All I Can Say Is, "ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!"

My esteemed coal burning friends,

I am lacking words to express how AMAZED I am right now!! I fired up my stove last evening for the first time. I filled the hopper around 10:30PM and set my thermostat at #4 (recommended by the previous owner) on my Franco Belge (I have the wider model which is only about 15" deep). I walked out my bedroom to go downstairs this morning and hit this major wall of heat. I don't know what you guys keep for the temps in your own homes, but I think my living room must have been almost 80 degrees (I'm sure some of you get your houses cooking hotter than that, but it still is a far cry toastier than our usual 68 degrees with the oil furnace). I shook down the ashes and checked the hopper. I couldn't believe it, but I don't think the stove hardly used any coal at all last night. The hopper is still almost full to the top, and that was at about 6:00AM. For what it's worth, I am ABSOLUTETLY ASTOUNDED at how well this thing heats!!! It runs circles around any wood stove that I have used in the past ...and, I'm told that my stove will do even better when the temps are down below freezing. Here in Lancaster county, we had about 36 degrees at 6:30AM. So I guess the best is yet to come!

Thanks again to all of you who have replied to my questions and comments. I just had to share with y'all how amazed and impressed that I am with my stove.

Just thought of another question: What temperature should my stove burn at? I have one of those round magnetic thermometers on the top, and it appears that my temps were hanging around 400 degrees. Bad or good?

Hope that you all have a great weekend!!

Ain't it lovely? My house is 225 years old and not all that "tight". I can never remember it feeling like it does when I've got my Glenwood and Herald both going like today. It is amazing because they are not even stretching their legs yet.

AMEN from the choir loft!! You have now officially been bit by the blue lady bug!



Great that it worked out so well for you from the start.
Where did you get your coal? I am south of the Lancaster area and I am always on the lookout for alternate sources.

Lovin it! 36° outside this morning. 74° on first floor. Stove is in the basement just idling along. It's about 80°down there. I'm as excited as I was two years ago!

Well, OUTSTANDING:) How about you helping out now--finish your profile so we can know who, where & stove type--really, nobody'll steal ya,

musikfan19681964 wrote:My esteemed coal burning friends,

I am lacking words to express how AMAZED I am right now!! I fired up my stove last evening for the first time. I filled the hopper around 10:30PM and set my thermostat at #4 (recommended by the previous owner) on my Franco Belge (I have the wider model which is only about 15" deep). I walked out my bedroom to go downstairs this morning and hit this major wall of heat. I don't know what you guys keep for the temps in your own homes, but I think my living room must have been almost 80 degrees (I'm sure some of you get your houses cooking hotter than that, but it still is a far cry toastier than our usual 68 degrees with the oil furnace). I shook down the ashes and checked the hopper. I couldn't believe it, but I don't think the stove hardly used any coal at all last night. The hopper is still almost full to the top, and that was at about 6:00AM. For what it's worth, I am ABSOLUTETLY ASTOUNDED at how well this thing heats!!! It runs circles around any wood stove that I have used in the past ...and, I'm told that my stove will do even better when the temps are down below freezing. Here in Lancaster county, we had about 36 degrees at 6:30AM. So I guess the best is yet to come!

Thanks again to all of you who have replied to my questions and comments. I just had to share with y'all how amazed and impressed that I am with my stove.

Just thought of another question: What temperature should my stove burn at? I have one of those round magnetic thermometers on the top, and it appears that my temps were hanging around 400 degrees. Bad or good?

Hope that you all have a great weekend!!

Congrats on discovering coal! Like you I'm only on my second season burning coal. I fired up last Saturday and the stove has been idling around 220-250*. Last night knowing the temps were going to be in the low 30*'s I turned the dial on the thermostatic thermostat to 3.25 and still woke up to a house that was 70*. I woke up at 0540 and it was 36* out. I shook down, reloaded the hopper and turned the dial to 3.5 to get the temp in the house to 73* for my wife then left for work. I've officially shut the breaker to my oil furnace off.

Sorry about the profile, guys. I 'll be sure to update it. I 'm not even sure what specific model my Franco Belge stove is. I need to research that one.

Someone asked me where I got my coal. It came with the stove which I bought from a guy in Marysville, which is 9 miles west of Harrisburg. I have about 400 lbs bagged. I"m thinking about getting my next delivery of coal from Garmen's in Manheim (I live it Lititz). Actually, this will be my first purchase of coal. But I've got a 3 tone bin outside waiting to be filled!

Musikfan, all stoves are different; but you should be able to get down to 200° or better. This is where my TLC-2000 is at right now. Thats about 225° on the stove gauge. The other is the stack temp just 12" above stove top. See my other pic in my first post above.
Charlie

Body Hammer,

So are you saying that my 400 degrees is too hot? That's what its running at with my thermostat at #4. This is all new to me, so If I'm burning too hot, I want to fix that.

I don't know what #4 is on your stove. Did you say that was as low as you could run it? If so, that's quite a high temp. Where are you reading the temp? I hear most people on here saying they can run at an idle as low as 150°- 200°.

#4 is one of 8 settings. I can go down to #1, of course. So I need to turn it way back, then??

My thermostat is on the top of my stove, right on the top of the hopper. I don't have a thermostat on my pipe, because my stove is positioned on the hearth more like an insert (although it is NOT an insert) and there's barely enough space for me to get my hand in behind the stove.

Sorry, I thought you had said that was as low as you could run it. That sounds fine. I normally run at 400° - 500° in the midlle of heating season. Maybe even a little hotter. On my stove that would be around 3.5 to 4.0 on the slide dampner.
Sounds like you're doing fine.
The excitment is still there every season. Maybe we're all firebugs at heart.

I"m smiling. My wife looks at me and just shakes her head. She knows that I'm having fun with my "new toy". I usually don't get tired of building fires. There's just some kind of thrill about creating something that puts out an incredible amount of heat. The blue flames are beautiful. They dance across the coals with this smooth flowing motion. I've never seen that before with any kind of stove.

Yeah, I'm bitten!

Yeah don't worry about 400° - that's as normal as it gets. Worry if it hits 800°.

musikfan19681964 wrote:I"m smiling. My wife looks at me and just shakes her head. She knows that I'm having fun with my "new toy". I usually don't get tired of building fires. There's just some kind of thrill about creating something that puts out an incredible amount of heat. The blue flames are beautiful. They dance across the coals with this smooth flowing motion. I've never seen that before with any kind of stove.

Yeah, I'm bitten!

I woke up this morning, no blue flames. I went into the bathroom to get ready for work and came back out because I had forgotten something. My 20 month old daughter was standing up in her crib in her room pointing at the stove in the living room. I picked her up and carried into the living room and over to the stove. There were blue flames dancing all over the place. She kept pointing and saying, "Lookit.'