Stove & fireplace shop tried to steer me away from coal

It amazes me that all you supposed sales genuis's continue to want the world to burn coal in every home in the good old USA & then bitch about the prices & availability of coal--supply & demand. I know I'm kinda old & grumpy, but, stupid I'm not. THINK, THINK, THINK new experience for some. Thanx for listening, I feel better. If someone ASKS ME about my burning of coal, I'm there to help. Good for you NJJoe & Wood'nCoal

stovehospital wrote:When they hear all the advantages and see how the stove runs they usually take a long hard look at coal burners. .

I have yet to meet someone that burned wood and switched to coal and regretted it. To quote a customer I took coal to a second time that had burned wood previously "I wished I had known about this 20 years ago."

freetown fred wrote: If someone ASKS ME about my burning of coal, I'm there to help. Good for you NJJoe & Wood'nCoal

I was being sarcastic, Fred. I have spoken to many people about coal and a select few have even gotten to visit the EFM.

I've written the address for this forum so many times on my business cards when I order more I might as well have nepacrossroads.com printed on them.

Wood'nCoal wrote: have spoken to many people about coal and a select few have even gotten to visit the EFM.

If you showed the EFM to 100 people, 80 of them would think you were completely insane for burning coal, 10 of them would be interested in the cost savings but unwilling to do any extra work, 9 of them would be interested in burning coal but unwilling to spend the money on a boiler & installation...and maybe, just maybe, the last guy in line would be interested in a stoker boiler.

Maybe I am exaggerating a little, but that has pretty much been my experience. Now that heating oil is close to $4 people are a little more interested, but most want something cheap & easy.

Exactly. I have run into know-it-alls that blather on about the horrors of coal, even though they have never seen a coal-fired appliance much less heated with coal. They're the ones that amuse me the most.

Wood'nCoal wrote:

Rob R. wrote:When you take the road less traveled you have to be ready to help yourself. Many stove shops have little or no coal burning units in stock, and if they agree to sell you something that burns coal you will have to figure out how to light the first fire. Obviously there are exceptions, but in my area coal ignorance is the rule rather than the exception.

That's what happened to me when I bought the Harman. Bought it and then I was on my own. The dealer was absolutely no help whatsoever.

Same thing when I got my Vigll. Good thing cause I had to make a coal stove a much better stove. I'm shure the makers of the V2 never had one in theirs homes.
And for the availability of anthracite, if we can have it here in Qc, you can have it everwhere in America oups I mean Noth America

Even coal burners are not as "tuned in" to coal as many people on this forum. I bought a couple pallets of Blaschak from a different dealer this spring. While he was delivering I mentioned my use of Blaschak vs. Kimmel vs. Reading coal. He said, in his experience, when people call him for coal the vast majority just want "coal", they make no distinction at all among brands. Interesting. But probably sensible -- I buy mainly nut, for a hand-fired stove, and I have seen no great difference among the brand names. If we were closer to NEPA, where we could choose among lots of breakers, there might be more of a difference.

And just for the record---I wasn't But those that are interested & inquire TO ME about it, certainly get the NEPA CROSSROADS site info.--PS I think you're missin my point so for an example--when all the YUPPIES decided to buy Harleys, the price sky-rocketed--most of them gave them up shortly after the purchase but the price remains to where a workin grunt can't hardly afford one.

Wood'nCoal wrote:

freetown fred wrote: If someone ASKS ME about my burning of coal, I'm there to help. Good for you NJJoe & Wood'nCoal

I was being sarcastic, Fred. I have spoken to many people about coal and a select few have even gotten to visit the EFM.

I've written the address for this forum so many times on my business cards when I order more I might as well have nepacrossroads.com printed on them.

when all the YUPPIES decided to buy Harleys, the price sky-rocketed--most of them gave them up shortly after the purchase but the price remains to where a workin grunt can't hardly afford one.

Come over the the Lower Hudson Valley and yuppies where we invented and patented stupidity. My neighbor Steve bought an Orange County Chopper bike, now that's really stupid. It's not even a good early one. Once a year he dons his nazi styled helmet and drives the bike down to the corner (it's too uncomfortable to drive further - I assume) and back and yesterday was bike day. I don't even need TV cable I can just stand outside the gate and watch for a good laugh.

Rob R. wrote: If you showed the EFM to 100 people, 80 of them would think you were completely insane for burning coal, 10 of them would be interested in the cost savings but unwilling to do any extra work, 9 of them would be interested in burning coal but unwilling to spend the money on a boiler & installation...and maybe, just maybe, the last guy in line would be interested in a stoker boiler.

Maybe I am exaggerating a little, but that has pretty much been my experience. Now that heating oil is close to $4 people are a little more interested, but most want something cheap & easy.

I think this is right on When I started talking to freinds and family about coal, I got looked at like I was nuts! Now when they come over they know to dress lite in the winter cuz I keep it 77 degrees in here most of the time

After I installed my furnace, I burned wood for about a week. Then I put on the big boy pants and bought 300 pounds of nut anthracite. After that I threw the rest of the wood I had in the basement back outside, said ta hell with that!!

There are a lot of service calls for pellet stoves and the dealers don't service pellet stoves for free. I was at my Harman dealer late last fall for about twenty minutes and they took two service calls for pellet stoves while I was there.
Now thats enough to generate a flow of revenue for the dealer. He said he seldom gets service calls on stokers, and almost never on hand fired coal stoves.

EasyRay wrote:There are a lot of service calls for pellet stoves and the dealers don't service pellet stoves for free. I was at my Harman dealer late last fall for about twenty minutes and they took two service calls for pellet stoves while I was there.
Now thats enough to generate a flow of revenue for the dealer. He said he seldom gets service calls on stokers, and almost never on hand fired coal stoves.

That is the sad thing about economics the company that does things the right way and has trouble free products with long service lives go under because they cant be competitive.

Not everyone suckers for the 'latest and greatest', but the majority of naysayers sure have NO clue about a BTU anyway. BMW....sure...condensing low mass or no mass boilers......they are all over it, but they can't get to the Forest, the damned trees are in the way. We help as many as we can, and inform the rest, but this sales job is a tough one.

Home heating oil was down to 3.39 here today and I heard folks talking about getting a refill......WTF ails people anyway? Alas, I keep the ,essage alive fpr those who might still have the ability to activate at least ONE brain cell before they die!

At the shop where i bought my harman mark 2 they did not even have a coal fired unit on the display floor as a matter of fact thanks to nepa crossroads.com I sold the salesman on coal instead of pellets also thanks to the education I recieved here I was totally comfortable buying the harman mark 2 without actually seeing it although I was able to see the harman woodstove model similar to the tlc 2000 it was built very well and with all the positive reviews on nepa crossroads it was a no brainer! keep up the good work folks and thanks for the time and input spent by those that contribute to this site Bill

last year i burned with 2 harmon magnums one in basement because i don't like my floors cold and only burned around 3 ton. i bought a efm 520 because i put a 1400 sq foot addition on my house. in my opinion harmon and efm are the 2 best stokers you can buy put coal in the hopper put the thermostat were you want it and enjoy the heat. if you follow the manual "which i printed offline" you don't need a dealer to tell you anything. i bought 2 harmond magnums on craigslist for 1000 and a efm for 2000 with around 4 ton of coal. i wouldn't even buy from a dealer myself they are a waste of time and money. this is a great site and there are tons of people willing to lend advise. good luck.