U.S. Stove Success

Hey all,

I've been lurking here for about two years and want to immediately thank everyone for the knowledge I've gained. I just want to take a moment and share my success with the U.S.S.C Hotblast furnace. About two years ago I made the switch from wood to coal as I was tired of all the work that goes with it. As the story goes, bought some nut coal from a local dealer and thought I was set - boy was I wrong. I struggled to say the least. As I usually do, I turned to the internet in search of hope which led me to this site and the research began.

I'll save us all some time but the short of it goes like this. Several half-$#%ed attempts at the recommendation's from this site did gain me moderate results. Fast forward to this summer where I made a list of things "needed" before I put my furnace to use this winter.
1. Baro Damper
2. Stand fire brick straight up
3. Drill, tap grates and lock with set screw
4. Make poker for clogs

There were a few others but mostly random things like filters and the sort. BOYS, THIS THING IS A CHAMP!! Its is purring along as we speak with an indoor temp of 73 degrees which keeps the miss quite happy. It's hard to say what the biggest single improvement was but the combo of the top three have worked wonders for me. Personally I feel the baro was most significant as I have mega-draft which I subsequently measured at between .8 and 1 with a minimal fire on a 45 degree day. Prior to this, my fire would either go out full of coal or be a pile of ash. Now, It's consistant and predictable. With the weather being what it is my tending is never less than 12 hours and usually closer to 18. Second was probably the fire brick, grate combo as after a few days of good burning the fire would suffocate from ash build up.

Again, thanks for the help and to pay it forward, anyone with these types of stove please feel free to contact me and I would be happy to help. They do work it just takes a little patience.

philthy wrote:Hey all,

About two years ago I made the switch from coal to wood as I was tired of all the work that goes with it.

Just guessing, but I think you wrote that backwards? Or we probably aren't going to be much help....

dj

dlj wrote:

philthy wrote:Hey all,

About two years ago I made the switch from coal to wood as I was tired of all the work that goes with it.

Just guessing, but I think you wrote that backwards? Or we probably aren't going to be much help....

dj

Your right, from wood to coal. Just to excited I guess!

We love to hear success stories... we are also major suckers for photos - so get your digital camera taking some shots of your stove and set-up and post some... Heck, if you've been lurking as long as you say, you know the drill....

dj

Nice job philty, love the avatar! We want and need pictures that will be your next assignment. I think I know one coal burnerthat helped a lot, your last sentence gave it away. Post some pic's of your set up and I will let the cat out of the bag!

Glad you had success. Welcome to the family. Matt

As requested.

Now we're talkin'! Nice looking set-up! I feel warmer just looking at it!

dj

Looking good to me. Nice job and nice set up. The rewards of coal heat... can't beat it.

Awesome partner!! I'm curious about how you set the bricks up straight..
Could I see some more pictures with description please?

Nice work, these units can burn coal with fantastic results with a few innovative modifications. This is my third year with the Clayton 1537G which I believe is nearly identical to what you have. Its cool to see another coal burner using one of these. Kudos!!

Congrats on getting it burning correctly, now say good bye to the 2am wood fire stokes and hello to the full night steady heat sleep.

regarding the mod's you made to the grates, could you give a little more detail and maybe a pic (if you took one I know the pic isn't happening now since you are fired up!)

a friend of mine has a similar stove, hotblast 1557, and burns 90% wood / 10% coal. His health isn't as good this year and I think coal would save him some effort if he gave it a try with the mods you mention.

These type of stoves are interesting. I hesitate to say cheap, but they are inexpensive, but really all they lack is what the better stoves have. If a person is willing to make the modifications they actually work well. I did the same with a cheap Vogelzang Stove and have really wrestled with getting a wood/coal boiler as I have radiant floor heat. It is hard to pull the trigger on a 7 grand gasification boiler though when we are basking in 80-90 degree temps with my Vogelzang.

Lightning, basically all one has to do is find some 3 1/2' steel angle and notch it out so that it rest on the cast plates in the front and rear of the stove. For mine I had some 3' flat and 2' angle which I jus welded together cuz I'm cheap and won't buy anything when I can make it work with what I already have.

titliest1, as we know, the grates are in line and have a lot of slop at the joint which isn't conducive to a good shake down. My ash pan would be full at the front and nearly empty in the back. On a previous attempt I tried using small nails from a nail gun but that didn't work for too long. I pulled the grates out, turned them over and drilled and tapped for two 3/8" set screws coming in at different angles to catch the flat part of the nub. I suppose smaller would've worked but 3/8" is what I had on hand. I considered drilling the whole way thru and just putting a bolt and nut on but was concerned with busting the casting. But let me tell you, every shake down since this mod leaves me with a full ash pan.

Guys, sorry bout the lack of pictures of these mods but had no idea they'd be so effective. I imagine I'll have to shut down to clean fly ash and will be sure to get some detailed pics so people can see exactly what was done. Not sure when that will be though.

NoSmoke , These stoves are cheap comparatively speaking -$1100 out the door from TSC. But $1100 is not a drop in the bucket to me so I had to make this thing work and I did. Having to do it over I'd probably have gotten the Hitzer 82f but didn't know a thing about coal when I bought my first bag. Now, I'm quite happy and feel this unit will serve me for some time to come. As I said, I have excellent control over this thing even being able to idle it way down on those warmer days. I can maintain a stove temp of around 100 to 125f with the blower cycling every 45 minutes or so.

Welcome aboard partnah! nice set up, you guys with the hand feeders rock!