Eric: We have a Margin Gem and have used it for ten years now. We always heat with wood. The few times we have heated with coal it was FAILURE. We just could not get it hot enough. We want to try again and I have long lost the tutorial papers on heating with coal; the "how to" and wonder if you have some suggestions. (Obviously the directions were not good enough to get us started!)endinmaine wrote:DigicamLife, to answer your question, I have 33+ years of experience with a Royal Charm Crawford built in 1901. I have it in my summer house in Acton, ME and use it mostly in the early spring and fall time. It's designed for wood and will run 3-4 hours on a load. Not airtight at all. In my new house in Wells, ME I have been using a new Margin Gem Cook Stove for 2 years now. See my signature for a picture. I burn both wood and coal,, nut and stove size. On wood she will run for 8 hours, on coal up to 20 hours although I shake/reload about every 10-12 hours. We cook/bake with it most of the time while keeping our 2500 sqft house warm until the temps here in southern Maine stay in the teens. PM me if you need any further information.
Eric
A couple of other questions which may seem primary, but we are the only ones we know that use a wood cookstove to heat the house and are pleased to have found this forum.
1. Our stove cook surface has seperated some where the three pieces of cast iron meet. Black stove filler did not work. How do we seal these gaps? We can see "red" between the firebox top (when down) and the "plate" next to it. We did see another Margin Gem, just like our once and it was a way higher quality made stove than ours. Oh well. We did buy it new.
Every couple of years we replace the firebrick with cheap stuff from Menard's. Where do we get some good stuff? Any suggestions for a new wood grate. The shipping for one costs way more that the grate itself.
2. How do we de-rust/lime the water box?
3. Is burning dried potatoes to eliminate creosote a myth?
Thank you for your help.
