Stoker as a Second Stove

I have a Harman Mark 1 in the living room of my 150+ year-old house, around 2000 sq/ft of total space (basement + 2 floors). The Harman does a fine job of heating most of the first floor and bedrooms on the second, but not the kitchen or basement obviously. In the basement right below kitchen is my office, where I have an old wood stove. I have a duct to send extra heat from there to the kitchen. Not surprisingly, after burning coal for a while, I am about ready to ditch the wood completely..

So I would like to replace the wood stove in the basement with a stoker (I think), but am looking for some advice on the best one to look for. In general, I am looking for a small stoker, since my office is rather small and I don't want to get run out of there with heat. I just need something to perk slowly and I like the idea of the somewhat automated approach of a stoker. Appearence really does not matter; it's just me and my computers down in the office. I do not care about running a boiler/HW off of it either - just something that I can reliably regulate down to a low BTU level with minimal effort. I have a dealer of both nut and rice coal close by.

I am also not in any hurry - I plan to take my time and hopefully locate a reasonable deal on something used, as I do not plan to hook it up until next season. If anyone is looking to sell a smallish stoker please PM.

Appreciate any advice. Thanks.
-Trey

Isn't that strange, that's exactly what I did.
The Harman Mark I does a good job for me as well, although I found it too small for the really cold days. I rebuilt the Alaska and it's in the cellar as well.
With a stoker you can vary the output easily, from a very low burn to roaring heat.
You might as well get the stoker with a hot water loop, the more time that passes, the more you will look for ways to heat everything with coal.
Now if you buy a Alaska Kast Console that would be a little too strange. Looks like you have the coal virus as well.

Check out Leisure Line's Econo1, nice little stoker stove, 4,500 to 70,000 BTU's. it will put off a little heat or can 1,000 sq. ft. I just sold 2 used ones for the same reason.

My keystoker I have heating the upstairs I put in my single attached garage with an 8" duct upstairs, it mostly idles. I have gone thru (10) 50# bags in almost 4 weeks (tomorrow). !! It keeps it around 65+ degrees. We are not home most of the day, no need to run it any higher and it maintains that temp mostly on Idle. Why waste the fuel turning it up.

WNY, did you get that jacket made for your Hyfire yet? good

Hi Trey, the smaller Alaska stoker size (48,000 btus net) are ideal for what you are trying to do. You can adjust the heat to provide that little bit of bump needed to get everything toasty. Even better would be to run the stove with a Coal-Trol controller and Tstat mounted in the space of your choice to keep everything running at the correct temp with no extra work.

Check your PM's

Folks-
Thanks for all the info so far. I have received a few PMs already about possible stoves, and I realized I should have put a bit more info on where this second stove would go.

The basement office is what used to be called a 'summer kitchen'. That is, it has a rather large stone and brick fireplace (48"W x 33"H x 24"D), which was used 100+ years ago when you wouldn't want to cook in your normal kitchens on July days. Since then I have added a 36-foot, 6" SS liner, currently connected to the laborious wood stove.

Point of all this extra info is I can not easily fit anything other than a rather short stoker due to the 33" height limit, unless I park out in front of the existing fireplace, and I would rather not kill any more floor space. Ideally I am looking for something where I can tuck the back half of it into the fireplace threshold. I guess it also makes some hopper-loaders out of the question depending on where it is located. Most of the true fierplace inserts that I have seen tend to be pretty big, which would be overkill in terms of heat and $$$. And I do not really like that 'sealed' look anyway - I want to be able to see the whole stove!

Anyway, should have added this to start - if it jogs any further info, much appreciated.

-Trey

Leisure Line also makes an Econo Sidewinder, the hopper is on the side of the stove.

An econo sidewinder or one of the Alaska models with the stoker on the side, Console /hearth model... the BTU output isn't as great as the stokers with the rear mounted stoker, but if space is a major consideration, they just sit on the hearth,

Greg L