Harman TLC 2000 or Alaska Kodiak?

I have a 1900 square foot ranch house in Rhode Island with a full unfinished basement. The oil heating bills are driving me to the poor house. I am new to places like this that get below freezing in the winter. My understanding is that if I can heat my basement with a stove that I can save a lot on oil bills. I am currently looking into coal stoves that don’t require electricity to operate. After some research I came up with two stoves that sound like they would do the job. The Harman TLC 2000 and the Alaska Kodiac coal stoves. If any of you are familiar with either of these stoves any comments and comparisons or suggestions would helpful and very much appreciated.

The Alaska Kodiak is a serious stove. Also take a look at the Harman Mark series stoves, DS Machines, Hitzer, and Keystoker stoves. You understanding about heating the basement is correct, the floors will be warm and it should take a big bite out of your oil bill. Do you have a chimney flue available for use in the basement?

I agree with Rob but recognize that you will lose a lot of heat to the walls of the unfinished basement. Is there any insulation in the basement ceiling? If so that's not going to help a whole lot. Does the basement have a chimney in place or you would be adding it? If you are adding it you may want to consider finding room upstairs and putting the stove there. You'd get a whole lot more heat and while I don't know the specification of either stove I'd bet you could heat the whole house with either one of them. Just a thought, Lisa

I like the hopper style stoves...
DS Machine, Kodiac, Hitzer...
Had a Mark II but the loading was a problem...
Went with the DS due to top loading hopper, needed no power and had the output 130K BTU that I needed...
Mine is in the basement but I have large floor vents for circulation...
The DS basement #4 holds 160-180 lbs of coal so I get easy 12 hour burn times in the winter...
24 hours+ in the spring and fall...

If its going in the basement I would go with the kodaik, much more stove. As long as your basement is below ground I wouldn't worry to much about losing heat in the basement, once all those blocks warm up they hold heat like a stone in the sun.
Like the others said look at some of the other manufactures, I don't think any build a bad stove

Eric

All of the stoves you are considering (along with several others) should be adaquate for your application. As the other's have mentioned, it's the placement of the stove that's most importent and will determine how effective it is as a primary heater.
1900 sqft isn't all that big but are you adding the size of the basement to that? If so then any of the above should be plenty.

Secondly, where is the flue located? Allot of ranch styles have the chimney on one end or the other versus in the middle of the home. Obviously center location is better. If you must have the stove in the unfinished basement, I would do as the others suggested and insulate the basement walls. If you can't then I'd go with the larger of the stoves you've mentioned BTU wise. Better to have enough stove for the job than to be pushing it all the time. Floor vents, placed stratigically will also help quite a bit.

Thank you all for the timely replies. As part of the plan I am going to insulate the basement walls and seal and insulate the sill plate and rim joists and seal off the access to the garage. The basement walls are partially above ground so this should help quite a bit. I am going to add the chimney and put it through a small basement window which is fairly close to the center of the house. I am still considering the Alaska Kodiak and the Harman TLC 2000 but now I am also looking at the DS Machine stoves. Does anyone know the manufacturer's web address for DS Machine?

Jay

Jay,

Good idea and I think it will be well worth the effort. Insulating that basement will be the best money you'll ever spend if you're going to have a basment stove. Here's the main page of DS machine
**Broken Link(s) Removed**
and here's another large dealer.

http://www.rtstoves.com/

Good luck and any and all of these will fill the bill once you insulate. I'd even look for a used deal for any of the above. I'm always looking through Uncle Henry's and Craiglist to see what's out there. I'm an antique stove freak but I've come across many a good deal on the modern stoves including a nice 50-93 Hitzer up here in Maine for $800.

With a ranch configuration, study the air flow on you first floor. This might be hard to do before you install and begin to run you stove. Ranches might have dead airflow areas making unaided heat circulation to corner and rooms with an outside wall difficult. I haven't needed to try this but member DVC500 at last suggest using a mylar helium balloon that has reached 'neutral density' meaning it will float a few feet off the floor. Just follow the balloon.

The basic rules to move heat around aren't complex but getting it to work with out ducting might get a little tricky. Just remember, if you want heat in any room, the cold air needs a pathway out of the room. If the room is colder than you desire, more cold air has to get out of that room so that the warm air can replace it. In many ranch configurations the basement stair well acts as the main pathway for both. When you get to the outside rooms that have a more convoluted pathway to the basement stair case, adding a sizable floor vent into the basement below allows the air to move more easily. Cold air falls so if a vent isn't located above the stove, it will likely act as a cold air return.

What kind of central system does the house currently have? I ask because many add a heat collecting duct to their hand fed stoves joining the supply duct. It also makes it much easier if there's a central duct system that can be cut into to allow the cold air back to the basement and keep the heat flowing more freely both through the duct and natural circulation. There are plenty of threads here to help you with circulation.

A word of caution on sealing every nook and cranny. It's good to do this but remember, the stove needs combustion air. If you add a barometric damper, more air will need to enter the room to make up for the loss up the chimney. The air has to enter the stove room some way. Many add a supply line to a place near the stove's air intake.

Need to Contact DS Machine Coal Stove Mfg. Directly
Info on how to contact Amos at DS Machine...