Help! Which Coal Stove?

Greetings,

I am new to the forum and happy to be here. I am in a bit of a dilemma. I desperately need to buy a coal stove for my brother, as he is out of work and will not get through the winter with oil. He has two hundred to spend on a good used coal stove that, hopefully, will heat his small 1,700 square foot house. I found two stoves that fit his budget. One is a really old, but great condition, pot belly stove. The other is a Haas and Sohn PLUTO #121-15. Can you advise me which one you think is the better choice? Below are pics of the two stoves. Thanks

I would find it hard to pass up the Pluto. Thermostat and hopper make for easier tending. 400 pounds make it hard to move. I don't like the tapered sides of the fire pot which might make clearing ash difficult. Possibly you could slide a flat poker over the top of the grate to help clear ash. The stove is rated to produce about 24,000 BTU per hour. Quality German construction.

The old oak stove to be acceptable would have to have a brick lining in the fire pot and triangular grates. What is the diameter of the fire pot? It is a batch loading stove and does require more fussing with than the Pluto.

I see a lot of Warm Morning and Heatrola stoves on craigslist, but I don't know if their any good.
What area are you from.

Keep looking a bit more. There are chubby's around for that money. You might get lucky. $200 isn't much and if it was just those two the pluto (funky looking as it is) might be the better choice as is. I'd up the budget a bit and get a decent easy tending stove for a first timer. It will be worth it in the long run.

I have owned and burned coal in both types of stoves. Mine were different makes however; Vogelzang for my pot bellied stove and a Surdiac for the hopper filled stove. Still they are similar.

I use the pot bellied stove now, and like it but only because it is a duel burning stove and I got access to endless firewood. BUT I liked the hopper style much better. In fact, while that stove is long gone, I kind of wish I had it back. It really burned pea coal well, and after some experience running it, I could get 14 hour burn times between shake downs. It may not seem like a big deal, but when you visit people for the holidays and stuff, time gets away from you and it is nice not to have to babysit a pot bellied stove.

If your Brother intends to burn only coal; I would go with the hopper style coal stove. Interestingly enough, I have found Surdic stoves on Fleabay and Craig's List for $150 bucks. best wishes on your stove hunting search, and I hope financially things improve for your Brother. Tough times suck!