Crane 404 - Our First Coal Burner

Windy, over thirty years with the Crane model 44, this will be my 4th season with the 404.

Not sure if you downloaded the 404 manual yet so here is the link.
Crane Model 404.pdf

No success in down loading ,i'll try later,Thanks for the link. So 44 vs 404 ,which do you like best ?

So 44 vs 404 ,which do you like best ?

I think I would call the two models beauty and the beast. The 44 while small is the beast, imo one of easiest coal stoves to operate. The 404 for sure is the beauty, throws more heat, can easily burn wood, however because of the shaker system it's not as easy as the 44 when burning coal. I would still have the 44 in place today if I didn't happen to stumble upon a like new 404 on craigslist 4 years ago.

I hear you on the 404 shaker system, thought I joined the chubby club with the 100+ shakes & sore shoulder.In another thread, MA posted how he adds coal b4 shaking to break any bridging & push the coal bed tight down on the ashes. I tried that for the first time this a/m & really like the results. Much less shaking needed to get the whole bed glowing & the ashes came down much quicker. Hopefully it was not just coincidence that it worked so good,because if it works like that every time I will be much happier with this stove. We are happy with it ,just that the ash shake down process was so frustrating with so much shaking required + the poking from below.Using the MA process I did not have to poke at all,some of that may be because we didn't run the fan overnite & that seems to make a more even burn over the whole coal bed.

windyhill4.2 wrote:I hear you on the 404 shaker system, thought I joined the chubby club with the 100+ shakes & sore shoulder.In another thread

Anyone needing that many shakes is probably overshaking. Which can cause all kinds of problems.

I always add coal first and let it catch prior to shaking in both of my units. Then fill them up leaving some glowing coal showing to avoid any of the dreaded puff backs.

Congrats on getting your Crane hooked up! Now that you have coal heat keeping your bones warm are you missing wood at all? I do a bit I will admit. The nice smell of a wood fire outside.. AND THAT IS IT!!!

Miss wood...NOPE.......... uhh ,yes we do miss the wood smoke smell & even the wood smell after cutting /splitting it would emit that smell. Coal smoke smell...yuck !! The work load ,coal wins there,so all added together.... COAL WINS!!!!! Even heat....awesome,we have part of the house at 74-80*,no sense in being cold !

windyhill4.2 wrote:No success in down loading ,i'll try later,Thanks for the link. So 44 vs 404 ,which do you like best ?

Should be fixed.

THANKS, Richard,it worked !

Well, till I got my son to show me how to turn the flash off,i had already missed the best blue dancing flames we have seen yet,this pic looks pretty good tho.This Crane 404 is radiating it's warmth into our house keeping our living,dining,kitchen close to 75* with the heat exchanger fan running at tsat demand pulling heat from the EFM.My wife has even done some cooking on the top of the Crane & will be doing lots more of it.

Well, the Crane is keeping us warm,cooking about 50% of our food,it has radiated it's warmth into the concrete slab in front & around it,the cats have totally fallen in love with the surrounding area & often lounge on the warm concrete nearby the stove. We have pretty much abandoned the use of the fan preferring the natural radiation instead of the hot air moving . If for some reason the stove top temp spikes 600+* we will turn the fan on to help cool the stove body down but generally just let the heat radiate outward.At first fire the fan did help make the whole room feel better,but now that the "mass" is heated up it feels great even 20' away from the stove without the fan running.

We are averaging 33#/day since first fire on Nov. 1,we are keeping our living room warmer than we did for the last 8 yrs. We are cooking about 1/2 our food on the stove which does require higher stove top temps than just heating to the normal temp would require for the warmer days.We are very happy with the comfort level this stove has brought to our living room & the other nearby areas.The remainder of the first ton we bought should last till the end of Dec. We will likely need to buy 2 more tons to get thru the rest of the winter to the chilly days when we will likely shut it down & just depend on the EFM to keep the house warm.

IFR readings... stove top hottest spot 360*,top of pipe b4 elbow to thimble @ 115*,adapter b4 thimble @ 100*,last nite,the stove top was 460*,top of stack was 130*. These numbers are not as good as the antique stoves but we are quite happy with this stove,it's ability ,ease of operation,2 times/day tending & best of all the economical,bone warming heat it radiates . The we includes our cats who take turns sprawling on the floor close to the stove so they can get warm bones too.Counting all the related work with this stove comes up to 15-20 min/day which is a very low input for the high level of comfort we receive from it.

IFR readings..... stove top @ 560*,top of stack @ 130*, at thimble 125*, so temp comparisons go up a bit but very reasonable figures in my non-expert opinion. This is so much easier than running a wood stove ,so much more even,so much less tending,did I mention less work ! ??

I will attest to the 404 being a heat monster. It will easily get this old house to 74-78 and become a tee shirt and boxer shorts zone I also have to say the shake down a pain but has to be done. The poker slicing grates gets mush more done though add coal before it gets to low even if not done slicing. I have found every 8 or 9 hours much more reliable and safe for me and fine with it. Maybe a different opinion when there is snow on the ground. It has been around 6 hours since last tending and will bring out ashes top off then shake and slice before bed. I do lust for the triangular rotating grates and see the value now after a couple of weeks running this stove. Still a heat monster and keeps me very warm for 5 bucks a day. Need to get on TSC case and see if I can get another ton or two. With the woodstove I needed 3M window film on all windows and this year only on the coldest rooms to get them between 68 to 70. Let the rest leak for plenty of combustion air and allow an air exchange that ended a stuffy nose and cough from stale air. The guy that built this old house really did have a plan. I am down to a load of Kimmels at night and Blaschack during the day for a slower burn. 2 scoops of Kimmels and 2 hours of monster blues in the forecast,
life is good.