Kodiak at 15,000 BTU--will it keep 1200 sq ft warm 15 hours

I'm out of home 15 hours or more each day, except weekends. Will the kodiak keep my lower level 350 sq ft, & upper 800 sq ft home warm? I'm afraid if I allow more BTU's the coal will go out as there isn't anyone around to shake.

The only reason I didn't consider a stoker, is that we have many outages.

It is very hard for any of us to predict an answer for you. Even if a Kodiac owner can share their experience, there are variables with the chimney, coal quality, ash content of your stove, infiltration leak rate in your home, and many more I'm sure.

If you have a good draft from your chimney, and can dial down the stove low enough, then, as you mentioned, the ash blocking air flow through the grate will be the limiting factor.

I'd venture a guess that yes, you should be able to maintain a warm home with your setup. In cold weather, the chimney will draw better and keep air pulled through the coalbed. If you have a day that warms up and stays warm, say goes from 25* to 45* by evening, and your chimney doesn't draw enough to pull combustion air past the air control, then you might have a very marginal or out-fire 15 hours later.

One thing you will probably encounter is the problems with shaking a cold fire. Usually this is a major mistake. The coal in a firebox that is nearly burnt out is pretty fragile, you will need to open up the air control or the ashpan door and let the fire get cookin' real good before you shake the ash down [don't forget to close the ashpan door!!]. Then you can add some fresh coal to get the fire cooking again. If you shake down the ash too soon, then the fire may just go out, and you have to start over again.

Hand feed or gravity feed stoves can be a balancing act between shaking, feeding, air control and draft. Your particular setup will require you to learn what it likes and doesn't like. This will change with the weather too. A cold front coming in with high winds and colder weather will increase the draft in the chimney and creat different burn characteristics.

It will be a fun learning process, Greg L

Fifteen hours is not unreasonable, I see no issues other than the follwing. When winter starts, you will have no trouble. I can go 18-20 hours with my hand fired boiler. As the winter gets colder you will develop the skills needed to deal with this. When it gets real cold is when you MAY experience some trouble. This would be burning too far into the end cycle of anthracite's burn. By learning how to recover the fire early, you should have very little troubles.

So yes, you can do it. You'll just need a little talent.

coaledsweat wrote:Fifteen hours is not unreasonable, I see no issues other than the follwing. When winter starts, you will have no trouble. I can go 18-20 hours with my hand fired boiler. As the winter gets colder you will develop the skills needed to deal with this. When it gets real cold is when you MAY experience some trouble. This would be burning too far into the end cycle of anthracite's burn. By learning how to recover the fire early, you should have very little troubles.

So yes, you can do it. You'll just need a little talent.

Do I have to wait for it to burn out & get cool before emptying ash pan, or can it be done while its burning?
Also, am I getting right stove fore my needs. I could still change deal to wood stove.

What is the average useful life of a new Kodiak w/stainless steel chimney assuming all well maintained.

You do not want the fire to go out, you would have to start over then and that is not what you want. Because you want to go long, you will need to be a little more attentive when reloading, that is about it. The ash is usually addressed when shaking down and reloading. The big difference between wood and coal is wood you can revive a dying fire by just throwing wood at it. You can't do that with anthracite, the fire has to be going well to add fuel. Forget everything about burning you learned from wood, you will be using real fuel now.

Please review this link, you should see some basic differences in the two fuels. http://www.homewarmth.com/pdffiles/coalburningtips.pdf
You may want to look at a stoker, it would surely simplify your life.

As far as how long the stove and chimney will last.... a lot longer than you and I.

Switching to wood, you would need to be home much sooner so it would only make your problem worse.

Hi Ron, is your Kodiak the one with the gravity feed hopper and a circular grate?? Or is it fed with a shovel or bucket through the front door?? Not sure which one you are getting.

A strictly hand load stove is going to be just about done at 12-15 hours. With a gravity feed hopper keeping the firebox full, fuel won't be the problem, ash blocking the air to the fire will be the problem after 15 hours or so.

A hopper fed stove is sort of like a gravity stoker, without anywhere for the ash to go untill you shake the grate. You can empty the ash pan just about anytime you want. It is helpfull if the fire is going strong and the draft is strong, this keeps the ash and dust pulled into the stove and not into your room.

If you have everything right, and learn real quick, you may start a fire around mid november, and never have to start the stove again for the season. The fire will be constantly burning with the ash shaken out, removed and fresh coal added. Experienced coal burners can do this with good coal, good chimney, 'talent', and cooperative weather.

Greg L