First Time With Coal.

Hello. I am switching from wood to coal. The insert in my fully masonry fireplace is sold and I will be installing a DS Machine 1400 Circulator W/Coal Hopper. The stove will be out front of the fireplace with the pipe going back to the fireplace slightly uphill to the insulated 316SS liner. I will put a tee on the bottom to connect the stove to the existing liner and also install a barometric and manual damper both in the horizontal pipe. The stove will be on some sort of pad (though the floor is cement). The house is a bi-level totaling almost 2000 sq ft between both floors. The fireplace is on an external wall in the family room (18 X 22) down stairs.

These are the basic tentative plans. Anyone see a problem with what I would like to do? The one problem I can see is it may get too hot down stairs without vents in the floor to upstairs. The insert would barely heat the house but the coal will be a lot hotter. My wife is not too crazy about cutting holes in the floor right away, but I think we may need to. We'll give it a try without first and see what happens. I can put a small fan on the floor at the room entrance blowing cool air in. The stove is rated at about 80,000 BTU. At what approximant BTU do you think it can be idled at with out worrying of it going out? As low as 40? Or would it be closer to 50 to 60,000 BTU. The non-cat wood stove did not have a lot of control over that.

Steve

Hi Steve,
I got a DS hot air circulator 130k BTU Only used it the end of the season, as I had a stoker, and wanted to finish up the rice coal. Are you getting it right from the factory? That stove should heat your house pretty well, do you know what BTU yor insert was? Also did you look at the DS-1500WH 16k more btus for only $35 more. When I talked to Amos at the factory he said the circulators can idle down father then any othe stove they build, you can actually put your hand on the stove at low fire. You can set the thermostat to zero and the stove won't go out, as the air inlet plate lets just enough air in to keep it burning, as for btus at idle I have no idea. We have a ranch house so the basement is hot but the upstair is comfortable with you bi-level might be differant, but if you have nice open staircases you may get some good natural airflow.
Have a great day, Eric

Yes, I will get it right at the factory. I've been down to look at them. My insert was about 28,000 BTU but would not really cut it when really cold out. I think the 1400 should be fine, and I'll also have an easier time getting it in the room. BTW, my insert was a Vermont Castings Montpelier with the Georgian surround. A very nice looking unit and fired very well. I got only an honest cup of grey powder out of the flue when it was cleaned this spring. The refractory stayed white and the window clean. It put on a great show. It's just an awful lot of work plus we both work days, so we burned every evening and 24/7 on the weekends. Someone would have to be there with it to reload it every 4 or 5 hours if you were to try to heat full time with it, although there would always be plenty of coals to relight it in the morning, the heat just wasn't there. I don't want to get up in the middle of the night to feed the stove. So, coal here I come!

Steve

The DS will idle down very nice...
175* on the stove body for my basement #4...
Just do the baro damper...
I had to do some minor work to my stove to get it right...
Painted the inside with stove paint and replaced 2 bolts in the ash door hinge with proper pins...
The stove is a tank and gave me no problems...

Coalfire wrote:Hi Steve,
I got a DS hot air circulator 130k BTU Only used it the end of the season
Have a great day, Eric

Hi Eric, Do you have pics of your very cool 130K BTU DS Machine Circulator ??

Thanks, Eddie

Hi Eddie,
Thanks for the request, I will post them in The best of anthracite coal forum, under pics of my stove.
Have a great day, Eric