New to Burning Coal and Need Your Help Buying a Stove!

 
User avatar
Carbon12
Member
Posts: 2226
Joined: Tue. Oct. 11, 2011 6:53 pm
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Stoker Coal Boiler: Keystoker KA-6
Coal Size/Type: Rice/Anthracite
Other Heating: Heat Pump/Forced Hot Air Oil Furnace

Post by Carbon12 » Fri. Feb. 07, 2014 12:38 pm

If properly maintained, just about any stoker can last much longer than 10 years. Parts do wear out but can usually be easily replaced.

 
mikespink
New Member
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu. Feb. 06, 2014 2:50 pm

Post by mikespink » Fri. Feb. 07, 2014 12:47 pm

Thank you for the help.

What are your thoughts on locating the stove in the basement and not the mechanical room and running one duct to the livingroom and cutting in a vent there and not hooking the stove up to the main return duct. Some people recommended I just put a free standing stove in the basement and cut dummy vents in the floor and let the heat rise up through.

Will I get enough heat this way? Has anyone tried this?

For you guys out there that have a stove hooked into their main return duct-does this produce any dirt or ashe in the ducts or is it a clean hot air heat coming out the vents. I am a newbie here please help me out in making a decision on what stove to buy..

thnx!

 
User avatar
Carbon12
Member
Posts: 2226
Joined: Tue. Oct. 11, 2011 6:53 pm
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Stoker Coal Boiler: Keystoker KA-6
Coal Size/Type: Rice/Anthracite
Other Heating: Heat Pump/Forced Hot Air Oil Furnace

Post by Carbon12 » Fri. Feb. 07, 2014 1:03 pm

The one,BEST way to do it (if you can) is to use the existing duct work to distribute the air throughout the house. Putting a stove in the basement can and has been done successfully but active warm air distribution will always be better than passive warm air distribution in a basement stove. If you put it in the basement connected to the duct work, you could use some flexible duct work to get heat into the basement easily.

No dust or dirt should come from the stove when the air is circulated upstairs when attatched to the duct work supply and return.


 
User avatar
Carbon12
Member
Posts: 2226
Joined: Tue. Oct. 11, 2011 6:53 pm
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Stoker Coal Boiler: Keystoker KA-6
Coal Size/Type: Rice/Anthracite
Other Heating: Heat Pump/Forced Hot Air Oil Furnace

Post by Carbon12 » Fri. Feb. 07, 2014 1:09 pm

In a large house, depending on the layout, it is difficult or impossible to evenly distribute warm air from a basement stove without using the ductwork.

 
User avatar
Carbon12
Member
Posts: 2226
Joined: Tue. Oct. 11, 2011 6:53 pm
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Stoker Coal Boiler: Keystoker KA-6
Coal Size/Type: Rice/Anthracite
Other Heating: Heat Pump/Forced Hot Air Oil Furnace

Post by Carbon12 » Fri. Feb. 07, 2014 1:24 pm

Just my 2 cents, but with the dual stoker stove you're looking at, you pretty much are getting a stoker FURNACE for the price of a stoker stove. Coal stoves are space heaters that can possibly heat an entire house. A central coal furnace is a house heater that will heat the whole house without trouble if properly sized.

 
titleist1
Member
Posts: 5226
Joined: Wed. Nov. 14, 2007 4:06 pm

Post by titleist1 » Fri. Feb. 07, 2014 2:14 pm

Just to echo what the others are saying, tying it into the ductwork is the better way to go by far. You will get much, much better heat distribution and burn less coal doing it. I'd put it in the mechanical room, connect the supply from the coal furnace to your existing supply ductwork and the return to the coal furnace to the existing return ductwork. You will probably experiment a little bit with how you run your distribution blower and what your thermostat is set for to get the most even heat throughout the house. You will get radiant heat coming off the coal furnace but may still need to duct some heat to the finished part of the basement to bring it up to the desired temp down there.

Some have a filter on the return to help catch the dust bunnies - that pic of the unit listed on C-List had the filters. You should have no ash or coal dust going through the ductwork.

Fan motors and stoker motors & even grates do wear out over time and need replacement eventually. However with a dual stoker unit, you can switch to the other burner to stay operational until you can source a replacement. That is BIG safety net and will make you much less desperate to find a replacement part as your wife heads to the propane thermostat with evil in her heart! Yearly maintenance might include replacing rope gaskets around the doors and oiling / cleaning the fans & motors.

To help minimize ash dust, get an additional ash pan to alternate, let the full one cool by the stoker and then carry it OUTSIDE to dump it. I keep a shop vac next to the stove with a drywall dust bag liner and use it often to get any stray ash from the pan swaps. Its also useful to periodically clean fly ash from flue pipe and the inside of the stove to keep the heat transfer efficient. You can also suspend the vac hose over top of the hopper so it catches any coal dust as you empty the bucket. I use the same shop vac as the power for my coal vac coal delivery system so its gets double duty.

When going to get coal in your pickup my method for many years to minimize shoveling: line the bed of your truck with a tarp and then place your buckets all over the truck bed. I could fit about 20 5 gallon size buckets back there. When they dump the coal from a loader bucket, tip the guy $10 and ask him to slowly dump his bucket while moving the loader to spread the load to the buckets as best he can. You probably end up with about 75% of the coal in buckets without shoveling - for me it was well worth the $10. What doesn't hit the buckets gets caught by the tarp and you can quickly fill the remaining buckets shoveling off the tarp. Do your tarp and bucket set up before you get weighed empty so you don't hold anyone else up. Check out the coal bin thread and get some ideas for when you advance to bulk delivery and ditch the buckets!!

My setup is similar to you, a propane furnace which I usually only run once a month for 10 minutes to make sure it stays operational. The 1000 gallon tank also sources the HW, dryer and cooktop and it was last filled the fall of 2012 and still has 500 gallon in it.


 
User avatar
McGiever
Member
Posts: 10130
Joined: Sun. May. 02, 2010 11:26 pm
Location: Junction of PA-OH-WV
Stoker Coal Boiler: AXEMAN-ANDERSON 130 "1959"
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: BUCKET A DAY water heater
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Warm Morning 414A
Coal Size/Type: PEA,NUT,STOVE /ANTHRACITE
Other Heating: Ground Source Heat Pump and some Solar

Post by McGiever » Fri. Feb. 07, 2014 4:44 pm

If I was looking to get a Used coal unit, I would be more attracted to a running or very recently removed from service one...as compared to one that had sat in the corner of some old damp/wet basement for who knows how long.

Really good units do not last on the market for long. ;)

 
User avatar
dcrane
Verified Business Rep.
Posts: 3128
Joined: Sun. Apr. 22, 2012 9:28 am
Location: Easton, Ma.
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Crane 404

Post by dcrane » Fri. Feb. 07, 2014 9:28 pm

titleist1 wrote: **Broken Link(s) Removed**

Here is a start!
thats not a start.... THATS AN END!!! I DONT EVEN NEED IT AND IF I LIVED IN 100 MILES ID BE RUNNING TO SCOOP THAT EQUIPMENT FOR $900!!! :out:
price it out with all that pipe, etc. , that is a VERY expensive stove (in many cases....more than a full blown house furnace!), it also appears to be in great condition and well kept/cared for, set up is nice, etc. (cept for the wood proping up the clean out T toothy ) ... this is the best option possible for you and its ironic a member here just posted prior to you coming :clap: as some of the others have said..... RUN, don't walk and call him NOW!

Post Reply

Return to “Stoker Coal Furnaces & Stoves Using Anthracite (Hot Air)”