Which stoves can you cook upon in a pinch

Which of the typical hand fired anthracite stoves (other than those purpose built for the task of cooking) is suitable for cooking upon in a pinch? And more specifically, can you cook upon the top of the Alaska Kodiak?

If I'm going to rely upon a hand fed stove in a power outage situation it sure would be nice to be able to cook and/or boil water on it.

lsayre wrote: suitable for cooking upon in a pinch?

A propane grill Really, why do you want a 2nd heating device, you might as well buy a second ahs. Or are you looking for something for nice ? How long till you get a good draft and fire started for a once in a while, you could cook for an army with a propane grill by the time you have the stove up to temp. Would your misses really want to start a fire in an old style cook stove, you might as well buy her a scrub bucket washboard to do the laundry

I have seen no hand fired stoves that you couldn't at least boil water on in a pinch. I think that a laundry stove would work well as a small range.

Not the Harman Mark series for sure. They look like they could do the job but they have a baffle that blocks the heat from getting to the stove top. You'd have to be burning your stove at 500* to get water to even steam. That being said I have cooked foil meals and other dutch oven meals in the fire box. Good luck, Lisa

if I shake down the ashes & open the bottom dampers on my Glenwood #30 to get her to heat up and maintain the higher temp. that i normally do not ever need I can remove the swing top and have a great flat surface to boil water or cook in a cast iron skillet in bought 20 minutes....she can and has made some great breakfasts and dinners.

I've use both of my Vermont Casting stoves for cooking purposes and not only in a pinch. Why burn fuel to cook when you got a hot surface at the ready? The top of my current Vigilant II runs anywhere from 350 -700*F and is always chugging away during the heating season. Both my Defiant and the Vigilant have ground cast iron tops with a grease ring so you could cook right on that if the temperature is just right. The underside of the top is exposed directly to the firebox. Just keep a few trivets handy and position the pot, dutch oven or pan somewhere on the top of the stove and your cookn' with coal We do roasts, one pot meals, reheats and what ever we can. When we had a garden, we'd freeze the in season tomato crop and make sauce and gravy when the stove was running in the winter. I can still smell that aroma ...

I have the Harman Mark 3 and let me tell yeah, i evaporate a 10qt pot of water in less than 24 hrs. If the fan was off I could most def fry some bacon.

DS no problem, but if you want to cook look at the harman TLC 2000

I think that would be your best choice for a backup stove, you can get a grill insert to cook two hamburgers , but you can also get a screen insert so you can use it like a fire place. That would make a good addition to a living area when company is over throw a few logs on and your done. But you can also Burn coal very easily for extended periods. It has a decent Btu output, and should be appealing to the misses




Eric

My stove (Morso 1410) can get to around 700 degrees on the top surface and its usually around 450 where i run it. If I opened it up all the way, it'd push 800+.

From personal experience, you can definitely cook on it if need be.

I don't want to sound like a stick in the mud, but it's like buying a brand new cadilliac, and then thinking about a horse and buggy. I like looking at the stoves to, but I'm thinking practicle. Now I do have a fireplace and thought of an insert for nice, but why, but for the sake of fun. And also, I thought of the old cook stoves, but the same thing, would I (or the rest of the family) want to wait an hour till it's up to temperature so start baking. If it's the look your in for, their are modern "old" looking stoves with electric or gas inserts for cooking {no wait time} I like to tinker with old hit and miss engines, but I would never think of hooking one up to pump my well water. FUN IS FUN but think practicle.

lsayre wrote:
If I'm going to rely upon a hand fed stove in a power outage situation it sure would be nice to be able to cook and/or boil water on it.

Look for a used generator and power the AHS with that, and all the other goodies, their will be alot for sale not that the power is back on. Take the money saved on the chimney,stove pipe and stove,and buy some Exxon stock. The dividend will pay for the gas for the generator. How often does the power go out ? I run my generator twice the the past year for outages, the first time the power was back on in a little over and hour {it would tike longer till the chimney was warm} and the other for 14 hours. We cooked ,pumped water, kept the fridge cold, watched tv ,played on the computer and my daughter even "did her hair"

AA130FIREMAN wrote:I don't want to sound like a stick in the mud, but it's like buying a brand new cadilliac, and then thinking about a horse and buggy. I like looking at the stoves to, but I'm thinking practicle. Now I do have a fireplace and thought of an insert for nice, but why, but for the sake of fun. And also, I thought of the old cook stoves, but the same thing, would I (or the rest of the family) want to wait an hour till it's up to temperature so start baking. If it's the look your in for, their are modern "old" looking stoves with electric or gas inserts for cooking {no wait time} I like to tinker with old hit and miss engines, but I would never think of hooking one up to pump my well water. FUN IS FUN but think practicle.

Think practical? Isn't that what this thread is about? Practical thinking is why I have what I do Over 25 days so far over the past three years when we've been whacked by wicked weather and lost all power. Cook on it, warm water to bathe on it and mean while it's silently heating the house Didn't have to concern myself with running out of gasoline or propane. Not even a little bit. Everyone without a generator screaming like a meme outside the window all day and all night long were cold and pretty much helpless. After Sandy hit here in NJ, people were recreating the gas lines not seen since the 70's, worrying about keeping their gennys running. Not us, nope. Nothing wrong with a genny but I don't want to listen to it for more than part of a day. I do need one for the well and something for the freezer for those outages that go longer than a short week.

i cook on the kodiak all the time...

i cook on the jotul507 all the time....except in summer cause it wont melt butter without the coal...

Is it chili time already

I have what used to be an all electric home, altered only by the addition of the S130 Coal Gun. Electric range and oven, drier, etc... How much of a generator would be required, and would it run for days on end in the event of an extended power outage?

lsayre wrote:I have what used to be an all electric home, altered only by the addition of the S130 Coal Gun. Electric range and oven, drier, etc... How much of a generator would be required, and would it run for days on end in the event of an extended power outage?

I have the same here, all electric home, even have the gold seal in the front cement step to tell all. I have a 12kw diesel generator. I can run the electric stove (I only use one burner) if you need to cook, use a gas grill. I could run the axeman without electric, hand feed the fire, manually shake the grate, prop the fire view door closed and it should roar along. If you can manually open the flo check valves, you should get some gravity heat flow. Now you might not have a toasty house, but blankets, sweatshirts still work without power. As far as a cloths dryer, a cloths line works great in my basement. As far as how much of a generator it would take,do the math. Watts=Amps X Volts. Look on the motor tags. For instance my axeman motor is a 1/4hp, the tag says at 115 volts, it draws 6.2 amps. 115 X6.2= 713 watts. My 12kw or 12,000 watt will run 16.8 axeman motors