DS Machine Anthramax Hand Fed Coal Stove Review

Just a quick update for tonight guys... Stove ran fine today and has stayed at a stove top temp of 200. Even with all of the air closed and MPD closed it is just humming along. As of this evening I can not see any red coal glowing through the bed but it is obviously still lit.

Thanks again,
Glenn

Quick Update: Last night the stove top temp dropped to under 100 F. Even with windy cold conditions for this time of year (low 40s F) had a strong draft but had to open bi metal as I was afraid the stove would go out. Was able to get stove top temp up to 275 F and shook for the first time since doing a cold start with pea coal. Lots of unburned coal was allowed to pass by the grates and go into the ash pan. Unless grate or bottom of firebox is redesigned I do not recommend burning or attempting to burn pea coal. Shame because it loaded very nicely even with the hopper.

Thanks again,
Glenn

Thanks for posting this. I run a franco with pea coal and have been watching this thread like a hawk. It is not quite large enough for my demands (actually my wife's) and after reading your post, I may check out the DS stoves. I was pretty sure that I would upgrade to the Hitzer 50-93 but you may have me convinced otherwise. I really wanted to know how the pea coal did for you because I have a large supply. Be sure to keep giving us updates about your new stove. Oh, by the way, I absolutely love the hopper on my franco!

I will do an update a little bit later tonight but I wanted to respond quickly to your hopper comment. I ran your Franco last winter and I LOVED that hopper. The two are not even close to the same. That said as I posted in a post or two ago I really think I could get used to this hopper design if I was still using pea coal. Nut/stove coal... Not so much. The Franco I used last year I installed in my in-laws place and will be showing them the true coal light this coming weekend. I have tried for years to come up with a way to make a much larger Francobelge Normandy model to no avail. Update about today's burn later tonight and one HUGE plus to running the pea. The baby can sleep right next to my stove during nap and did not even stir through a full shake down! Do that with your coal stove!! (No the baby was not dead, drugged or knocked out by her older brother!)

Thanks again,
Glenn

We installed an XV 16 on Saturday and fired it up for the customer. I can't for the life of me figure out how to put the video on here but it's on our FB page if anyone would like to see it......

https://www.facebook.com/ecoalternativeheatingproducts

Good evening Guys,
I am sorry for the update delay but things have been a little busy around here. After the stove temp dropped I opened the bi-metal to the three position with the secondary air closed and the MPD closed. Stove took off and went to 375 in no time and beautiful! I also removed the front stainless steel bar that is right inside the door because it really is not needed especially with pea coal. I really like it GONE, and so does the rest of the family. You can see so much more of the fire and from a tending standpoint it just got in the way. I can see why some may want it but for me I just don't see it as being all that useful. I am also noticing that the top cover that covers the back top of the stove and then the lid that covers the hopper lid seem to hold A LOT of heat in. I opened the cover that goes over the hopper lid and the heat just pored off of that thing. Even the wife mentioned how the stove seemed to be putting off much more heat and I did not mention to her that I had opened the lid. Anyway, I may just remove the top cover as the stove top its self looks quite nice.

Unfortunately since I had to change the bi metal thermostat it screwed up my apples to apples (I know not exactly or maybe even close to exactly but I was trying to keep at least what I could control the same) test results between the different types of coal and with and without the hopper. Once I changed the bi metal though and the stove came back to life the pea coal burned quite nicely. As I spoke about yesterday I have NEVER hear or in this case not heard a stove shake down this quite. Shaking down the nut coal was quite but with the pea it was almost silent. The grates did however allow some un-burned coal down through them however it should be an easy fix if DS has any desire to do so and thus should make this an EXCELLENT pea coal burner with hopper. I have always liked pea coal better then the other sizes for a few reasons. For one most hand fed stoves out there run on nut and the stokers for the most part run on rice so there is always a lot of pea coal laying around even when the others are running short. In the winter if it is out side it does not freeze into huge chunks like rice coal does but yet is easy to handle, move around and does not brake into fines like nut or stoves coal does when dumped with the tractor bucket. However at this time I cant recommend the stove for pea size coal burning until the grate issue is addressed.

I have not added any pea coal since starting from the cold start and will still post my burn time and heat results even though it can not be compared really to previous tests.

Thanks again,
Glenn

nifty fire pic, the flames almost look liquid.

Are you going to take the hopper cover off? When I can finally get help installing mine, I plan on keeping the cover off. I think the plain top, with only the hopper cover, looks quite nice.

Thanks for the updates.....it's been a very good read.

Question: how sensitive is the bi-metal knob? Do you move it a 1/4 number or a 1/2 number or other?

Good evening Guys,
Pea coal burned out today (Tuesday) at around 12:00 PM making a 111 hour total burn. This of course was with pea coal and the hopper but since the fire almost went out I had to open the bimalet and shake a bit more then with nut/stove coal.

I am going to take both covers off the top of the stove for better heat transfer. The bi metal is sensitive 1/4 turns though are perfect. Heading to bed as I keep fall asleep trying to type.

Thanks again,
Glenn

bob15 wrote:Are you going to take the hopper cover off? When I can finally get help installing mine, I plan on keeping the cover off. I think the plain top, with only the hopper cover, looks quite nice.

Thanks for the updates.....it's been a very good read.

Question: how sensitive is the bi-metal knob? Do you move it a 1/4 number or a 1/2 number or other?

I'm thinking of leaving my decorative hopper cover off as well. With the optional warming shelf, the cover hits, and will not open all the way. So, I bought the shorter cover, which will open all the way. Still, I think I'll leave it off.

Hey Everyone. We just got our DS 1600 installed on saturday! With the help of a good guy on here. He texted me for a few hours on how to get it started and still going strong. We moved into this very old farm house last year. We knew we had to do something for heat after last years' extreme cold temperatures. We were at 28 below 0 for a few days. We used a nice hearthstone wood stove, but the previous owner installed it into a corner of an old porch, that he enclosed and insulated. But let me tell you, with that stove and 2 kerosene heaters, we still froze! And we didn't even move anything upstairs to stay. Yup. we had our bedroom in the living room and living room in the dining room. What a mess.
Anyway, sorry. But we did research and found this forum and decided on the DS 1600. House is around 2,250 sq. ft, so we figured it would do the job. Got that baby fired up, and woke up at 2 am sweating from the heat! UPSTAIRS!! So far, so good. We are using nut coal and I have to admit, it is hard to go from wood to coal. I keep thinking it is going out and not working. Until I look at stove temp. lol. Have the baro damper, but will be getting the manometer. I have to say that I am very impressed so far!

Is the Anthramax available with a domestic hot water coil?

Yes Sir, it sure is.

Thanks again,
Glenn

It will cost around 140.00 to have the domestic coil added to the stove.

Good evening Guys,
Time for an update! Over the last two days I have been burning wood in the AMax with some interesting results. I am using chunk oak that has been down in the basement for over two years and of course is very very dry. Started the fire and everything went as planned. Stove came up to 400 F hopper loading door temp when I closed the air wash draft controller and closed the main bi metal thermostat controller. In less then three minutes the stove was making a very quite woooshing sound and in no time was running at around 600 F. The glass was as clean as a new stove and the flames inside the firebox were swirling around like crazy but the wood its self was not really burning. My MPD was open and I was getting a little worried about perhaps there being perhaps a little too much draft so I opened the chimney bi pass so that it was drawing from the basement instead of through the stove. As was expected the flames died down and I closed the bi pass door. The stove settled in at around 500+ but was throwing off so much heat I could hardly hold my hand above the stove top. I have burned many stoves and this stove was throwing off crazy amounts of heat. We had the windows open last night in the house and the living room was still in the 85 F range. I do apologize as I am all over the place tonight and don't have my usual solid numbers. I would have loaded the firebox (I have the hopper currently installed) to around half full with the red oak at around 11:00 PM last night and when I woke up this morning at around 8:30 AM the stove top temp was still around 300 F. I was very pleased. Sure the house was WAY too hot but I thought for the amount of wood that was used the stove used that fuel supply to put out a crazy amount of heat. I have included some pictures below of the wood burning. I am sorry that they are not the best but the darn thing was so hot I kept having to back away and come back and it just was not ideal for picture taking. Anything else... Yes... I installed two ash deflectors (one in the back and one on the left side). I am looking forward to seeing how they work when I switch over to coal. Also something else that I thought certainly a plus is that while the stove top was running in the 600 F range the stove pipe was running around 275 to 300 F.

Thanks again,
Glenn