If You Had It to Do All Over Again?

Many of us who have been burning coal for a few years must look back and say they wish they bought this furnace or that stove.I for one bought a hot blast furnace and they do work well when you learn what it likes.But if I had it to do over I would get a furnace that was built to burn anthacite.The hot blast burns well but the shakedown takes 5 or 6 mins. twice a day.I think a lot of newbie's could benefit from our experience.I do like a handfired furnace because of its even heat.If something is thermostat controlled you tend to get that variable temp thing that is even made worse with a hot air system.

If you have just put in a new stove or boiler maybe you could post what you had and why you changed.
THANKS DON

I have an Alaska Channing stove and the only thing I would do differently would be to paint the inside of the stove, hopper and ash bin with a high temp paint. Oh yeah. I would probably clean the glass more often.

I'd buy the same stove, the Harman TLC-2000.
Where my stove is located in the basement family room, it warms the entire house while being the focal point (aesthetically) of the room. I also like the peace of mind & quiet that a hand fired stove gives me in terms of not being dependent on electricity & not being tied to one size coal.

I would go boiler/hot water baseboard, I still may someday. I wish our old victorian had the big radiators, but it doesn't. It;s tough to get the hot air upstairs with the doors closed (keep the cats out of the rooms and getting into stuff.!!).

We only have a large convection furnance in the middle of the first floor.

At least with radiators in the rooms, it would stay more constant temperatures.....I do need to update the heating system someday, and may switch over to a boiler and sell the stoves for a coal boiler, but time and a ton of $$$$$. I can do most of the work myself, but for right now, the old furnance and the coal stoves work.

Now entering my 5th heating season with the Harman VF3K. The only thing I would do differently would be to have purchased it years sooner if I could of. It's paid for itself a couple times over already.

With little money:

Install a stoker hot air furnace instead of my oil furnace and stove-turned-furnace.

With lots of money:

Anthratube boiler in the cellar, steam heat with nice big old radiators.

Should have switch to coal years earlier, so much easier then wood.

I started burning coal almost three years ago, bought an Alaska Kast Konsole II (totally refurbed and painted it inside and out) and promptly installed the Coal-Trol from Automation correct. I also discovered that the Tri-burner type units need more combustion air... thus started my science projects, added more combustion air, redesigned the linkage for the feeder carpet, started buying stoves for rebuild and to try out and then ultimately bought boilers and furnaces. I now am installing a Axeman Anderson copy and removing my gas boiler. I have to say that overall the way I went about it and the incremental learning that took place were perfect for my way of doing things.

My advice is if you want to find out what burning clean Anthracite coal is all about , buy a stove and supplement/replace your existing heating system, learn and then add a coal burning furnace or boiler to either replace or parallel your existing heat plant in the house. The stove will always sell for a decent price and you will have learned much. Don't be afraid, clean burning Anthracite coal is easy to get to know as long as you have a little common sense and at least the know how to own and use a hammer.

If I could do it over again I probably would have started out with a boiler rather than a stove. It may have been hand fed since that would have fit the budget better than a stoker, but I wouldn't have struggled to distribute the heat throughout the house.

WNY wrote:I would go boiler/hot water baseboard, I still may someday. I wish our old victorian had the big radiators, but it doesn't. It;s tough to get the hot air upstairs with the doors closed (keep the cats out of the rooms and getting into stuff.!!).

We only have a large convection furnance in the middle of the first floor.

At least with radiators in the rooms, it would stay more constant temperatures.....I do need to update the heating system someday, and may switch over to a boiler and sell the stoves for a coal boiler, but time and a ton of $$$$$. I can do most of the work myself, but for right now, the old furnance and the coal stoves work.

My grandmother had a gravity coal furnace with the central feed and return.The feed was in the middle of the large grate and the return was around the edges.Hot air went up as it drew cold air from the floor.I can still see her in a house dress bellowing,standing on that grate.
DON

Oh yeah. I would have found this website first and had more information when buying my stove.

I would have went with the LL pioneer instead of the alaska because of the fact that it has a coal-trol already ,it has a larger ash pan and top notch customer service