In YOUR Opinion, Will a DS Circulator Heat My HOME?

I really like the DS Circulator. I want to buy one, I'm just afraid it wont heat my home. I have an approximate 2,000 sq ft SPLIT LEVEL home. So there is really 4 levels (basement, den area, kitchen-LR-DR and then 3 bedrooms on the top level). I do have duct work on the kitchen, LR & Dining Room from an oil hot air system that I plan to remove and add a coal or wood burner.

So, I love the design of the circulator, but will it distribute heat up to the bedrooms?

Additionally, I have access to wood, near my home. So I was thinking coal / wood. but the CIRCULATOR is only rated for coal. What do yo think? Unit will be placed in the basement.

(1) DS circulator, will it heat the entire house? any tips to spread the heat?

(2) Get a wood /coal furnace to hook into the duct work?

(3) Wood or coal? Pick one!

Others on the forum who own Split Level homes have had difficulty in heating them from end to end with only a single stove. For a recent example, see the comments by Lowfog01 on the page I've linked below.

Post by lowfog01 - Cold Cold Climate and New to Coal Stoves

Nothing that is made to burn wood and coal will be very good at either one, it is always a compromise.

I expect you will be disappointed with the heat distribution throughout the home.

Buy a coal furnace & tie into the existing duct work. If you want to complicate your life go to TSC & buy a Hotblast,you can burn wood or coal in that,you will always be frustrated with life in the dual mode world....wood/coal. You will probably be Hot most of the winter from being so mad at it & yourself for purchasing junk. Leisure Line makes a coal furnace to fit your needs,check them out. Do not compromise, buy coal ,heat with coal , DS might make a furnace too ,they are not advertising on the forum that I've seen, Leisure Line advertises on here & helps with advise for all brands. Did I mention ..GO COAL !!!

The best part about this forum is being able to benefit from the experiments that other burners have conducted. I echo the opinions that there is not a single stove on the market that will heat your entire split level the way you want it heated. It's not due to the stove or the coal or the wood. It's due to the design of the house.

Read Lowfog1's post about problems heating the split level just like you have and you will benefit, save yourself some bucks and a ton of aggravation.

My recommendation is leave your oil burner in place and duct in a coal hot air furnace. It may be more bucks up front but you will save on the back side no matter how much oil drops in price.

Sell the oil burner,if you feel that you need a back up heat,buy the oil gun kit for the LL furnace. Your multi-level house will be HOT,COLD at the same time,depending on which level you are on & which level the stove is on.Coal furnace into hot air duct,warm rooms on every level,happy people on every level.

A backup system is not necessary because I have an electric heat pump I also have electric baseboard in the entire house thank you for all your replies and for me to go check out that link for the split level home

I have a DS1500 circulator. It is an awesome stove, and can make an incredible amount of heat, but getting it circulated throughout your home could be a challenge. Maybe if you could put a hood above the stove to tie in to your ductwork, it would help move the warm air.

As far as wood, you can burn it in the DS circulator, but you would be best to stick with well seasoned hardwoods like oak, locust, etc. I found that using wood for medium to high burns works OK, but with a low fire, it tends to smolder and not make much heat. You won't get the longer burn times that a dedicated wood stove, with a smoke reburn system, can provide.

Once you burn coal in a DS Circulator, you'll forget all about wood

But if hot air duct is already in place why not buy a furnace & hook to the duct work ? why buy a stove & fabricate a half way system that will prevent using a top load-hopper stove. Keep it Sensibly simple..buy a coal furnace ,hook to existing duct work, enjoy the whole house warmth.

windyhill4.2 wrote:But if hot air duct is already in place why not buy a furnace & hook to the duct work ?

I would agree with this, and it's what I'm in the process of doing at the moment. I'm living in a new-to-me old house now, and I'm installing a DS Kozy King 100 in place of the old oil furnace. The Kozy King is basically a non-hopper DS Circulator stove with an insulated furnace jacket. It it set up to burn both wood and coal. It has smoke re-burn tubes in the top of the firebox, and a lever on the back which controls the amount of under/overfire air for each fuel. This furnace also has a combustion blower and a blower fan to move the air through the ductwork.

If you prefer the bi-metal t-stat operation, you can get the similar ecomiser furnace from DS.

Attached are some pictures of my new Kozy King 100.

How many CFM does the Kozy King's furnace fan deliver?

lsayre wrote:How many CFM does the Kozy King's furnace fan deliver?

It uses a 3 speed blower. 1100, 1350, and 1650 cfm.

LDPosse wrote:

lsayre wrote:How many CFM does the Kozy King's furnace fan deliver?

It uses a 3 speed blower. 1100, 1350, and 1650 cfm.

Nice! Great looking furnace also!

would have to agree with ldposse. that if you already have duct work, why not employ it? I have a Harman sf 160 boiler in tandem with my oil boiler. Works great with coal; however it is quite anemic with wood. Really not worth the effort. However in shoulder seasons, does "ok" at best. Having been an ardent wood burner for 40 yrs I have found coal to be the ultimate solid fuel. This is only an armatures opinion, But I believe ldposse advice is very sound.
Jim

I guess what I didn't mention is that the ductwork is only ran to half of the house. But I think heat will move up to the bedroom area on its own.