Buck Stove - Coal & Wood Combo

I have a Hitzer stove that I have been singing the praises of at work. One of the guys there wants to go the coal route. He is looking at a Buck Stove company cabinet enclosed hybrid coal and wood stove combo "unit". I recall reading on this forum that coal stoves that also are intened to burn wood usually don't do a good job with either - coal or wood. I told him I would post here as to thoughts from forum members as there are some real pros amoung you. He has been burning wood for 25 years. I can't get him to cut the cord wood addiction entirely. What are your thoughts about a stove as I described above. If you want to take a look at what he is thinking about purchasing (he said around $1300.00) the link to the Buck Stove cabinet combo stove is below. Thanks for your feedback -

http://www.buckstove.com/wood/combocoal.html

These circulator stoves are common, common, common down South where I am from. This is identical to an Ashley any other economy brand circulators. Back home people burned Bituminous in them often. They are prone to problems with the distant end of the ash pit building up with ash and burning out the grates since the far end is hard to get to. You have to be extra diligent in cleaning the ash pit. I don't see why this stove would be any worse than any other modern steel box stove type in its performance. Perhaps others who have used one of these with Anthracite can comment. I hope they do. If he wants to burn wood this Buck stove will burn it much better than a Harman or Hitzer per se. They do very well with wood and are most often used for that fuel back home. My Aunt Vera had one just like that. The styling seems not to have changed much over the past 5 decades.

If he wants to burn wood there are far more efficient stoves. As for coal a firebox that is round or close to square is best for the compact fire coal likes. To spend that money for a stove that is not best for either coal or wood ,would be a mistake. both Hitzer and DS Machine make stoves with both a hopper and thermostat,and with removable hopper will do a decent job on wood.

franco b wrote:If he wants to burn wood there are far more efficient stoves. As for coal a firebox that is round or close to square is best for the compact fire coal likes. To spend that money for a stove that is not best for either coal or wood ,would be a mistake. both Hitzer and DS Machine make stoves with both a hopper and thermostat,and with removable hopper will do a decent job on wood.

I guess the point I was making is that you can pack large pieces of wood in these circulators so they are easy from that point of view. You don't have to cut the wood into small pieces to fit it in the smaller sized fireboxes of the other stoves. I agree if the fellow wants to try coal he should get a stove that will give him a greater chance of success, but; advise only goes so far. Sometimes you just have to find out on your own. I checked on the price. $1,200 isn't that much of a bargain and I have never seen anthracite burned in one of these stoves, but; bituminous lots of times. These stoves mostly have bimetallic thermostats on them, but; I don't know how reliable they are. And yes, it is true that very few stoves have ever been designed to burn wood and coal equally well.

I just looked at the manual. I don't think this model has a thermostat on it.

I can't tell you anything about the coal/ wood combo but I can tell you that the Buck Model 24 Coal Stove is a nice unit. I have the Buck Model 24 Coal Stove and I love it. I am on my 3rd heating season and very happy with the stoves performance. Previously, I burned a Warm Morning for 29 years before going to the Buck Model 24. Talk him into burning strictly coal!!!

If he's set on a circulator, and I love mine, then have him check out the U.S. Stove Company Wondercoal as well. Essentially the same stove, but about $500 less in price.

topper wrote:What are your thoughts about a stove as I described above. If you want to take a look at what he is thinking about purchasing (he said around $1300.00) the link to the Buck Stove cabinet combo stove is below. Thanks for your feedback -
http://www.buckstove.com/wood/combocoal.html

Topper,

Looking at the link you provided, at the bottom of the page they claim this: "** The Combo Coal & Wood Stove is Exempt from emissions under Method 28 of the U.S. EPA Emissions Certification".

That statement doesn't make sense to me. Method 28, as I understand it, is a method to make sure your stove meets emission standards through a specific test method. Here's a link to method 28: http://www.epa.gov/ttnemc01/promgate/m-28.pdf

If you use Method 28, you should have a certificate showing how the stove meets EPA emission standards as can be seen at the bottom of that document, not that it's exempt from emissions.

Am I missing something here? Anybody know about these emission standards and what this could mean?

dj

METHOD 28 ) CERTIFICATION AND AUDITING
OF WOOD HEATERS

Key words are wood heaters...
This is a coal stove that is exempt from the wood burning regulations...

CapeCoaler wrote:

METHOD 28 ) CERTIFICATION AND AUDITING
OF WOOD HEATERS

Key words are wood heaters...
This is a coal stove that is exempt from the wood burning regulations...

CapeCoaler,

The stove is listed as a coal/wood combination. I thought that made it required to meet the wood burning emissions. It was my understanding that one of the problems of building/selling the combo stoves was that when they were listed to burn wood, you had to met the EPA regs. Otherwise, you could just list any wood burning stove as a combo wood/coal and not have to go through emissions testing.

dj

Looks like an exemption can be made depending on design...
Pages 24-26 of the manual...

CAUTION: For safe and proper operation according to
the United States Environmental Protection Agency
regulations for wood stoves, you must use the
proper air slide adjuster plate with the proper
fuel you intend to burn

.

CAUTION: For safe and proper operation according to
the United States Government Protection Agency
regulations for coal stoves, you must use the
proper air slide adjuster plate with the proper
fuel you intend to burn.

The Combo Coal & Wood Stove Comes with WOOD AIR SLIDE ADJUSTER PLATE installed.
You must change the WOOD AIR SLIDE ADJUSTER PLATE inside of the front
cast ash door to use the Combo Coal & Wood Stove unit for burning coal.
CHANGING WOOD AIR SLIDE ADJUSTER PLATE TO
COAL AIR SLIDE ADJUSTER PLATE
1. Find the coal air slide adjuster plate package inside the fire box and remove. Open contents.
(SEE BELOW)
2. Open the front cast ash door and remove the wood air slider adjuster plate from inside of door,
by unscrewing the air slide adjuster knob. (SEE BELOW). Note there is NO NOTCH in the coal air
slide adjuster plate. Place the coal air slide adjuster plate in place of the wood slide adjuster plate
and replace air slide adjuster knob. You are now ready to safely use the Combo Coal & Wood
Stove to burn coal

I truly apprecate everyone's feedback - thanks!!

After sharing your comments (and mine...) with my friend he has decided to go with a hand-fed coal stove - no wood!! Thanks again -

topper

Good Move He will be thanking you down the road.