Antique Vs. Modern Coal Burners

To the OP, Im one of the few if only members that has swapped a "state of the art" rice stoker stove with a old out dated antique base heater. While I can write ya a book on my personal feelings and advantages the Glenwood #6 has over the alaska channing 3, Ill jot down a few now.

The channing witch I burned with for 3 years, I burned roughly 4.5-5 ton (30 to 80lbs) a day of rice kept the living room were the stove was located 70 give or take a few degrees and the rest of the house 60-65. It uses electricity. It has 2 noisy fans that run 24/7. It has motors that can fail and leave ya cold in the night. No madder the coal or setting it would leave un burnt and partially burnt coal in the pain. stack temps were high like 250* plus depending on fire rates.

The Glenwood #6 keeps my house a 70* and living room at 75-80, burns 20lbs a day in the shoulder months and 50lbs running it a 500* for 24hours. ALL THE ASH IS BURNT TO A POWDER IF THE STOVE IS SHAKEN DOWN PROPERLY. It is quiet no motors to replace. the house is more evenly heated my up stairs bedrooms are far more conferrable. I can burn wood, bituminous, anthracite in a range of sizes from pea to stove. This give me far more flexibility when im Craig list hunting for free or cheap basement coal.
During the 2015-2016 heating season I burnt roughly 3 tons of nut coal.

Brenden

Ok I'm going to give my 2 cents on this( 1st year with a base heater so take it for whats its worth ) I previously ran a Hitzer 983 insert so Its not exactly apples to apples but I'm sure you will get the idea. I have been keeping track of outdoor temps, coal usage, what and where I got the coal from since day one ( not to our resident math guru "Larry" standards but ok for me ) I know without pictures it didn't happen so here you go and please don't check my math I'm sure there are a few mistakes.
I only really care about the HDDs and how much coal I burned, my house temp Is 78° give or take a degree or two( taken in the living room upstairs while the stove is downstairs at the opposite end of the house, I used March 2015 with 998 HDD and December 2016 with 1036 HDD the only two that were close and the same amount of days in the month.

Hitzer 983----------------------------------- Glenwood #8
1485#'s -------------------------------------- 1035#'s
47.9lbs/day--------------------------------- 33.39lbs/day

I know Its not scientific but my right arm is telling me the numbers are close and I'm using less with the #8 and Its very quiet without any power too boot , .

That's a big deal, and makes me wonder how well a high end antique gravity furnace would do in a newly constructed home designed specifically to utilize one. I'm not talking about a 1930's octopus but a turn of the century unit. Some amazing units were built then.

Oh, and in case anyone cares, my Crawford 40 ashpan measures 15&1/4x13x5.

Keepaeyeonit wrote:Ok I'm going to give my 2 cents on this( 1st year with a base heater so take it for whats its worth ) I previously ran a Hitzer 983 insert so Its not exactly apples to apples but I'm sure you will get the idea. I have been keeping track of outdoor temps, coal usage, what and where I got the coal from since day one ( not to our resident math guru "Larry" standards but ok for me )

IMG_0037.JPG

I know without pictures it didn't happen so here you go and please don't check my math I'm sure there are a few mistakes.
I only really care about the HDDs and how much coal I burned, my house temp Is 78° give or take a degree or two( taken in the living room upstairs while the stove is downstairs at the opposite end of the house, I used March 2015 with 998 HDD and December 2016 with 1036 HDD the only two that were close and the same amount of days in the month.

Hitzer 983----------------------------------- Glenwood #8
1485#'s -------------------------------------- 1035#'s
47.9lbs/day--------------------------------- 33.39lbs/day

I know Its not scientific but my right arm is telling me the numbers are close and I'm using less with the #8 and Its very quiet without any power too boot , .

Give or take 13lbs a day in coal saveings thats wonderfull ....... Just think every 4th day you burn coal you burning for free compared to the 983!!!!!

I really appreciate the input from the last 3 posters. The more I see comments like this the more I am impressed with the older stoves and their ability to burn multiple fuels if it becomes necessary. Options are better than limitations. The more I learn about base heaters...well let's just say I didn't realize these stoves could be cranked up or idled down and kept there for extended periods. I do have a question in that regard.

Are any of you worried about cracking those old stoves? That would be a concern for me, and for certain makes of stoves I'm sure it is a concern where with others it may not be.

My understanding, based solely on reading here for a few weeks...which isn't necessarily credible...is that Glenwoods and Crawfords are some of the tougher stoves. Perhaps there are others and I'll keep researching and reading to determine that with y'alls help. Again, being new to all of this, you don't know what you don't know.

Now to determine which size stove would fit my needs. Our house is one story, over half of it is open and about 1300sq.ft. maybe a tad more, with new windows and good insulation in the attic. Pap blew in extra insulation before he got sick and passed. The oil furnace doesn't seem to run much until the 20's or teens. Of course I'll know more about that after we move in. Right now I'm going in and out a lot during the day while working inside so I'm know the furnace is running more than it should on those colder days. A day like today it only kicked on a couple of times since it was above 40 out.

We tend to keep the house between 68-70...like it better at 68...but I'm sure that will change in the years to come as we get older...another reason why I was thinking about burning coal instead of wood. I don't mind cutting and handling wood now, and my son is young, but I'm feeling older and my body is telling me that. So, I'm trying to consider the future. For now, considering the temperatures we like to keep the house, on the cool side and about 65ish in the bedrooms, I had been wondering if something like Williams Glenwood No. 9 would suffice. Isn't that stove smaller than the No. 6 or No. 8? Isn't the No. 8 bigger than the No.6? Maybe I am way off.

I certainly don't want a stove too small because I just don't want to over work a stove. There are winters where it'll drop to 0*F or even as low as -5*F to -10*F for a week at a time. It's not often but it does happen. We even seen some temps with wind chills of -25*F to -30*F...wind chills now...but only for a day or so. Generally we can have temps from 20's to 30* for a couple weeks at a time In January/February...this year's been real mild so far.

I'm just not sure how big a stove I need, or how small, or how far I can idle a big stove down. Of course for now I can always use the base heater for the coldest temps and use the fuel oil for the shoulder months.

The other reservation I have is keeping the stove burning while we're gone. I just don't know how comfortable that'll make me feel. In that case, it could be that a wood stove might still serve me best since it can be fired up so quickly as well as shut down quickly. If I could, and the boss wouldn't throw a fit, I'd put in a "Y" pipe and keep a wood and a coal stove on the hearth. That way the boss can watch the flames on the wood stove. Of course some here have said that wood can be burned in the base heaters...while others say they would not burn wood in them. I don't worry about the wood though, I'll keep a supply on hand and a stove and swap them out rather quickly if need be.

EDIT:

Keepaeyeonit,
There sure does seem to be a lot of 3AM's on those papers. I'm not to the point I have to make those AM bathroom trips yet, though I am close.

Hoytman wrote:There sure does seem to be a lot of 3AM's on those papers. I'm not to the point I have to make those AM bathroom trips yet, though I am close.

Well if I didn't start work so early it wouldn't be any 3:00AM entries

Keepaeyeonit wrote:

Hoytman wrote:There sure does seem to be a lot of 3AM's on those papers. I'm not to the point I have to make those AM bathroom trips yet, though I am close.

Well if I didn't start work so early it wouldn't be any 3:00AM entries

After I wrote that I got to thinking that might be why those entries are there. I used to have to get up at all different hours of the night/early morning, being on call. I'm glad I made the choices that I made to change that. Boy did I ruffle some feathers when I did it.

Hoytman,
You may want to look at a Our glenwood 111. A member on here Joeq has one he'll be able to tell ya more about um. A 109 may have enough to get ya thru but you be running at the upper limits of the stove most the time. A G8 is to big unless you plain on alot of wood burning then the 18" fire pot will help ya get a good load of wood in there for those early fall and late spring frosty mornings. You would be fine with a G6 as well, I can let mine idle at 160* barrel temp all day if need be, and also push her to 700* if needed. Im not sure were the crawford compares to your sq ft and BTU needs Scott will chime in on that. The glenwood #6 and #8 , wings best X116, X118, Herald #6and#8 and rarer Quaker stoves are designed to burn wood as well as all types of coal. makes it nice when ya want to take the edge off. The suspended pot stoves G109, G111, and the beloved G113 ,Crawfords and all other mica stoves are anthracite only.

There are two C40's for sale right now by a forum member. One will be plenty. Recast Crawford wood grates are available. You can burn wood in them as Crawford made the grate I don't burn wood in mine as it can burn low enough in the shoulder seasons to suffice. If I did, I would require very dry pieces of hardwood that are no more than 8-12 inches long. So you can see it's not very practical due to the tall narrow firepot. TCALO can get his well sealed G109 down to 150 * IIRC and not have un burnt coal at shake down. And at that point why run it at all, as it must be warm outside to require running so low. In that situation I run the oil furnace for 30 minutes and burn less than a 1/2 gallon

scalabro wrote:There are two C40's for sale right now by a forum member. One will be plenty. Recast Crawford wood grates are available. You can burn wood in them as Crawford made the grate I don't burn wood in mine as it can burn low enough in the shoulder seasons to suffice. If I did, I would require very dry pieces of hardwood that are no more than 8-12 inches long. So you can see it's not very practical due to the tall narrow firepot. TCALO can get his well sealed G109 down to 150 * IIRC and not have un burnt coal at shake down. And at that point why run it at all, as it must be warm outside to require running so low. In that situation I run the oil furnace for 30 minutes and burn less than a 1/2 gallon

And some do fine left in direct draft, with the check damper opened enough to idle the stove down. That reduces the amount of the stove's heat radiating area in warmer weather, while sending enough heat to the chimney to maintain a good draft while running so low.

It's nice being able to adjust how much of a stove radiates heat, so that it can be better matched to the various seasonal heat demands.

Paul

A good heat loss calculation for you is the amount of oil you have burned in past seasons. Divide that number of gallons by 11 to get a rough estimate of the pounds of coal you would need to equal that. That should aid in stove selection.

franco b wrote:A good heat loss calculation for you is the amount of oil you have burned in past seasons. Divide that number of gallons by 11 to get a rough estimate of the pounds of coal you would need to equal that. That should aid in stove selection.

Excellent post, thank you

Scott, the Crawford 40s are beautiful stoves, how do they comparable to a G6. Someday id like to try a suspended pot stove just for giggles. An 111 would be to small, a 113 is super rare. were do the c 40s fall into play? what do they hold for coal?

Suspended pot stove. Oh boy! Just when I thought I was catching on, more variables.

EDIT:

It might be easier if some of you made up a list of stoves for me that you think may fit my needs, rather than me asking constant questions. Honestly though, I had no idea there were so many manufacturers, models/sizes let alone what to look for and what to watch out for. I need book on these or something.

Canaan coal man wrote:Scott, the Crawford 40s are beautiful stoves, how do they comparable to a G6. Someday id like to try a suspended pot stove just for giggles. An 111 would be to small, a 113 is super rare. were do the c 40s fall into play? what do they hold for coal?

I would say the 6 & 40 would heat the same. I can almost get a 50lb bag of stove size in the 40 if I really load it to the gills. The 113 is BIG, its like the much storied Crawford 50. Probably too big for a average sized house. Although William has a perfect 113 in his home. I think the G113, C50 & G8 are all similar as far as heat output. William, Skip or Emery are the experts though, I'm just a padawan

The other thing about the 111, C40 style stoves is you can very easily run longer barrels for more surface area. If I ever get off my rear and get parts to the foundry I can install my little Stewart with is 36 inch barrel.