Which hand fed to buy

You say you have a duct running upstairs. Takea look at the D.S. Machine basement #4 stove.
It comes duct ready. For a pic go to rtstoves.com.

Holy cats Smitty, I paid between 900-1000 for my hitzer 82, that is why i didnt even look at the harman line. The 82 is 90k btu and is a radiant stove, you could easily run it like the gibralter and it has the bitmetal thermostat. Also it shouldnt be to hard to just put the duct fan on to help move the warm downstairs air upstairs, or construct a hood. I get very good burn times with the hitzer, 18hrs is easily achieveable at a 400f stove temp. The hitzer ashpan is very sufficient for the size. You do have to have the ashpan door open to shake the grates, and each grate is done individually, there are two grates.

I would compare the hitzer to the d.s. machine though to see what the differences are.

When I lived down there, I bought my Harman from Coleman's stove shop (I think that's the name). Turn left at the winery coming out of Intercourse. Its about a mile down the road if I recall correctly.

I have a Hitzer 82FA (forced air) and love it. Burns coal and wood very well. Not knocking or saying any other brand is not as good but I am very happy with my decision.

Coalfire wrote:Hi everyone,
I am thinking of going back to a hand fed stove. Last year bought a mag stoker, awsome stoker but the heat is not the same, I miss the radiant heat and warm floors, and lower coal consumption. the one thing the mag does have though is nicer temp control. All that aside though, I used to burn a gibralter hand fed (for 18 years), told it was rated at 70K btu. So i would be looking for something in that btu range or higher. My question is what is everyone burning? I am looking for something that is easily bought, I willl probably try to find something used. I would like an external shaker handle, hopper fed or front load really haven't decided. Pros and Cons please.
Thanks in advance and have a great day, Eric

I love my Hitzer. No moving parts and burns for over 24hrs with ease.

Them latest 50-95 models have a removable hopper so they will burn wood nicely.

Hi everyone,
Well thank you all for your advice, I made the trip to DS Machines factory/store (not really a trip as they were only 25 minutes from me). I really liked there stoves looked extremely well built and simple. They have a 130kbtu hot air circulator stove, same as the basement #4 just looks a little differant and it has heat exchange tubes in the fire box for natural air circulation. I also liked there bi-metal t-stat. It is a hopper fed stove with external shaker, and I think that is the one for me. Also talking to Amos was a real treat, No games just honest answers to my questions. I talked to my wife and she is on board, so after this burning season the mag stoker will be going and it will be back to hand fed. On a side note Amos saw my fire pager and asked who I ran with, I told him and he said you were at that church fire during that last snow storm/ near blizzard, and I said yes. He said they were sitting at there station listening to it on the monitor sounded like a real mess. It was a real mess trucks getting stuck, water supply issues, drifting snow. However we did save the church but the classrooms were lost, so not bad considering everything. As I was leaving the store he comes running out and ask if I want to run a call with them they just got dispacthed for a medical assist, So I said hop in and ran him up to the station house, It was sort of funny seeing all these amish come running from differant directions. There were long beards flying everywhere
Thanks again everyone, Eric
P.S. when I get the new stove I will let everyone know how it works.