Crane Coal Cooker

Hi
i'm new to the site don't know if this is the right form to ask this question
but here it is
i recintly was given this crane coal stove and I set it up in my basement for the ease
of not carring wood thru the house. after many failed coal fires over the last 2 weeks
i have managed to keep it going for almost a week as a life long wood burner I have
had to re train myself to the ART of burnin coal! but I have fallen in love with it .
my problum is the inside of the stove seems to be a poured in cement jacket about 1 1/2
inches thick. (stove is round) at the shaker great the creat has worn thin letting the coal
fall through when you shake it down. what kind of cement should I use (refractory?) and should I break
out the hole liner,make a form and pour a new one or just patch it
thanks

I'd get a can of furnace cement, it is available in pint and quart sizes I think.. use a putty knife and patch it... I'm not sure where you would find refractory cement to repour the interior of the stove..

How about some photos?? I've never heard of this stove, nor can I figure out where you need to patch the refractory...

Welcome to the forum..

greg L

I have the same stove and have used it since 1985. I have poured two new linings since buying it. Get 3 buckets of Rutland castable refractory cement that you mix with water. I made a form out of an old five gallon bucket that plaster came in by cutting it down and splitting the side. I break out the old liner first. Then I fill the bottom of the stove with sand up to the top of the grate supports and then put the form in. I put the grate in to support the bottom of the form and ducktape the seam. I then mix up the cement and carefully work it in all around the form. The instructions on the bucket are pretty clear. Once cured for a day I then work the form loose and remove. Let the cement set for a few days befor you light the stove and then build a small fire to help cure it. You don"t want too hot of a fire the first time of you can crack the cement. This is a great little stove for a small house. I burn about 5 tons of coal per year through mine. I would love to find a couple more in Maine. I would buy them for parts and for my garage. The company went out of business in 1985. One thing I did find was that the air vents in the corners of the front of the stove let too much air go to the top of the stove. I put a large bolt in each corner to reduce the size and get a buch better burn.

Great thanks for the info.
i am actually looking for a larger coal stove. I am going to fix this one as soon as I can
but as soon as I get new one it will be for sale. I live in north central mass. its in good shape.
thanks again

I have had a Crane Coal Cooker for years. Last Summer I had the fire brick liner replaced. We removed the old one by hammer and chisel (long hot process). The liner is a three piece arrangement so the liner can expand and contract without cracking. We burn about 20 # per 24 hour day of PA anthracite and the stove runs from late Sept to late April. We control the consumption and heat by turning the air vent between 1/4 to one full turn, and no more. This year's coal was a much poorer quality than we have purchased in years. We are also interested in getting a spare for parts or if in better shape to replace the one we have. Ours has been modified with new legs and removing the lip on the tray out side the ash door.

If there are any for sale I would be interested in looking into them. If there are any questions I can be reached at [email protected]

Regards,

Chris

Greg here is a drawing of the Crane, up until the middle of this winter I used my Crane mod. 44 for over 25 yrs. I replace it with the model 404. I have two coal cookers that I may sell or just keep for parts.

Rich

Hi - I'm looking for a small coal stove for a camper - I mean small. The Crane Coal Cooker sounds as though it might work - but I cannot find anything online about these stoves - like what their dimensions are, and where to purchase, except for comments from people who have used them in the past. Is there a website for these, or a similar stove ? Due to the confined space, it needs to be a vertical stove... the smaller the better. The Dickinson Marine Newport Solid Fuel stove would work, but it is very expensive.

Thanks,
Em

Em08 wrote:Hi - I'm looking for a small coal stove for a camper - I mean small. The Crane Coal Cooker sounds as though it might work - but I cannot find anything online about these stoves - like what their dimensions are, and where to purchase, except for comments from people who have used them in the past. Is there a website for these, or a similar stove ? Due to the confined space, it needs to be a vertical stove... the smaller the better. The Dickinson Marine Newport Solid Fuel stove would work, but it is very expensive.

Thanks,
Em

Here is info and parts for Crane stoves I would make sure you fireproof the area that you plane on putting any type stove coal or wood in a Camper Fireproof Floor ceiling & walls and use double or triple wall S.S. Chimney pipe

http://www.woodmanspartsplus.com/68/catalogs/Wood ... rence.html

Hello and welcome to the forum. Crane Stove Co. has been out of business for many years. There are quite a few still in use and some may be found on craigslist. The dimensions for the model 44 coal cooker are 27.5" high x 15" wide, 6" flue. If your interested I have two available that I might consider selling.

Rich

Hi all,
I am new to this forum so forgive my novice ignorance. I have a Crane model no. 202, and am in desperate need of a user manual so I can get a building permit to install it in my barn. Does anyone have one handy that I could coerce into scanning in, or know where I could maybe fine one?

Thanks a ton!

barniscold wrote:Hi all,
I am new to this forum so forgive my novice ignorance. I have a Crane model no. 202, and am in desperate need of a user manual so I can get a building permit to install it in my barn. Does anyone have one handy that I could coerce into scanning in, or know where I could maybe fine one?

Thanks a ton!

You should create a new topic for this under the "Hand Fired Section" of the forum for better exposure. Maybe name it "Looking For A Crane Coal Cooker Manual". Hopefully one of the forum MOD's will do it for you. Oh, by the way, welcome to the forum!

Thanks! Will do.

I have a nice Crane Coal Stove model 404 and am looking for legs for it and I'm having a very hard time finding them. Does anyone have legs for this stove and are willing to sell them to me? Looking to set this up in our home this year. If anyone has any stove legs that might be able to be modifed to be welded on, please let me know that too? Thanks Marie in Smithtown

Welcome to the forum, the legs on your 404 were originally welded on so I'm not sure why they would have been cut off or removed, because of this it's unlikely you will find any replacements. As you already know this is a heavy stove so it is important to have any new legs welded on by a competent welder.

Rich

Its great to see people still love and using stoves made by me so long ago, I will answer a few things in this forum as I see them. I am Doug Crane Jr. my father was the designer, manufacturer and owner of Crane Stoves and sadly passed away about 10 years ago and ive been lost ever since as he was everything to us.

The model 44 firebrick can be made out of any refractory cement (its purchased in powder form usually and you simply add water.
Most people make the mistake of adding to much water, you want to keep it think for molding purposes and less sagging. You should chip out the old cement with a heavy hammer and long crow bar that is heavy (not a fun job, but its got to be done!), I will post a picture of the molds used to make that firebrick below for you, note: this can be made of any material such as flexable plastic or w/e you wish but what is important is the inside curve radius of the stove which you will be able to get after you brake out the old firebrick by using a piece of cardboard and making a pattern. one these steel molds you can see the slices to insert some wooden shingles which make removal of the firebrick after curing much easier.

the reason the firebrick was made in 3 sections was for one purpose and one purpose alone (to enable a one piece totally solid welded smaller stove which could pack a punch and remain airtight forever...) You could throw this little coal burner off a building and it will still function and remain airtight.

One person commented that the legs were at some point cut off his model 44 (i can only imagine this was done by someone to stupidly attempt in installation in a limited vertical space), THIS SHOULD NEVER BE DONE! those legs are critically important for the safe operation of the unit and we spent months going through UL testing lab's to perfect them to obtain UL approval's. I will explain what you can do to repair this yourself or better yet have some legs re welding onto the bottom plate (the legs should be made of simple "bar stock steel" approx 4 inches long (they CAN be strait 1/2 inch bar stock, each cut to 4 inch length if you wish), the original legs had bent angles on each end to provide more welding surface. You should NOT use any kind of "hollow" steel tubing for legs (this is shown to add to much heat transferring through the "hollow areas" on the leg and would not meet UL approvals for safety.

I do not mind at all people asking questions or wanting help in maintaining their own stoves.

Crane Model 44 Firebrick Mold