First I would like to thank all of the members here for the information that I have stolen over the last 6 months of lurking. Because of the years of archives I have learned enough to successfully buy, install, and run my first coal burner. It is a used Pine Barren Stove Co. unit. I bought it from a gentlemen in Allentown who refurbs stoves and sells them as a hobby and I found him on Craigs List. I actually responded to one of his ads for another stove but ended up liking the Pine Barren Stove more. Originally what attracted me to it was the fact that it is a double wall unit with double blowers. He had completely worked over the unit including new brick and glass and gaskets and when I went to see the other unit he had for sale this one was actually running and heating his garage/workshop. I guess it was love at first sight. I had my 14 year old son with me at the time and as we left even he said, "I like the other one better Dad". To make a long story longer, it took about 10 days to make the decision but I finally made him an offer and he took it.
The installation is inside a walk in Rumsford style fireplace that never had a large enough flue and always smoked some so it was almost never used. I have included a pic here so you can see it. I did hire a chimney guy to do the liner, cap and final installation. I ended up having to use a sawzall to cut out the original damper controls of the fireplace so the pipe could come straight down the chimney. Since the fireplace will never be used as one again it doesn't matter anyway. I did leave the swinging cooking bar as well as the stationary cooking bar. He had to ovalize the liner a bit to get past the stationary bar but the draw is strong and there is no problem getting a fire to light.
The Pine Barren Stove Co. is actually still in business in New Jersey although I was not sure of that when I bought the stove. Turns out that all of parts that are replaceable are still available and should anything go wrong I will just need to drive across the river and visit with the man who made it.
I have to say that without this forum and the members here I am not sure I would have made the decision to try this. My original inclination was to have a Keystoker boiler in my basement but it turned out the the chimney was unable to accommodate the liner necessary and I will have to continue with an oil burner for the time being. However right now there is no boiler running and I am happily heating my entire 300 year old 2200 sq. ft. farmhouse the the Pine Barren Stove. I have put some air handlers in door ways to pull the heat and move it around but the heat is traveling to the second floor on it's own and keeping the entire thing very nice.
Through the members here I have learned how to start, run and maintain my stove. I now know how to build a deep bed of coals and keep it running 24 hours a day. I first fired it up on the 23rd of December but only ran it for a day before I lost the fire from lack of experience. I didn't start it back up again until the 26th but since then it has been a constant source of heat and pleasure. I lost the fire over night on the 28th but figured out my problem and as of this moment it has been running for over a full week nonstop. I am burning Blashack nut coal and my ash looks like oatmeal. It is also filling a metal full size trash can faster than I thought it would.
I know that this post is probably longer than it should be and the main point was to say a big thank you to all of the member who post here. You have been an inspiration to me and I have to say that I am now and forever a coal heat lover.
John
after burning coal you will never want to burn wood again 