Massachusetts residents check in here!

I got bagged Blashak nut for $259/ton right at the end of the season. Squire Lumber, Monson.

Hello,

I'm a Revere resident and have an older Russo C-w2 model. Last year I burned just wood, and didn't do it correctly. This year will be different since I will have it serviced and will know what to do! I recently found out that I can burn coal in this model...no wonder why it is stained black inside and the antique bucket in the basement, ha. So I will give this a shot this year.

I am a free-lance web designer, so if anyone needs help let me know! http://www.tulloweb.com

Hi all!
We are from Worcester and own a Chubby Coal Stove which we purchased from Larry Trainer in 2009 - what a great guy and so helpful and patient!. We haven't been able to use our stove yet since we are having problems locating a thin enough suitable hearth pad that will satisfy the Worcester Inspectors. It will probably have to meet the requirement of k = 0.84 - not easy to find but we may have one, just have to make sure the inspector will ok it before we purchase it. When it is up and running we will probably purchase our coal from either Robbins Garden Center (Reading Coal - right now $270/ton pickup bagged) or National Stove Co. in Shrewsbury (Blaschak Coal - right now $325/ton pickup bagged) as they are so close to us. We are just not sure if there is a real difference between the Reading Coal and the Blaschak Coal. I know that Squier Lumber in Monson Ma is selling Blaschak for cheaper but this is far for us to travel and no truck. Have any of you had any troubles with MA inspectors. It feels like whenever we talk to anyone around here about a coal stove that they heard of people using coal stoves in years!

Sorry, typo
It seems that whenever we talk to anyone around here they haven't heard of anyone using coal stove in years!

newtocoalinnortheast wrote:Hi all!
We are from Worcester and own a Chubby Coal Stove which we purchased from Larry Trainer in 2009 - what a great guy and so helpful and patient!. We haven't been able to use our stove yet since we are having problems locating a thin enough suitable hearth pad that will satisfy the Worcester Inspectors. It will probably have to meet the requirement of k = 0.84 - not easy to find but we may have one, just have to make sure the inspector will ok it before we purchase it. When it is up and running we will probably purchase our coal from either Robbins Garden Center (Reading Coal - right now $270/ton pickup bagged) or National Stove Co. in Shrewsbury (Blaschak Coal - right now $325/ton pickup bagged) as they are so close to us. We are just not sure if there is a real difference between the Reading Coal and the Blaschak Coal. I know that Squier Lumber in Monson Ma is selling Blaschak for cheaper but this is far for us to travel and no truck. Have any of you had any troubles with MA inspectors. It feels like whenever we talk to anyone around here about a coal stove that they heard of people using coal stoves in years!

Welcome,
If you are burning nut coal I have 2500lbs of kimmel if you are interested for $256 a ton. You pickup. I live 10 minutes from worcester.
Believe it or not there are many people around here that burn anthracite but most don't talk about it.
Steve

Hi All,
New to me Chubby from Larry Trainer. Waiting to light my first coal fire.
Looking for a good price on a ton of bagged, close to Cape would be great but can pick up anywhere in metro-Boston / SE MA.
Thanks,
lobsterman

Hi All
My name is Barry and i live in wareham, mass. i have tons of hobbies but not much time to do any with a little guy running around. I have a LL Hyfire II to heat my 2100sqft house and a DWH coil that blows the pressure relif when the stove is cranking but that another issue. Works well!! i also like everyone else, got this coal stove when oil was thru the roof and been loving ever since. I started with wood pellets but that wasn't doing the trick for me. I just got my head out of my you know what and starting preping up my stove for the first lite off for the season and noticed this area on this forum, better late than never. I called around and the price of rice coal stayed the same or even went up from last year. Its great to be in good company in mass with the best and brightest.

Hey everyone
I am yet another Ray.( I think that's three now) I live up in west Haverhill. Just my wife and I in a 2,500 sq ft raised ranch on two acres.
We run a Russo C-80 downstairs piped in to the fireplace. I'm burning Reading nut coal ( freakin' junk) at $295.00 a ton from Dodge grain up in Salem NH.
This is my first year heating with coal and I'm not liking the bagged coal at all. I see that Doug lives in Haverhill, maybe he can point me in the right direction for a new supplier. If I can find loose coal i'll build a bin downstairs.
We started out with a Whitfield pellet stove five years ago when oil was going through the roof.
That stove's up in the livingroom and works well for heating upstairs. Not used much at all now that I'm burning coal, but I'll hang on to it for now.
Hobbies? Well, the coal stove has definitely become a hobby! I used to flyfish A LOT and tie my own flies but I fell off the back of a lumber truck seven years ago and broke nine bones in my right wrist (right handed of course) So now I've got pretty severe arthiritis. Good excuse to buy a tractor! So now we're growing fruits and vegetables, canning, raising and breeding chickens for fresh eggs, tick control, and compost for the gardens. I hunt with a compound bow because I like the challenge and I LOVE venison!
My wife wont let me "process" any chickens because she named them and says I,d be killing our pets. I guess that would be wrong?
I've been a carpenter for 33 years now. Do everything from frame to finish, custom built-ins, mantles etc. I get the most satisfaction from doing the custom work in my shop, surrounded by power tools and letting the creative juices flow.
So in a nutshell, I'm a blue collar guy, live at the end of a gravel road, drive an eight year old Ford F350, I love my wife of 27 years ,my hound dog,my tractor and working our little piece of land to put fresh food on the table. Thats about it. Oh. and I love this website too.

Ray

Hello Ray,

welcome to the forum, Yup, your right, coal burning is addictive and a great hobby.

Hang on to that F350, it is a great coal hauler.

If your interested, PM Mr.1 Precision ( our Mass monitor ) He might still have a couple pallets of Kimmel nut that maybe for sale.

Thanks for the welcome JB
I want to apologize in advance if I'm posting in the wrong place.
This is all new to me. My wife's been helpng me out here because I have no idea what I'm doing.
She says I'm stuck in the 1970's. I have to admit that I've been rejecting all this e-mailing, texting, I pods etc. for a long time now.
Maybe I'm afraid I'll too wrapped in it. I don't know.
So have you burned Kimmel before? With the Reading I've been dumping three 50 lb bags into a mixing tub to let it dry, then I screen all the fines out and shovel the good stuff in to five gallon buckets. Too much work! Not to mention the chunks of wood, styrofoam and something that burst into flames about two weeks ago when I was loading the stove. Smelled like rubber burning.

Ray

Heartofcoal, You are in the right place to post your intro. BTW I give up, what is that odject in your avitar???

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger about this high tech stuff, I don't text or ipod either and dought if I ever will, and I think my cell phone is going to be a thing of the past pretty soon as well.

I haven't used Reading coal but I've read a lot of complaints about it on this forum, this is the second year I've been burning Kimmels and haven't had any problems with it but, having said that, I have a Harman SF160 hand fed boiler and I throw whatever is mixed in with the coal right in the fire box, fines, wood, and all, what doesn't burn will get dropped out through the grates or will get picked out eventually. Same goes for the Chubby out in the shop.

I'm not farmilar with a Russo C-80, is that a hopper fed stove? It does sound like a lot of work your going through screening the coal, but everybody has there own way of running there stoves.

Hey JB
OK, my avatar is a old coal miners lantern. The old stuff was built to last. Not like today.
The Russo stoves were made in Randolph Ma. They don't make stoves anymore but do sell the replacement parts under a different company name.
The C-80 was the biggest one they built, so I've been told and is rated for 80,000 BTU's and it does crank!
It's not hopper fed which is OK with me. It loads through the front door.
I get a twelve to fourteen hour burn out of it easy from about 30lbs of coal. And it heats pretty much the whole house.
I've been cutting in floor registers to let the heat rise. But I'm taking it slow. Every new register changes air flow.
The stove"s 17 years old and weighs about 400 lbs. Picked it up for $650.00 from a guy in Medford. It came with new grates,stainless heat shield, new glass and fire brick and a new Dayton blower.
There's nothing wrong with the old grates, so I've got myself a spare set. I think I pretty much stole this stove did'nt I ?

An old coal miners lantern, I should have taken a stab at guessing that. It looks in very good shape as well as your Russo, nice rugged looking stove, even your fire bricks look new. Enjoy the nice heat coal gives us.

Looks similar in width to the Harman Mark III, & that is rated at 92K btu's. Might be underrated.

The big Russo is a nice stove...