US Stove Company 4047 or ASA7

Hello, I am currently using a Esse Vista Bituminous Coal stove and it burns excellent, it does have a couple of bad points that have me looking into a US Stove company 4047 or ASA7 stove. My Esse has a very small ash pan and the ash pan door- primary draft control keeps getting ashes in the hinge everytime I empty the ash pan. I have burnt wood with Pacific Energy wood stoves and have recently burned Anthracite in a Olsberg Brilon hopper fed stove and have to say that the Esse with Bituminous is by far the easiest burning stove, but the ash and draft control are pitiful.

Does anyone have any experiance with the US Stove - Ashley 4047 or ASA7?. It seems to be my perfect stove, it is not in production but they are availabe N.O.S. quite a few places.

Bushman

I have no experience with either stove, but if your Esse Vista "burns excellent", way better than the other stoves you have used, I would think twice about exchanging it for the US Stove unit. It's like wives (and husbands) -- there is no "perfect".

I have the ASHLEY ASA7 coal stove ,this will be my second winter with it , a great stove ( it keep basement at 80 deg. and just left basement door open it stayed 62 deg. upstairs ) here on long island started it NOV 15 2007 & didn'tgo out once till end of MARCH used 3 tons if coal ....

Looking for a bigger model so I can hook up a h/w coil and not pay a dime to the oil monsters !!!!

Unless you are burning a different bituminous coal than I burned [WV/ Maryland], then I'd stay away from the US Stove and Ashley models.. both of these stoves have a 'V' shaped firebrick firebox, and a narrow grate.. the Bituminous coal will fuse together, make a bridge over the top of the 'V', and the fire willburn out below the 'bridge'.. Only if you are around to break up the 'bridge' will the coal all burn correctly. Bituminous coal will also make clinkers when the hot ashes get wedged together as they funnel down the 'V' bricks..

My boiler with a narrow grate, and 'V' shaped firebrick was nothing but frustrating with Bituminous coal,, It worked well with Anthracite coal..

If you are prepared to 'baby sit' the bituminous fire, it may work for you..

This forum has had a lot of US stove, Ashley, HOTBLAST, and other similar wood/coal stove owners who have had to learn certain tricks and techniques to keep their stoves burning or burning well. Personally I don't recommend them.

A good firebox for burning coal, will have vertical walls in the firebox, and have the ability to load coal deeply in the firebox,, at least 8-10 inches deep to be a good burning stove/boiler/furnace. The entire bottom of the firebox should be shaker grates. Anything significantly different from this discription will result in a less than optimal burning coal stove..

Take a look at the cut-away drawings on the Harman, Keystoker and Hitzer sites.. you will see the firebox in the hand feed stoves match my above description.. These are very good buring coal stoves..

Anyway, hope this helps.. Greg L

LsFarm

like I said in the post above the ashley is a great stove !!

every thing you said about it is the direct opposite

and it burns "NUT" ANTHRACITE coal

Bituminous and anthracite are different coals.. the first post is about burning bituminous coal, not anthracite..

The facts are that Harman, Keystoker, Hitzer, Russo, Gibraltar etc hand feed stoves use a full grate with vertical firebrick sides,, this is not an accident.. it would be much cheaper to build a Tapered 'V' firebox with a smaller grate.. BUT this does not work well with coal. Any coal. You can get anthracite to burn in this design, but it is still a compromise.. do a search for US stove on the site,, you will find many people with frustrating experiences with this poor firebox design.

I'm glad you are happy with your Ashley, but you are a rarity being happy with that design.. Once a person sees that you can load a [mad to burn coal] deep firebox instead of spread-out shallow bed of coal [in a mde for wood] firebox,, and end up using the same amount of coal to burn twice as long with a deep coal bed,, then they understand..And the fire is reliable and consistant.

If I were to build a new hand feed boiler,, I would have a 20"x20"x 18" deep,, yep 18" deep firebox.. it would burn for 18-24 hours on one loading, and with full shaker grates underneath would not clinker or require cleaning more than once a season. Providing I don't feed it rocks or shale.

Take a look at the Harman, Keystoker, Hitzer sites.. all of their stoves and hand feed boilers are of this design, and are flawless burning coal stoves, and they fit my description.

I made a huge mistake when I copied the US Stove, and other's firebox design with the 'V' shaped narrow grate firebox.. good for wood, marginal for anthracite, a disaster for Bituminous.

Greg L