Re-discovering Coal

New to the site and a good one it is.

I have an Olix Air-Flo wood/coal burning stove that I bought in the mid 80's. I mainly burned coal in it and used wood for the shoulder months of winter
and starting the coal fires. When we finished off our basement in the winter of 2004, my wife and I decided that we would burn just wood mostly because
of the "dust factor" and I took out the coal bin I had built as part of the remodeling.
I have access to land to get firewood and enjoy the time in the woods and the exercise involved in the firewood gathering process. The usual problem was
having the time to get a winters stock of wood and I would end up buying a cord or two anyway.

A month ago looking at the wood piles I realized I would come up short again and thought maybe it was time to re-think using coal. I found this site while
searching possible coal bin solutions or temporary solutions for this winter. I also came across some great tips on maintaining a good burn on here also.
As long as I burned coal before, I always seemed to have some kind of issue along the way. The bottom line I think was that I "fussed" with the burning process
to much. Plus now that the basement is insulated and finished off, I don't have to try and burn as hot as I did before.

Being just north of Scranton I grabbed 10 bags of nut coal from Agel Coal co., which I can dump 5 bags into a 45 gal. tote container right outside the basement door.
I picked up a 4 qt. feed scoop at TSC, (another tip I got on here), and this little system is working well. I've been burning the coal since Jan. 10 and.......
I'm liking it, a lot. So is my wife. Again from tips on here, the dust hasn't been to bad and something I will continue to research on here.
The search function here works well !

Another reason for me re-thinking coal is that I turned 57 this past year and as much as I enjoy the firewood gathering, one wonders how long that will last.
As far as cost per month, wood vs. coal, I've generally thought before and now, that it was a wash. Give or take a little. By the way, our small ranch home is all
electric heat, so we do save quite a bit.

Again, thanks for a great site with lots of good information and knowledgeable posters. Heres a couple shots of the stove. This is a wood fire though.

Olix Air-Flo. Model - Hudson



These two enjoy the stove.






Kevin

Nice looking stove. What kind of grates does it have in it?

dj

That is a cool looking stove.

Looks great, seems like the cats approve also.


Welcome to the forum and back to coal, Eric

First thing I said to myself, "Nice Looking Stove"!

Vangellis,welcome to the site, that stove looks like a nice little heater!.I wish I would have discoverd coal 20 years ago I would have dumped the wood stove long ago,It's nice to come home from work 14 hrs after you reloaded the stove to a real warm house but I''m on the 16/8 reload schedule due to work but the stove is doing a fine job of heating a 2300 sq ft bi-level(0* to -5* outside coldest part of the house 70*).The dust(fly ash and a small amount of coal dust) is the same as my wood stove was so thats a wash.Keep searching the site for ideas to problems you have, you will find them.Take care Keepaeyeonit

Nice looking warm and happy kitties, oh yea, nice stove too

I concur. That is a really cool looking stove. Are those circulatory tubes on the top front?

And welcome to the forum.

dlj wrote:Nice looking stove. What kind of grates does it have in it?
dj

The grates are cast iron, rocker type. How are cast iron as opposed to other types?

I'm On Fire wrote:I concur. That is a really cool looking stove. Are those circulatory tubes on the top front?

And welcome to the forum.

Yes, they are circ tubes. My blower is on the fritz, so I have a floor fan off to the side. It does the job, but I want to pull
the blower and check it over well before I call it DOA.

Thanks for the compliments on the stove. It is well built and has held up well. A little bit about Olix Air-Flo:

It was a family owned operation in Hornell, N.Y. in the lower Fingerlakes region.
In my first year of use, the shaker arm broke off. I got no satisfaction from the dealer I got it from, so I called Olix myself.
They said they were having a problem with the shaker and had a fix in a much beefier version. They also said they were having
a problem with the dealer were I got it.
They actually sent a person to come pick up the stove and take it for repair. Within a week it was returned with a better shaker arm
and all cleaned up to look like new. No problem since.
I never could find out much about the company some years later searching the internet. I posted in a wood burning site about the stove over
2 years ago, no initial response so I forgot about it. About 3 months ago I was doing a search again and found out that someone did respond to the post.
The daughter of the owner of Olix. If you notice in the pictures there is fine detail painted on leaves in the corners of the door, and on the emblem in
the center of the door. She did that as a teenager in the shop. Cool!
Sad part is they quit making stoves a few years after I bought mine. The EPA wanted them to test their stoves at an exorbitant cost and they just felt
it wasn't worth it I guess. Shame. Good product and they seemed like good people to deal with.
Funny part is the young lady that responded to my post is trying to find one of the stoves now and can't. She said her brothers have them, but arent giving them up.
So besides the rocker arm problem and the blower, it has been a great unit. Well, it is over 26 years old now.



Thanks again,



Kevin

Wow, what a story! Amazing! I certainly wish the lady the best of luck finding one of those stoves...

Cast Iron grates are the best as far as I'm concerned. There are several different designs. Flat, triangular, arms that push back and forth, more, I'm sure... I have an old stove with the triangular grates. I've forgotten what exactly they are called.

Looks like you have one really nice stove there...beautiful too...

I burned wood in mine for years before discovering coal. I'm fully converted now... I don't even want to think about having to burn wood. I guess if I had free and easy access I'd still burn wood. But coal just runs so much better...

dj

Hi DJ.

Glad to know the cast iron grates are good. I honestly don't know.
If thats your unit in the avatar, thats not just a stove, thats art !

When we were looking at stoves we checked out the more upright top loading Godin stoves.
Real nice looking and detailed. I still have the pamphlet and the quote for the 3734 model. List was $795
around 1984. A few more bucks for freight and Pa. sales tax. Doubt it would run close to that today.

I just liked the sturdy and more traditional look of the Olix. Of course I can't find anything on what we paid for that,
but I think it was close to $1100 when all was said and done. I could be wrong though.

Anyway, I think this site goes into my top five. Good info.




Kevin

Welcome back to the fabulous world of coal heat ...it just dont get anybetter!
I really like your stove ..she looks like a heating machine, and YES the cast iron grates will last ya a life time if taken care of.
and I see your Kitty agrees...lol
Tim

A tip I picked up here on contolling the dust is to purchase an air purifier that has a HEPA filter. I have allergies and the dust was causing me some sinus discomfort. After purchasing an air purifier the differance is very noticable. My wife use to dust a couple times a week. Now she only has to dust once a month and my allergies are kept in check.
Tom

Vangellis wrote:Hi DJ.

Glad to know the cast iron grates are good. I honestly don't know.
If thats your unit in the avatar, thats not just a stove, thats art !

When we were looking at stoves we checked out the more upright top loading Godin stoves.
Real nice looking and detailed. I still have the pamphlet and the quote for the 3734 model. List was $795
around 1984. A few more bucks for freight and Pa. sales tax. Doubt it would run close to that today.

I just liked the sturdy and more traditional look of the Olix. Of course I can't find anything on what we paid for that,
but I think it was close to $1100 when all was said and done. I could be wrong though.

Anyway, I think this site goes into my top five. Good info.

Kevin

Yeap, that's my old stove, thanks. Some of these old stoves are real eye catchers, and can even heat well... I've owned this one since I was somewhere between 12 and 14 years old... And I'm not confessing how many years ago that was....LOL

There are some folks here that use the Godin stoves. From what I've read, they seem to work well.

I really like the looks of your Olix. I'm sure you can either fix the circulating fan or figure out a replacement of some sort. There are folk on here that can give you some good pointers once you know more about what you need to do... Just bare in mind, photos help a lot...

Good luck with it and ask any questions you want. There's a wide knowledge base here...

dj

Hi Vangellis and welcome to the forum. Nice installation you have. Nice to see you'r re-discovering the pleasures to burn ant. Like you I always had enjoyed the wood jobs, cut, split,stack, drying, enter, re-cord inside...never finish. I owned a small woodland and ended in selling it to stop all that work on it. It take so much time and like you said years go by for every one. Super place for the cats.
Good luck,
nortcan