Looking at a King Coal/Wood Stove

Has anyone heard of a King Coal/Wood stove??? I will be going to look at the stove over the weekend. It will be going in my workshop which it aprox. 16 by 20. The seller is asking $350.00 for the stove. I have never heard of this maker of stoves and wasn't sure if I could get parts if I ever needed any. If anyone has any knowledge about this brand of stove please give me some advice. Thanks!!

King stoves I think were made by the Atlanta Stove Works. Long gone now, but they were still selling them back in the 70s/80s. They made a series of vertical 'batch burner' stoves similar to the Warm Morning stoves, and also made circulator stoves, both wood only and wood/coal.

The circulator stoves were almost identical to the current US Stove models.

What are you wanting to burn? Wood, bituminous coal, anthracite coal? The wood/coal King will burn wood and bituminous well, but not anthracite. The vertical batch burner stoves will only burn coal well, but handle both bituminous and anthracite well.

Chris

My goal is to start the season burning wood, since I have an abundance on my property and then switch over to anthracite coal when the weather turns really cold. The gentlemen selling the stove claims he bought the stove new aprox. 13 years ago and that it is in like new condition. He did mention, as you stated, that his stove is very much like the Warm Morning stoves. The stove is thermostatically controlled - I'm really not sure what that means on a hand fired coal stove!?! My experience with coal stoves has mostly been with the stoker type stoves and I presently have a new Harman Magnum in my house. With the Harman the thermostat controls tells the stove when to feed the coal and when the blowers turn on and off. I'm not sure what a thermostat does on a hand fired coal stove? Anyway the stove is wrapped in a brown enamel finish of some type. I couldn't get a picture so I'm not sure how the stove really looks but I'm very interested in going to see it over the weekend.

Hi Dialdirect, the thermostat control on a hand fired stove will control the amount of air to the fire. Most of the time this is air OVER the fire, that is, into the firebox above the fire. This works good for wood fires, but not for coal.

Check out the thermostat control, if it controls air into the ashpan area, which provides air to the fire from underneath through the grate, it should work fine. If the thermostatic control is above the fire, then make sure you can shut it off [for burning coal] and control air to the ash pan area with some kind of air control. A combustion fan in the ash pan would be ideal.

Hope this helps, Greg L..

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Hi Dial direct.. I have a king coal stove, I've had it for about 8 years. However I've been using mainly wood in the unit. For some reason coal is hard to come by in my area. The King stove I have is made by Martin Industries out of Florence Al. Their phone number is 206-767-0330. The unit I own is model number KCC205. I believe the air control being talked about is the small air door on the front bottom of the unit. there is a chain conected to a bi-metal strip that acts like a thermostat. when the strip cools the air door opens, when heated it shuts. thus alowing air to enter at the ash pan level. The unit I have heats my whole house here in upper michigan. The stove I had befor this on was strictly for woo,(king also) and replacement parts were easy to get. The coal unit is heavier duty and I've had good luck with it so far. Remember to look for warping on the sides of the unit when inspecting if your going to buy. Also check the door gaskets, you don't want excess air getting into the stove. And check the ash pan sometimes excess heat will warp the pan. Depending on the model of the stove your looking at i'm sure you'll have more than enough heat. pete..