Direct feed into coal bin? Water heater?

I have a couple questions about Leisure line stoves. Are there any stoves that offer a way to tie in directly to a coal bin, such that the hopper doesn't need to be fed in manually every few days? Does anyone have any pictures of this type of a setup? I want to put the stove in a finished basement, so I want it to look nice, not just "doing the job".

Also, does Leisure line offer any stoves that can be rigged up to heat my hot water in addition to being a forced air stove?

Thanks in advance.

None of the LL stoves have the setup and/or Auger to your coal bin option, you would have to rig something up yourself.
The Bigger stoves have a 200 # hopper and can run for a few days without filling. My Hyfire can run 2-3+ days without filling, depending on the outside temps.

ANY Stove can have a DHW (Domestic Hot Water) Coil added, along with some plumbing, pumps, etc.. to help heat your hot water.
(http://www.hilkoil.com or http://www.therma-coil.com) are a couple.

Do a search on "Hot Water Coil" on here, you will see many different setups people have in their stoves.
There are the Thermosyphon (no pump, but has to be within 10' of your hot water tank or a pumped method for most installs).

Depending on the stove and I would ask Jerry before proceeding if you have anything other then a Pioneer. But you could make a coal bin and run a gravity feed line right inside the hopper so it automatically feeds it's self.

Thanks for the help - I didn't realize you could run a coil for DHW from any coal stove. That's one I'll be sure to have implemented, since I already have an Electric hot water tank very near my old hand-fired stove that I'm looking to replace in the basement.

Regarding the coal bin Auger / Gravity feed, does anyone have any pictures of either setup they have rigged up (with a Leisure Line stove or another type of stove)? I'm looking to put something in a finished basement that still looks nice, like Leisure Line stoves, but also minimize the maintenance as much as possible. A large 200 lb. hopper would help, but I'm wondering about taking it to the next step and being able to put it on "autopilot" even longer.

Thanks!
-Steve

Look thru the Coal Bin Pics thread, heres a good one with a Grain Storage and auger system..

COAL BIN Pics

Thanks Dave, although... "I'm looking to put something in a finished basement that still looks nice".

I'll have a look through those pictures, but was just wondering if anyone had any of their own that looked "finished"! Thanks!

Lundys,

In the coal bin pics - on page 16 is a pic of Coalen's setup to get coal from his garage to the basement using pvc pipe.

COAL BIN Pics


All you would have to do to modify his setup is to have the pipe run directly to the hopper. Then have a sheet metal fab shop make a lid with a hole on it for the pipe to go into. Only issue is to make sure the pipe has enough pitch to keep the rice flowing. Something makes me think it is 45 degrees.



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Rick

You could do something similar to what coalen did fully gravity fed if the hopper outside is close enough to where the stove is. In any event the only way you can put a hopper fed stove on "auto pilot" is doing something similar to that. You need a hopper above the stove, e.g outside, in the garge etc. Run a PVC pipe from the hopper to the stove. Paint it black maybe with some textured paint to make it look like a pipe. That's about the best you're going to do if you want to keep it looking nice.

Did any of you put a tempering tank before your hot water heater? My electric bill went down $15 to $20 a month with one installed.

Happy Holidays, Stan

Stan what method did you use to plumb. i have seen at least 3 different variation on plumbing 1 in, I just picked up a tank and plan on ordering coil this week thanks
Chris H

choyt002 wrote:Stan what method did you use to plumb. i have seen at least 3 different variation on plumbing 1 in, I just picked up a tank and plan on ordering coil this week thanks
Chris H

Ez, Cold water must go into bottom of the tank, warm out the top to the electric heater, oil furnace etc. 80 gallon fiberglas is the best. you do not want an insulated tank. If you can get to the bathroom plumbing easy you can run just to the cold side of the shower from the tank also so when you shower you mix the hot with the room temp water instead of 50 degree water from outside.

Happy Holidays, Stan