Coal/Pellet/Corn Stove???and Advice

Does anyone know if there's such a thing made as a stove that will burn all three? I've tried to research it and haven't had much luck. We're going to purchase an insert for the fireplace and thought it would be great to be able to burn whatever is the cheapest or available at the time.
We presently heat with wood with oil backup. I'm not getting any younger and don't know how much longer I' want to wrestle the wood and the price and possible scarcity of oil scares me.
We now use an old Glendale wood/coal/gas range as the primary heat source.
We burned coal in the old house until the 70's so am familiar with the old fashioned method, but have never had or know anyone that has a modern coal burner. I like the idea of hand fired in case of power outages but the stokers with battery backup look interesting too. We also have a generator so short term outage isn't a problem, but the area north of me and into Canada was out for months in some areas after a major ice storm.
We're looking for reliability and naturaly as economical as possible. I've seen a couple used units not to far away, but unless it's cast iron, I get nervous.
Any advice as what to look for and what to stay away from will be greatly ppreciated.
Thanks,
Smiley

I don't think you will ever find a stove that burns coal pellet and corn because of some burning requirements. The corn and pellet stoves don't use an exhaust blower instead of a combustion fan. They draw the air up though the fire instead of pushing the air up through with coal. Also the amount of air required to make coal burn will put out a pellet or corn fire. I burned pellets for five years before switching to coal and I would never go back to pellets or corn because of more work for less heat and less reliability.

go for it if you have a coal dealer near by.

Oil was delivered a few weeks ago, I had burned 38 gallons before I got my coal stove. $3.20 a gallon.
My $2300 stove will be covered in 1 year, and my house is finally a comfortable 73 degrees.

I went with a stoker because I wanted the stove in the basement. If I had bought a hand fed I would have went with a Hitzer. The Amish guy that showed me it was able to open the door and there was no sulfur smell. He said that as long as only one door was opened at a time, the draft would not let the gasses leak into the room. I also like the damper with the bymetal control. The ashpan bothered me, as it had no back. He said it was designed like that to be a shovel to pick up ash that might be in the bottom of the stove.

I chose the Leisure Line Pocono base on size, price, coal-trol, and customer relations.

Anyway, hand-fired for silent, no electricity, but get the fan. Or stoker if you don't mind the fan noise, and want a stove that takes care of itself and can be more self regulating via a thermostat.

Read and Search the forum, you should be able to find the stove that will work in your home.

Don

smiley wrote: but unless it's cast iron, I get nervous.
Any advice as what to look for and what to stay away from will be greatly ppreciated.

I wouldn't be concerned about it not being cast iron, they don't make any new fully cast iron units that I'm aware of. Off topic but I believe the cast iron industry in the US isn't that much, too many EPA regulations to compete with cheap China cast iron.

There is only one manufacturer that I'm aware of that has been mentioned here on this forum where it got bad reviews. I'll not mention it because I don't have any personal experience with them. I can tell you this, If you purchase your stove from a manufacturer based in Pennsylvania you won't have any issues. That's not to exclude manufacturer's outside of PA either, people using the Hitzer's for example seem to be quite pleased.

Your best bet is to shop around and if you decide on one post it here and you'll get some opinions.

Cast iron is not a better material to make a stove out of. A cast iron stove must be made in pieces, fitted together, sealed at the joints and held together with bolts. This does not make a good coal stove.

I just rebuilt and put back into service a welded steel boiler that was built and put in service in 1950, so it is 57 years old, and it is in amazingly good condition. Especially considering it was neglected, and in a wet basement and was underwater at least a few times. I don't believe a cast iron product would have survived as long or as well.

All the current production stoves are welded steel. It is very rare to hear of a weld or steel problem with a stove. Post on the forum the brand name/make/model of the used stove you have for sale in your area, and we'll be glad to give advice.

First find out where you will buy your coal from, how far away and what price.

Greg L

. Happy Thanksgiving!

to answer the original question the Tractor Supply Co. store sells a multifuel stove, it burns pellets, corn, cherry pits, walnut shells. It might burn coal too but I'm not sure. If you can get any of these items cheap it might be worth it, otherwise just go with coal. Last time I checked corn was expensive.

That multi-fuel stove that Tractor supply sells is probably a U.S. Stove model 6039. It is a stove to stay away from! Many,many problems and it will not burn coal.

I think it is a US stove, I don't have any experience with it. I do know that the US stove's they sell for coal look like total junk, basically you could take an old washing machine, gut it out, put in some fire brick, and paint it green and that is the impression I got from looking at them.

hi. I went from a pellet stove to a coal stove. I was wondering the same thing at one time, what was better? the cast iron or metal . I bought a Harman coal stove its metal . if I could put tracks on it it could be used as a military tank. im sure its bullet proof too. im not wondering anymore if it was gonna be a bad material for a stove!!! I would do the research on different models and prices and stick to one fuel source. my opinion at this time is buy a coal stove not a corn stove or pellet stove. the coal stove I have radiates the heat off of the body of the stove like your wood stove does. and even has a blower on it to blow the heat into the house. the pellet stove I had didnt radiat the heat becouse it cant. it just relyed on that damn blower. and thats just not good, spend your time investigating buy a hand fired stoker if your worried about power outages and believe me you wont be disapointed.

Bigchunk,
Where you at in upstate. I'm near Utica.
I'm leaning toward the hand fire coal because I'm familiar with coal burning, but I'm going to look at them all this winter as they just opened the largest pellet plant in the world just outside Utica. My major hangup is cleaning the chimney with an insert as my hearth is about 14" off the floor and if I've got to pull that bugger to clean it, it might not be fun.
Thanks,
Smiley

It seems that there are tons of pellet plants springing up but the price of pellets does not seem to come down.

i live near Amsterdam,N.Y. I know where that pellet factory is its in skyler N.Y. I might have the spelling wrong on that. its where the largest out door movie theater in N.Y. state used to be. it had two screens one screen played xxx movies and at the same time the other played box office hits. a person could litterly turn around in their car seat and watch the other movie. I used to live about 10 min from there in Ilion N.Y. home of Remington Arms gun factory. the thing is a person cannot go to the pellet facility and buy them direct. which as we know would prob be cheaper . so that kind of stinks for pellet users. and

You know the spot. A friend of mine that I happened to see yesterday, parents owned the drive in, I used to be a custom gunsmith at Reminton and my son presently works there in inspection and quality control. I live about 3 miles from the plant up toward Cedarville.
Smiley

i used to go through the gorge in Ilion and up to cederville very nice place first Remington gun was made in the Gorge. thats where Mr. Remington lived in a little house as im sure you already know. I go up to the Remington shooting range on Berhinger rd in ilion once in a while when the opportunety arises. small world isnt it

I live on top of the gorge directly across from the game club and Ephaliet Remingtons house and own down into the gorge almost exactly where his forge was.
Used to date a girl from Amsterdam whose last name was Fick. Invariably when I'd call her person to person, the operator would indignently say, you want to speak to who?
Smiley