Introductions and Remarks of Grattitide

Hi all,

I wanted to take a minute to thank you all for a spectacular resource. I am obviously a new user, however I have been visiting your forum for some time to learn all that I can about the world of coal heat. I grew up in New England in a house where our primary heat source was wood. My brothers and I spent our summers moving and stacking between 7 and 10 cords of wood. Due to my familiarity with wood I began looking at installing a wood stove in my house a couple of years ago. Truth be told I kept revisiting this purchase becasue I was not fond of buying, stacking, storing, and handling several cords of wood every year. Then a friend of mine gave me a gift, a franco belge coal stove. He heats his house with a coal furnace and had the stove for ancillary heat but decided he preferred his large walk in fireplace for sunday afternoons in front of the fire.

I picked up my "new" stove with much excitement and anticipation this fall. Once I got the stove home I took it apart to clean and paint it (it had been stored outside for a while). Upon dis-assembly I found that there were 2 cracks in the top of the fire box and a crack in one of the bells on flue wrap around. Upon this discovery I began assessing how best to repair this unit and looking for parts stoves for sale, or a suitable replacement. After looking for a while I found a Vermont Castings Vigilant II. I was very happy to get this stove for $300.00 and after some new glass, gaskets, and paint it looks like a new stove.

I finished my install (both stove and chimney) the week before Hurricane Sandy which was a stroke of good fortune since I was out of power for 5 days and heated my house for those 5 days with my "new" stove. I have been running the stove since then and could not be happier. In short I do not know why people waste their time with wood. Coal is easier, cleaner, and cheaper. Not to mention it is fine left on it's own for the entire day while I am at work, without needing to be restarted. It is wonderful.

Thank you to all of the members of this wonderful site since they were an incredible resource and a huge help, even though none of you knew that since I was busy lurking in the shadows. Thank you again.

Best Regards,
-John

Hi John, Welcome to the non lurker status.

Nice John, welcome to the FORUM.

Welcome to the forum redmoose!

You should know from lurking here that we love to see pics of the installed stove!

Welcome

Hi Titleist1,


Here is a pic of my stove installed and running. I built a mud room to house the stove since I did not have a good location for the unit. It has been a rather long process since I started it last fall. I must say that it has been well worth the effort. With the cost of oil it will pay for itself in no time.

Wow, your story sounds almost identical to mine.

Like you I had a stove given to me, and coming from a family that all burned wood, burning coal was different (though my Grandfather burned it in his youth). I grew to love burning coal when we got the Ice Storm of 1998 and I was without power...in January..in Maine for 14 consecutive days. It saved me.

So far this year I have cut about 80 cords of firewood...selling most of it to people who never consider burning coal. I say most of it, only because I keep 10 cord for myself, cut, split and stacked and ready to go in case I need it; but as the winter winds down, I'll sell it to people who are out of wood and need to get through the rest of the winter.

Thanks for thanking us though. I doubt I have helped anyone, but there are some great people on here...