About had it!

I usually hit the door with a full shovel .... because I didn't open it far enough .... and coal goes everywhere. Even in the ashpan. I hate that!

I hit the left side of the opening at least once a week, usually in the morning when I'm in a hurry and half asleep. I'm left handed, so I'm shoveling from the scuttle into the stove with my left hand.

Ahhhh, I sure do love my hopper or I'd probably have coal all over the place

freetown fred wrote:Ahhhh, I sure do love my hopper or I'd probably have coal all over the place

i have the hopper and still miss it sometimes........

Yeah I feel your pain. Coal is so expensive these days that if you add the labor involved it real high cost. olive in the Annapolis area and have not been able to find anyone who can deliver tons for a reasonable price. If there is anyone out there who can deliver goog quality coal for a fair price please contact me!

Email me @ajak58@msn.com

Thanks rat dog

RAYJAY wrote:

freetown fred wrote:Ahhhh, I sure do love my hopper or I'd probably have coal all over the place

i have the hopper and still miss it sometimes........

When you do make a mess, does it have any thing to do with drinking Allen's brandy?

beekeeper wrote:When you do make a mess, does it have any thing to do with drinking Allen's brandy?

mmmmmmmmm......yummy.......the champagne of Maine!

Cold River Potato Vodka....

ok- I quess we had an angel helping us this year. We have a Harman Mark 11 in the cellar with radiant barrier on most of the walls.We lov the coal heat.Does a pretty good job coming thru the floor boards and up the stairs in the kitchen-something the oil furnace could never do for us.Have a pellet stove in liv. room,thats going to get sold.The pellet stove doesn't come close to the heat output of the Harman.Less mess than wood,but still frequent cleaning-quick shutdowns,price average this past winter was $5.25 a bag.Burned 3 ton of those.Since the Harman stove isnt quite enough to do the job- turned to Craigs list, and bought a Harman furnace.This year we just went and bought 15 bags at a time-so havent tallied up the cost of coal yet-but the 2nd reason we turned away from oil is we are now keeping our dollars here at home.First of all,if we're going to shell out money-we'd rather get the BTU's.So A "Coal Chubby" -another find from Craigs List is going in the liv. room.The furnace going in the cellar-puts out 92,000 BTU's, and will certainly go much longer between being fed and emptied,and has a thermostat-and will be ducted.The Harman stove is going out in the garage.After living with a pellet stove the last 3 seasons-we will take a coal stove hands down.No matter how I do it-I'm going to deal with dust,so I might as well be warm for that dust,but can take steps to minimize it.Had a problem with the north wall foundation skirting-but that gets all torn off-insulated, and redone this summer-so there should be no more chills blowing thru.We found with the Harman we lov watching the fire,but can't sit down cellar all day enjoying it,and needed to put in a small stove in liv. room because of space,so we bought the Chubby,and the new & improved door-window.Heating for this house is between 4-5 ton.We will never go back to oil in this house.I'll burn wood before that ever happens.The ignitor also burned out on the pellet stove but am able to manually light it with gel-so will order a new one.With the new set-up going to go in, all 3 can run without electric,which the pellet can't without a generator,which we have just in case.It sounds to me like your stove isnt big enough,and a coal furnace would be better for your situation-and then there's the cost of course.If your going to switch to pellets,you better think about going pellet furnace,cause I dont believe you will ever get the BTU's out of a stove.The good thing about the pellet stove is you dont need a regular chimney,which we are now having to install for the coal,but got 2 for a very reasonable price at Home Depot.We started out driving to Bangor for a ton at a time,and even though I got to go out to breakfast,it shot 1/2 the day, and $20 worth of gas,and that was before gas went up.Now we just buy it up the street,but will be shopping around some more.

Oh...my stove is plenty big enough..I have the mark3 heats this house no problem whats so ever, i love the heat from it...
Coal is alot better than wood!
What i grew tired of was the price we have to pay for coal here...the cheapest i found it last year was 7$ a bag...i could get it cheaper but the drive wouldnt make it worth while after putting gas in the truck at 3.76 a gallon!
I put my pellet insert in in Feb.,did fine heating the upstairs...i didnt even have to go half throttle on it...i didnt have to empty ashes everyday...or frig with it when i came home after getting up at 3am...driving an hour to work,work 12hrs...driving home an hour....then frig with a coal stove...i just dumped in pellets and was all set,plus...i made good use of a empty...non used fireplace!
Now with all that being said..i will keep the coal burner and use it some on days off and/or when it gets real cold....as i have stated...i love the heat but hate my cost and the hassle while i am working my shift.
Plus i only use oil now to heat my water...the pellet is great for fall/spring when it was too warm for coal

Allot of people use pellets up here in Maine. They are available and cheaper per ton but if you add up the btu's it's about equal in cost to coal. (in my area anyways) That said, I have a Jotul Allagash gasser on my 3rd chimney for the same reasons, Spring and Fall. It's an easy click on/off so I keep it. I also have a brand new oil/steam boiler in the basement, but that's for backup if I have to travel. Pricey backup, i can tell you that!

ok! that was in 2011. We now "2013" have the duel fuel wood/coal furnace running good and blowing heat up thru one duct in the big living room,and a temporary stove in the corner. Burning wood pieces in that just for this winter. It does put out serious heat-but we want to burn coal.The "Chubby" is coming in -in the spring. The Harman Mark 2, is going in the garage shop,instead of selling it. One more duct is planned along with moving the thermostat and hooking on the cold air return for 2013. This journey was worth it..