Is Harmon that busy?

Ordered a Harmon Magnum Stoker on Sept 23. I'm told it will now be in sometime in Nov? Is anyone waiting this long also? Guess everyone had the same idea as me. Don' want to fill the coal bin till I know it's coming.
Jimmy

wenchris wrote: Don' want to fill the coal bin till I know it's coming.
Jimmy

Apparently there are many customers waiting, that's not particualr to Harmon. It's the same with the coal, at one point I had a 3 week wait which is quite a bit for me.

Funny that you mentioned not wanting to get the coal becvause that will be the next thing your waiting for....

If I ordered a Hitzer stove today, it would be here in March. Most Harman stoves not available til February. Sad thing is "greedy dealers" ordered quick after Katrina and have 100's of stoves sitting in their warehouses. They are offering to sell them --- at $600 higher than regular retail price. Scary!

I ordered my Harman Mark III the last week of Sept/05 and received it yesterday ,, 12/28/05. Dealer told me that Harman makes 250 stoves a day and can't keep up with the orders. Dealer was told he will not be able to get a coal stove until this summer
Looking forward to hooking up the stove and getting it running.

everyone is making the move to other heating sources esp now with the cost of oil and natural gas but alot of people moved to pellet stoves and now u can't find pellets anywhere hardly and if u do there already sold or the dealer wants an outragous price for them..

I called 3 different Harman dealers prior to purchasing a new Harman SF-250. All 3 had at least one in stock if not more. All 3 quoted the list price of $2240. Maybe the 250 isn't a popular choice?

Cap

Last year when I was in the market for a coal stove I went to the local dealer.. I seen the 250 and liked it was talking to the owner and asked some questions about it...at that time they were around 1900.00 ..told him my needs.

He said te 250 is a heat pump...a real house heater ..I said good..it will be my only heat source..then he said well this stove may not be for you.

Asked why? He told me it was made to heat during the cold weather and come mild weather it may roast you out of the house..it is hard to regulate a low burn with this...but in the back of my head I was still wanting the 250...

Then he told me about the Mag Stoker....about the thermostat..the feed rate...the on and off times...4-5 days on a fill in mild weather....so i bought it ...and it has done just what he said..at the time the Mag Stoker was 2145.00 plus 245.00 for delivery..setup..piping..and 25 bags of coal..

Still to this day..I still like the 250 for what it is...to me it is one great stove..built like a tank..awesome heat reclaim system...will last a generation or more..

You have a great stove and good luck with it...and laff at the oil companies.. I have not used oil or gas in 22 years...wood was the heat for 21 years..and that got real old...coal is the way...

Al

i myself was looking at the sf250 for in the basement i wanted something that would really crank out the heat. Was told it was way overkill for my house and that the stoker would work great well that has yet to be seen..

The SF-250 has an optional firebox reducer. I have not seen a drawing nor an image but I did speak with the dealer's kid. To use it, you would remove 2 of 5 grates drop in a metal adapter plate with a wall to support fire brick. Essentially you reduce the output 40%.

I wrote yesterday, " Is there was a way to burn at a lower rate? " I began planning a design in my own mind using a steel plate to block the draft in a section of the fire box sized just right with a handle welded to it for quick removal if the stove was warm. Today I read some Harman literature and discovered Harman already had a design . It costs $75. Harman's design would require a shutdown of the stove.

So far, the heat off of the 250 has been good, maybe a little warm. But I made a commitment to coal last year as most listers on this forum. So I wanted to go with a unit that wouldn't fail no matter how cold it gets. And I find maintaing a coal fire sort of a hobby, not so much a chore. This is why I prefer a handfired unit over a stoker. So, yes, I agree, the 250 may be a little overkill but I found the Mark III just a little undersized to heat 2500 sf plus a full basement. By the way, I have listed my old unit on Ebay. I had 10 bids in less than 24 hrs.

Installed my Mark III yesterday and fired it up. Within a few minutes I could feel heat coming from the top steel plate. I have 22+ years experience with a soap stone wood stove and it would take 30 minutes before you could feel heat coming from it ,, what a difference. Using just wood in the Mark III the side walls registered 400* in 1/2 hour ,, my soap stone would have to be running full boar for a few hours to register that high. I am very pleased with my purchase.

I ordered my Keystoker in July and there was a 4 week waiting period

Short...how do you like it thus far??

So far so good Dave. I bought the hand fired hopper model, only had to turn on the oil heat for about 4 days when it was around 0 here in NEPA

I ordered my Harman Mark III last week and I should take delivery sometime the end of March. When I asked the dealer how many stoves he sold this year he told me he sold over 1400 Harman pellet stoves. Now this is a guy who normally was pretty much just in the pool business. Then I asked him how many coal stoves. He told me about 12. Coal in this area has a bad rap, but they can't believe that I'm spending less to heat a big 200 year old farm house compared to their new homes. Pellet stoves are a big trend around here.
Tom

My Harman dealer down here has at least one of each coal stove in stock plus the display models. He is selling alot more pellet stoves this year. He said people just don't want to fool around with a coal stove. And like we all know " The customer is always right" I told him how much I liked my Mark III and he wasn't suprised at all.

Pap