DS1500 Vs. Alaska Kodiak for Use Exclusively With Pea

I've narrowed things down to these two stoves. They both seem to have about the same output rating for BTU's, and I assume they hold just about the same load of coal. I'm also assuming they both use a bimetallic draft control to regulate output. For use with exclusively pea, which would you choose between them? I'm assuming most of this comes down to how well their grates handle pea, and how well they do without the aid of a blower.

For background: Since my Coal Gun burns only pea, and I'm considering the coal stove for use as a back up or during power failures, I will only have pea in storage.

Please don't spin this into a shouting match over why I really need a power generator.

I like my DS and have burned pea in it with no problem. But I started my fire with nut then added pea. You might want to keep some nut on hand.

Paisan wrote:I like my DS and have burned pea in it with no problem. But I started my fire with nut then added pea. You might want to keep some nut on hand.

Was that to keep the pea away from the grates?

lsayre wrote:Was that to keep the pea away from the grates?

Had the fire going for weeks with nut. A guy gave me about a half ton of pea so I started using that instead. Burned fine just not as hot as nut.

I've started with Pea in the DS no problem. What every you have in there first wood or charcoal, will make a nice ash bed to start the coal

Eric

Why not go smaller if its just for back up? Less coal to start burning, less coal to clean out when you do let it go out. I mean cleaning a hand fed for intermitant use is kind of a pain. go smaller and just crank it harder, the pea will get hot as nut just feed it more air

think 1400 or 1300

I've burned just pea in my DS as well. Works nicely.

Hope that your placement of this stove will keep your pipes from freezing and bursting after an extended period without electricity.

I LOVE my Alaska Kodiak. Search on '63roundbadge' and 'alaska kodiak' for all my positive articles.

I have used pea exclusively, this year I tried mixing nut w/pea on cold days, I really didn't find much difference in the output, so I'm staying w/pure pea.

Kodiak is easy to use, clean, and works well with simply a slow running 20" box fan behind it.

For those of you who have seen both of these stoves, which would you consider to have the better (more robust, more functional, more likely to last, etc...) grate system?