Another Stove Question

Ok, I can't find a single bad word about the Hitzer 50-93 but came across some other stoves in my search that I'm interested in. Particularly the Alaska Kodiak because the rear and side shield kit would work well for my install.

Does anyone know of other similar stoves that have the option of the shields for reduced clearance? Sorry to be aggravating but locating info, prices and dealers for coal stoves on the web has proved to be tuff.

Above everything else buy the stove that burns well and gets the heat out best. Clearances on any stove can be adjusted by applying shields on walls.

[quote="franco b"]Above everything else buy the stove that burns well and gets the heat out best. Clearances on any stove can be adjusted by applying shields on walls.[/quote]

^^ditto^^ and some of the custom d.i.y. shields look better than plain jane stove shop model!

Fri nco b wrote:Above everything else buy the stove that burns well and gets the heat out best. Clearances on any stove can be adjusted by applying shields on walls.

I have no way of knowing for sure which stove is "best". Not many people complaining to much about any of the stoves I'm interested in. The thing is the stove will be going in the living room and although the need to build a hearth to protect the walls would'nt be a deal breaker a stove with a shield kit would basicly be a swap out with my wood stove and maybe that option would be cheaper than building a hearth wall (or in my case, two) and Definitely better than setting the stove way out in the floor.

rocky wrote:

Fri nco b wrote:Above everything else buy the stove that burns well and gets the heat out best. Clearances on any stove can be adjusted by applying shields on walls.

I have no way of knowing for sure which stove is "best". Not many people complaining to much about any of the stoves I'm interested in. The thing is the stove will be going in the living room and although the need to build a hearth to protect the walls would'nt be a deal breaker a stove with a shield kit would basicly be a swap out with my wood stove and maybe that option would be cheaper than building a hearth wall (or in my case, two) and Definitely better than setting the stove way out in the floor.

A wall shield need not be complicated. Simple sheet metal spaced out one inch and painted if you want. Lisa used antique style tin ceiling tile.

With a new modern stove there are not a lot to choose from. Hitzer, DS Machine, and the Alaska you mentioned. I would much rather have the rocking grates than the circular grate of the Alaska. Hopper and thermostatic air control are very nice to have along with a fire view door. That leaves out Harman stoves which do not have the hopper and thermostat though very well built. You could also consider one of the better antiques which have their own advantages.

Thanks for the helpful reply. I didn't know about the difference in the grates and maybe something I never would have considered otherwise.

That's why we're all here! Help before the Buy is a Beautiful Thing!

franco b wrote:
I would much rather have the rocking grates than the circular grate of the Alaska.

Ok, I'll bite. What is wrong with the Kodiac grates? I have had rocking grates before, but only burned wood. This is my first year with coal so I have nothing to compare to. I am happy with the Kodiac, but then I may not know what I'm missing.

One thing I notice is clinkers do not lock up the grates or cause any problems. When a clinker hits the grates it just gets ground up and falls into the pan. About two or three times so far I had something hard in the grates, could have been a clinker or maybe just a lump of coal. I just wait a little while, whatever it was will be consumed, and then the grates work normal again.

You can't accidentally dump your fire either like rockers could. My biggest complaint is I must poke the fire nearly every day and ash builds up in the corners of the firebox. I don't have the screen behind the glass door, so I wait until the hopper is empty then poke at it through the glass door. The manual says to poke it through the load door on top, but this works for me. I use a three foot stick of 1/2 inch all thread. Not because it is the best tool for the job, I just happened to have it laying around. It takes about a minute to pull the ashes out of the corners and poke the fire. This will cause the bed to drop several inches and then I refill the hopper.

BTW, I have red ash coal and during the cold spell I kept the stove over 500 degrees F and used about 70 lbs in 24 hours.

I saw a post by William where he said he likes the "triangle" grates the best, and how with them you never need to poke the fire.

I really like the top loading feature, I can dump coal into the stove straight out of a 5 gallon plastic bucket. Fast, no shoveling and no dust, just don't let the plastic bucket rest on the edge of the load door frame. The plastic melts then it tries to pull the gasket out of the door the next time you open it. My other complaint is the ash pan hangs up when it is full. I will fix that this summer by knocking the sharp corners off the back of the rails that support the ash pan. An easy fix but I can't do it without shutting down. I really don't understand how the factory let it leave like that.

Anyway, I like to hear what more experienced people have to say about the grates or the stove as a whole.

BTW, an easy way to build a heat shield out of sheet metal is to use the porcelain insulators from an electric fence as the spacers. Just run a screw through the metal and the porcelain then into the wall. Leave the metal about an inch off the floor so air can flow underneath, up the wall and out the top.

With rectangle or box style stoves your going to have buildup in the corners...the only way to prevent that is to burn a round stove. All the older antique stoves had round fire box's for this reason and the coal burned easier. Everything is some sort of trade off. I'd have to have a glass door or windows to see how the coal fire is doing. It makes the job so much easier.

That's strange--with my 50-93, I don't get any meaningful build up in the corners, in 6 seasons I've never had to poke them clear--must be my short, choppy shaking or--wait for it---I'm just real good!

freetown fred wrote:That's strange--with my 50-93, I don't get any meaningful build up in the corners, in 6 seasons I've never had to poke them clear--must be my short, choppy shaking or--wait for it---I'm just real good!

" ....... must be my short, choppy shaking ...... "

You talking about the stove, right ?

Paul

Sunny Boy wrote:" ....... must be my short, choppy shaking ...... "

You talking about the stove, right ?

thats a phrase that applies to many aspects of Fred's life - coal burning included!!

Ain't nothing sacred anymore is there? NEXT, I guess the sheep are gonna be brought up AGAIN!!

freetown fred wrote:Ain't nothing sacred anymore is there? NEXT, I guess the sheep are gonna be brought up AGAIN!!

Not by me !

Paul

top top wrote:Ok, I'll bite. What is wrong with the Kodiac grates? I have had rocking grates before, but only burned wood. This is my first year with coal so I have nothing to compare to. I am happy with the Kodiac, but then I may not know what I'm missing.

It's difficult to answer many questions for fear of denigrating someone's stove that they are quite happy with. I have never used the Alaska grate but have used similar in other stoves and in general a round grate in a square or rectangular fire box will not shake as effectively as a grate that better fits the fire box. Even with a round fire box they don't work as well as rocking grates do. When using the side to side round grate it is obvious that the outer perimeter will move much further than the center portion which hardly moves at all and the bed does not get an equal shake. this is probably why the duplex grate was invented which has a center portion which rocks while the outer part moves from side to side as usual. Careful use of a draw center if the grate has one can sometimes also be helpful.

Mainly the movable portion of the grate should cover the entire bottom of the fire box and both circular and rocking grates have failed to do this in many cases. All rocking grates are also not created equal and some are much more effective than others.