Installing US Stove Hotblast

I'm a newbie here and recently bought a US Stove hot blast coal/wood furnace

I still don't have it installed....

all the quotes I get are between 700-1700 bucks
Is that reasonable?

I'm so fed up I'm thinking of installing it myself this weekend
I want to hook it to my carrier propane furnace
and have to run additional ducts some how to heat the house
But the quotes for just getting the thing up and running....
no duct work
The cold air intake for the Propane furnace is coming from my attached greenhouse......
no clue how to hook one into another

any suggestions or warnings?
Is it possible for me to do it myself?
with help of course
(yes I'm a female,and no,I've never installed something like this before)

I live North of Syracuse NY and its pretty dang cold in here depending on a kerosene heater
The propane furnace is kept at 50,cause I can't afford a lot

any suggestions would be appreciated

Karyn

Karyn,

I would do search on Us Stove products and read what people have to say. I think you will find that it is not a very good unit for burning coal. I don't have a lot of time now, but I will share my bad experience with a Hot Blast at a later time.

Don

Karyn, if you can read the thread by dirvine, you will see what he went through. Do a search on his username, I think the thread was last winter.

If your 'new' stove is still in the box, I would recommend taking it back. and buy a good Harman, keystoker, LiesureLine, alaska, Hitzer [what Don bought]. Or any other stove made to burn coal. The Hotblast units are a compromise design, and you will probably have nothing but frustration burning coal in it. Wood may do OK.

Greg L

I can't return it
I have no funds to buy another one
I have to make it work some how and any suggestions would be appreciated

are there people still people on this forum that have them and make them work?

Cause your scaring the heck out of me
and I am starting to install it tomorrow

If the stove is new, you can always return it. Just tell the retailer that your chimney and ductwork won't allow the use of this furnace.

As for a do it yourself install. If you are going to hook it into the ductwork, and have never done ductwork fabrication before, then I'd say hire the job out. When I helped a friend who needed an extra hand on a ductwork install, I was amazed at the different metal shears [left, right and straight] bending brakes, shrinkers, etc that he had and used.

If you have never installed a stove, wood burner, or other solid fuel burning device I'd get help. It is too easy to cost yourself more than the help would cost.

Are you planning on burning just coal in the furnace??? are you home to tend to the fire often? Any chance you have access to wood instead of coal?? Like I said earlier, the Hotblast furnaces are a compromise design. You will have to tinker with it, and learn it's characteristics when trying to get it to burn coal. I't will probably burn wood fairly well with feedings every 3-4 hours.

I copied many of the design features of the Hotblast, and other US stove boilers/furnaces when I made my VERY EXPENSIVE all stainless steel 'Big Bertha' boiler. Knowing what I know now I made a great wood boiler, and a fairly poor coal boiler.

What Dirvine96 said was good info.

I still think you would be much better off getting your money back, and getting a designed for coal appliance. In fact I HIGHLY recommend it.

Do a search on user name tigermanrich he has a similar furnace and has his own long tale of problems I would hope that you can avoid these problems

Give us some photos, details on your house, size, location, insulation etc,

Greg L

I CAN"T return it
I was told that when I bought it
I also have no clue where the receipt is
Even if I did I only paid 700
don't think I will find something you're suggesting for that much money
and in the mean time I'm freezing

I have installed 2 wood stoves

The duct work is already on the propane furnace
It just goes nowhere,(3 lines)except for the one that goes to the GH
I just need to run it to vents in the house

I need help(suggestions) hooking it(the hot blast) to the propane furnace
so if the coal dies down, the propane kicks on
Cold air return...etc......

I am not home enough to put wood or anything on every 3-4 hours
even my old wood stove burned for 9-10 hours

I work nights 60 hours a week


I'll try to figure out how to post pictures

Wife and I were contemplating a Hotblast when we were looking, but we have no existing ductwork in our house, so wasn't practical for us. I am sure with patience and practice you can make it work for you. As far as hooking it up, are there any forum members out there who could help her out? If I had any idea how to do ductwork, I would try, but don't have a clue. I wish you luck, Karyn.

1: make sure your chimney is clean and safe to use.
2: buy black stove pipe, T and elbows ,and make sure you buy a Barometric Damper. If you buy to much, take it back.
3: hook up stove pipe so the exhaust gasses go up the chimney.
4: fire up the furnace.

you now have heat.

now to distribute it.

1: study the manual and decide how you want to circulate the air. the online pdf looks pretty good.
2: study your house and layout the registers and cold air return.

for working with duct, how need a saber saw, drill, a few bits, a box of small self tapping screws, pliers, maybe some good all leather gloves.

once you have built the box to go on top the furnace, and put some 6" round galvanized pipe on it, you can use plastic insulated duct to get to the registers you cut into the floors. You might find a heating/hardware store that will assemble the metal box and cut the holes and install the 6" duct stubs.

A couple questions.....
Do you have the flue already connected to the coal stove? If not, do you know what is involved from connecting the previous two wood stoves? Are the supply vents and return vents already cut in the house and connected with ductwork for the propane furnace? If so, you want to tie the newly made "plenum" for the coal stove that was suggested earlier into the main supply trunk that exists on the furnace. As a first step that will get heat from the coal stove into the propane furnace ductwork for distribution to the house. From reading other threads regarding the US stoves, it seems you will need to make some slight modifications to make it a good coal burner. That could be the next step after getting some heat from it through the rest of the house.

WOW..........
U.S. Stove company sure gets a lot of bad raps on this site.
I have a U.S. stove company m/n 1300 installed and operational since 2002.
I have had no problems with this stove whatsoever.
I burn anthracite nut at the rate of about 50lbs a day (24hrs)
I also burn hard wood pallets cut up. The diversity of fuels is what I need, the nails simply melt.
I also am an HVAC tech and I have installed more controls than this furnace came with,
1st and 2nd stage blowers, two insertion type fan/limit switches, limit switch tied in on combustion blower for safety,
shuts down combustion blower when plenium temp reaches 150 degrees, return air tied back to furnace with pleated filtration,
close on rise adjustable snap-action fan switch mounted on flue collar so that combustion blower will not run unless there is heat.
My little Hot Blast only cost $600.00 it was a floor model. I threw away the junk T-stat and put it on a nice programable Honeywell.
We stay a very comfortable 74 degrees with great control.

Happy with a Hot Blast in Ohio

No the flue is not hooked up yet
Hopefully today
I had some guys move it to the exact spot I want it in last night
I have the pipe I need to run from the stove to the wall,still need elbows
The store I was at didn't have any
Going to get parts this afternoon
I also have all brand new 6" chimney pipe,and the whole kit for installing
That part I think I can handle from the other stoves
Tried to take pictures ,can't find my camera
Tried with my cell phone
The phone wont transfer the pictures to the card
WHY ME???
So I'm going to email the pictures to myself

My question's are do I run a pipe from the coal to the propane cold air intake?
If so,can I enter the furnace from the opposite side of the propane furnace?
The furnace is up against a wall,the cold air intake is thru that wall into the greenhouse
Or should the coal have its own cold air intake independent of the propane?

Do I need to make a plenum for the coal stove?
or do I just run pipe over to it?
Do I have to remove the plenum on the propane furnace?
There is a plenum with ductwork coming off it(propane)
Not sure where I introduce the coal hot air to the propane furnace
The diagrams show many different ways of doing it
What kind of pipe do I use to do all this?
regular black stove pipe or special furnace pipes?
I am going to try to post the link to the manual
http://www.usstove.com/Dealers/images/owners_man_4697.pdf


Its nice to have some practical advice
Thank you all for your support!
going to email my self pictures....then try to upload them here

OK I've been trying...have no clue how to upload pictures

Isn't there already an outlet on the Hotblast for the duct? If you don't have a tight basement, wouldn't think you would need a cold air inlet. Sounds like you are starting to get a handle on it, it will all come together for you, I'm sure. Just keep asking the questions, some one will have the answers. Bruce.

I hope the stove works out. I think there is a forum member that did some work to the fire box and improved the furnaces burning.

Without seeing your layout it is difficult to tell you how to duct it. Their are several ways to do it.

Is you propane furnace PVC vented out the side wall. If not where is it vented and is your water heater propane? If so where is that vented.

Pics would be a great help.

Don

The propane furnace is vented out the roof and I have electric hot water
When the hotwater tank finally dies I'm going for that hot water on demand thing

anyone have any suggestions for how to get pictures on here?