How Do Harmon Coal Stoves Load?

WarmInGray wrote:Looks like I wasn't mistaking about loading from the front by hand. I've already lived that life and will never do it again. Personally I think that feature is poor design for today's stoves. I'll look into that TLC-2000 but I'd like to have a coil. I've also considered a boiler to run our base board and coil but it needs to be a model I can dump the pail of coal in, no shoveling. Seems to me all that shoveling, stirring up of the coal creates more dust and noise in the house. For a coal stove this day and age you shouldn't have to shovel the coal in especially after spending thousands of dollars. I've heard the harmons are 3 to 4 thousand dollars and up. The Vigilant II was $1500 to $1600 brand new last summer from dealers, it's a great heater for the money but no coil option.

Then you would need a Hopper fed stove here are the companies that make them
**Broken Link(s) Removed**http://www.hitzer.com/model50-93.html

http://www.harmanstoves.com/features.asp?id=7
**Broken Link(s) Removed**They did have a hopper model don't know if they are still making it .

I use the hod or the shovel that comes with the coal hod/skuttle. Works great either way. Using the stove pipe sounds ingenious! Got a friend that loads his coal in paper shopping bags and then puts it in his Harman Mark III.

WarmnGray - like Razzler & Steve I use a coal scuttle (hod?) to load my Hitzer 354 - only use a coal shovel when starting the fire ...... once its well-tended just throw it in. A full scuttle is two pitches - it is noisy after bedtime. baldeagle

WarmnGray -- bye the bye, we also use a coal scuttle to fill the Hitzer 503, you may drop the occasional chunk of "nut",
when using pea - just pour from the bag (outside) and into the top chute inside. The 503 has a water coil available.
baldeagle

Water coil you say!
Please do tell!
Next project is to cut the DWH bill.

I use this old wire coal shovel to load my SF260. Joe

Joe in NH wrote:I use this old wire coal shovel to load my SF260. Joe

Looks pretty messy to me Joe. All the fines just drop all over the floor?

Devil - I think the original shovel design was to reduce fines in the fire. They fall through the wire when you shovel the coal and stay in the bin. There is still some of the original label on the handle and it was definitely made for shoveling coal. The fines are not the problem, pieces of coal getting stuck in the wire can be a pain. Not perfect but works for me. Joe

I hear you Joe but I like to dump everything in my stove, including the fines. Just looks to messy for me but...too each his own!

Devil505 wrote:I like to dump everything in my stove, including the fines

I'd like to get rid of the fines, if I could figure out how to do it without too much effort and mess. Thinking of a sloped chute/screen over a trash can, where I could pour the bag and the little stuff would fall through and rest would go off the end of the chute into a bucket.

rberq wrote:I'd like to get rid of the fines, if I could figure out how to do it without too much effort and mess.

Throw them in the stove and burn them, you can't put alot in at one time. If I see alot of fines in one spot in the bin I just mix it in with the bigger coal it's all good.

I should really look into buying a Harman or other new stove. My Federal is getting pretty old, is very deep in lenght (front to back) but the coal bed is too shallow. To fill it I have to literally throw shovels full of coal into the back, which is very dark. I even added 4" metal baffle to the front so I could load it deeper.

Too many fines block air passageways and restrict the heat output of the fire, untill the fines finally burn up.. You can put out a coal fire with a bucket of fines.. they act just like a bucket of sand tossed on the fire,, blocking all air through the fire, and soon the fire is out.

A few fines, say a handfull per bucket, are not a problem, but too high a concentration, and they block air and smother the fire.

Greg L

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LsFarm wrote:Too many fines block air passageways and restrict the heat output of the fire

They settle to the bottom of the coal bag, and come out all in a big clump when I dump the bag into my coal-transporter / stove-loader tubes. Then I wind up with a pocket of them in the coal bed in the stove, and they restrict the fire somewhat -- not usually a severe problem, but enough to be a pain in the butt.

Maybe I will try shaking them to the bottom of the tubes, collecting them, and spreading them lightly over a good hot coal bed. Due to their small size, maybe they will burn well and quickly under those conditions. Just need to watch out for the grain-elevator-explosion effect....