When Do You Say It's on for the Season?

Yell here when your Connecticut coal stove pretty much stays permanently ON for the season !

Basically, I generally run coal in my Russo Coal / Wood Stove from Thanksgiving until St. Patrick's Day here in western CT. Before and after these dates I use wood.

Richard of Danbury

I run a hand fired boiler right now, looking to upgrade to an Axeman I picked up a year and a half ago. Still haven't gotten around to it.
Once the weather is down around 55-60 during the day, I'll light up. At night it can dip low 40s easily and I don't like the sound of that oil burner.

Isn't it funny that none of us can stand to hear the oil burner fire up. If you are heating water only with your boiler, you probably use about a gallon of oil a day. Not bad for the freedom that gives you. Once the stoker or hand fired is on, you have to pay attention again. It is like a hobby you can't ever hate. The basement is warm and dry..or garage. Whatever temp the morning brings, who cares, the coal is making steady heat all day anyway. Floors are warm, the structure is just peacefully comfortable, no need to shiver ever again.

I didn't realize that you had a 260 hiding away. Hope you have a large area to heat, because they WILL do the job!
I have 3 AA 260's and now an AHS 260 along with the EFMs and I still am amazed that the AA's and AHS only need a 6" stack, 5" on my 130's. The EFM 520 require an 8" stack, the 900's a 10" stack. All the boilers work just terrific, but it seems the AA'a and AHS's use less coal for the same output.
I have to try a Keystoker some time, and I heard that a Harman VF 3000 may be available if I stop harassing it's owner.

whistlenut wrote:I didn't realize that you had a 260 hiding away. Hope you have a large area to heat, because they WILL do the job!
I have 3 AA 260's and now an AHS 260 along with the EFMs and I still am amazed that the AA's and AHS only need a 6" stack, 5" on my 130's. The EFM 520 require an 8" stack, the 900's a 10" stack. All the boiler work just terrific, but it seems the AA'a and AHS's use less coal for the same output.

Yes, it sort of fell on me last spring. Oddly enough, it was the guy that tunes my boiler that turned me on to it. The original owner bought it in '81 brand new and ran a ton of coal through it and shut it down. Now it's mine.
I have been real worried I wouldn't have enough chimney for the beast, your post makes me feel better. Chimney is exposed and about 21-23' from the thimble. Think it will work? My house doesn't need that much but I want to plug the pool in too. I know they pump out some heat, Greg is heating about 10% of Michigan with his.

Your chimney will be just fine! I have one exterior wall 34 footer and that was built in 1975 and has been been burning coal since 1977. Alright, it did see 22 cords of wood in 1976. That was in a Nashua wood stove and that was when an epiphany hit me! No more wood, and I couldn't go nuclear, although I sure would like to. 23.5 ton loads of anthracite ever since. Sometimes two or three a year depending on how many newbies smarten up and forget about firewood and the damned pellets. Pellets are a great configuration for rabbit food, but as a heating source...300/ton for compressed sawdust. PT Barnum had a comment for those individuals.....

BTW: Tremendous score on that 260. It is bullet proof except for the damned DW coil area. DO NOT attempt to loosen or tighten the Coil nuts without heating them, unless you know for a fact someone anti-seized them. The new coil mounting at EFM and AA is terrific, but the rehab might be costly unless you have a certified welder in your back pocket.
That has to be the worse of the worst in design when you compare it to the new units, however the rest of the unit is excellent. I do prefer the AHS blower and grate actuation, but the Ole Master is a great piece of excellent engineering. Hindsight is always 20-20. My original 260's were built I assume in the previous year, say 1976 and they all still perform daily for the last 32 years, 24/7, 365. We do shut them down for the summer maintainability of course, but you might plan on heating more than just your house and pool....any neighbors close enough to pipe to?

I may add the detached garage to it to, that currently has a forced air furnace in it which takes up valuable space.

I started mine up today, it's been cold at night and I'm determined not to use the electric heat! Unless we get unseasonably warm weather it will run until next spring.

My old hand fed Buderus was Nov 15th to April 15th. My new Keystoker 90K is October 15th to May 15th. I now get oil once a year to feed my new Buderus Oil boiler that I could care if it ever turned on even though it looks impressive. I wished I installed a Keystoker Boiler, but that ship has sailed.

Hi,

My Warm Morning stove has been on since the 10th. That's about when I decided that we weren't looking at any warm days for the rest of the season.

The kicker is that my 15 year old Weil McClain boiler sprung a leak at one of the seals and we had it replaced with a Boderus when I lit off the coal stove. I will probably not need an oil fillup for quite some time now, I hope.

Mike
Enfield

Hi Mike, used to live at shaker pines in back of hallmark, nice to meet you. Now in Manchesta.

I started this year on Nov 1, but idled many days that were warm that month. Burned wood in Oct. I'm thinking of switching back and forth between the coal and wood next Nov depending on the weather. Even though I can idle it, I have to baby it with the low draft in warm temps, and I would rather save the coal for the true cold. I'm thinking mid-March will be when I transition the other way.