, the electicity meter flies round and round. It is killing me with my open space, plenty of glass, skylights house. I think I should be good with my VC Vigilant woodburner in one main room and now the Gibraltar insert burning coal in the other. That means my house has electric, wood and coal.

CapeCoaler · Post by **CapeCoaler** » Sun. Mar. 08, 2009 5:50 pm

Pete69,
**Broken Link(s) Removed**Rated to 2100*

coal berner · Post by **coal berner** » Sun. Mar. 08, 2009 9:44 pm

Cap wrote:I think you did good. Gibralatar's are beast's.
What is the weight on that unit? Any idea?

The CFI weight is 650 lbs it will hold 105 to 110 lbs of coal pretty much the same stove as my MCC
They also made a DDI Double door insert weight on that is 670 lbs They all kick Ass for heat output and long burn times

coal berner · Post by **coal berner** » Sun. Mar. 08, 2009 10:07 pm

dsteinel wrote:Guys,

I been looking at this forum for about a month. Gonna be 60 yrs old next birthday and I find it too punishing to chainsaw, haul, split and stack 5 cords of wood per year (as we come to the end of the winter, I have used 5 cords of wood this year.) If I didn't burn wood, my other heating system is electricity. My 4200 sq ft house just south of Baltimore with a lot of glass, if kept at 68 degrees, consumes $1200 per month to heat . Those bills, when Obama gets through with cap and trade, are going to sky rocket. I have been exploring going to coal on this forum. Decided on fireplace insert burning anthracite (neighbors close by would not be happy if they felt they lived next door to an idling train steam locomotive, so I am going with smokeless anthracite). I gathered from this forum that the Hitzer and Harman are the way to go, so I have been scouring craigslist and EBAY. Two weeks ago, a Hitzer 983 came up on craigslist in northern PA for $600. But I needed help to move it and before I got my act together, someone else snatched it up. Last week, I found another Hitzer 983 on EBAY in Pittsburgh. I watched the pris rise in a few days to $450. I set my limit at $850 and waited until the last 10 minutes of the auction. $600 then $700 then $800 then my limit of $850. I lost out when it went to $969. Disappointment.

Today I look at craigslist and in Lancaster, PA I see someone selling coal insert made by Gibraltar, model CFI, for $275. In good shape, everything functional including the two blowers. But who has ever heard of Gibralatar? Quick search on this forum, and some positive comments about Gibraltar stoves. Decided to pull the trigger and just picked it up so it is sitting in my pick up in the driveway. Hope I don't regret this.

Am I foolish to think I can paint and install this guy without a professional? Would like to do all this over the next week so I can test it before daily warm weather arrives.

You will be very happy with your CFI the Gibraltar stoves & inserts are Great units very heavy built more then any on the market today yo insert weight is 650 lbs you can fill it with 105 to 110 lbs of Anthracite if you have the coal banking bar
installed 85lbs with out it in .They really Put the heat out and you will get very long burn times with the right coal
You stole that insert for 275 . Enjoy the stove here are places where you can buy parts if you need to .

http://www.woodmanspartsplus.com/68/catalogs/Wood ... rence.html

**Broken Link(s) Removed**http://www.hearthstove.com/catalog.html

dsteinel · Post by **dsteinel** » Wed. Mar. 18, 2009 11:52 am

For safety and draft reasons,I have decided to run a 6 in round liner up the full length of the chimney. My question has to do with how to connect this 6 in round chimney liner to the insert. The top of my insert has a 6 in round hole in the top of it. How do I get a leakproof connection with this 6 in hole and the 6 in liner? You can't just stuff it in there, can you? I would think that would leak.

Pete69 · Post by **Pete69** » Wed. Mar. 18, 2009 12:47 pm

Glad to hear you're doing it right the first time. Doesn't the stove have a collar either inside or outside. Most liner kits come with a stove to liner connector that fits over the collar.
You should get at least a 316 Ti. flexible stainless steel in .006 thickness. Coal fly ash and moisture is corrosive and anything less than stainless will corrode in a short time.
Check out Rockford chimney supply. They have pretty good deals.

dsteinel · Post by **dsteinel** » Wed. Mar. 18, 2009 5:19 pm

there is no collar... just a 6 in round hole. Where does one go from here?