Reading Stoves Good, Bad, Ugly

snooze913 · Post by **snooze913** » Thu. Jul. 24, 2008 9:33 am

I see conflicting posts here on the forum. There are posts that say any stove made in NE PA by the big names are fine. Then I see stay away from Reading but no specifics are mentioned. Is it a quality issue, effeciency, customer service? I see lots of specific comments on their coal but the stove comments tend to be vague.
Is it a case of I like Ford you like Chevy but if we both maintain our vehicles we should get the same results no matter the brand?

stokin-railroad · Post by **stokin-railroad** » Thu. Jul. 24, 2008 9:46 am

all the units that are being built and have been for some time are well built and should last for many years. the reading stove should serve you fine heating or assisting to heat your home.as for brand and preferance the reading is a good quality well built unit.it is maybe just not one of the most talked about units on the forum.everyone has opinions about what is the best.if you own the reading unit Definitely use it and save money it will heat cheaper than oil or gas and save you money.i looked at them when considering purchase,they were not pretty stove but pretty doesn't heat the home.i went with another brand based on warrantee,cost,and dealer/delivery,delivered coal also.you already have the unit use it ,and enjoy

jpd989 · Post by **jpd989** » Thu. Jul. 24, 2008 1:02 pm

I also have a Reading stove, the RSFD07. It fit into my budget, it works well, It keeps my 1200 sqft ranch home warm and I choose when I burn oil at 4.00 plus a gallon. A lot of people do not like the Reading brand because of the stoker mechanism. The Triburner is one of the oldest out there. But I find it works well for my situation.

snooze913 · Post by **snooze913** » Thu. Jul. 24, 2008 1:38 pm

Okay, one vote for ugly but good and another vote for good.

LsFarm · Post by **LsFarm** » Thu. Jul. 24, 2008 2:13 pm

If you put several brands of stoves side by side you would see the visual differences.. the reading brand stoves are not cosmeticly very appealiing. I would say they often look a bit 'amateur' in construction... That is not to say bad,, just not a neat, orderly, square and appealing.

The triburner stoker unit is an old design.. it uses a single motor to run the stoker feed, and the combustion fan.. the new design stokers have an addtional combustion fan that runs full time,, this full time fan causes the coal to burn more completely and give you more heat from your coal.. The good news is that it is fairly easy to update the triburner design with an addtional fan that runs full time an creates the better burn in the stoker..

With the market on stoves that we have today,, if you can find a Reading stove that will work for your appication, just plan on adding an addtional combustion fan to the stoker.. and you will have a good unit... ANY coal burning stove is a good unit right now with the price of oil..

When Matthaus gets ot of the hospital I'll ask him to list the part numbers and maybe show a tutorial about how to modify the triburner stoker with the addtional fan..

When there were many stoves and brands to choose from,, I recommended to buy other brands than Reading.. I think the other brands are nicer and have more modern stokers and controls.. But now, with every manufacturer 5 months or more behind in filling new stove orders,, what ever you can find may be what you need to go with.

Greg L

snooze913 · Post by **snooze913** » Fri. Jul. 25, 2008 8:58 am

I would be interested in that tutorial.

Rick 386 · Post by **Rick 386** » Fri. Jul. 25, 2008 11:28 am

Here is Matthaus' way that he converts the triburners.

Convert From Tri-Burner?

Rick

LsFarm · Post by **LsFarm** » Fri. Jul. 25, 2008 4:25 pm

Thank you Rick for finding and posting the link... Matt is going to be very busy for many months..

Greg L

coal berner · Post by **coal berner** » Sat. Jul. 26, 2008 5:27 am

snooze913 wrote:I would be interested in that tutorial.

You may also want to read this aswell it shows the coal trol & the Tri burner stoker unit and other stoker types lots of good info

http://www.automationcorrect.com/documents/Coal-t ... ll_Web.pdf

snooze913 · Post by **snooze913** » Sat. Jul. 26, 2008 5:28 pm

Thank you very much, I actually had a coal-trol on my mind the other day. I am going to heat this year with just the blower and see what kind of add-ons I want for next year and coal-trol was at the top of the list.