King O Heat

 
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jdode
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Posts: 134
Joined: Sat. Dec. 22, 2018 12:21 pm
Location: SE MO
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Vintage laundry tank heater
Coal Size/Type: Nut Anthracite
Other Heating: Natural gas

Post by jdode » Tue. Jan. 08, 2019 7:56 pm

I'm very happy to find this thread. About 100 miles from me is a King O Heat for sale. I've been looking at coal stoves for a couple of months and have almost bought one or two that I thought would work. Thankfully, the members of this forum put me straight. I do have a laundry coal stove, but it's not for the house. Here's a pic of the stove for sale.

CoalStove13.jpg

Asking price is $200

.JPG | 86.5KB | CoalStove13.jpg
At first, I didn't like it, but I think it would look nice with some enamel paint and some decorative painting/stenciling on it.

I need to take the next 10 months to determine which stove to purchase. Placing it upstairs (not basement) would be the least work involved, so I should go with that.
Last edited by jdode on Tue. Jan. 08, 2019 10:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
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Jane684
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Posts: 53
Joined: Sun. Sep. 15, 2013 7:34 am
Location: Cape Cod
Hand Fed Coal Stove: King O Heat, we have 2
Other Heating: Oil and wood
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Post by Jane684 » Tue. Jan. 08, 2019 8:23 pm

No, go for the basement, ours exactly like this one was right in our laundry room. We bought another one, my husband fixed it all up, back then we could get parts easily. We replaced the firebrick, as the newer one had been used as an incinerator. God knows what they burned in it, but we sure cleaned it and it was beautiful. We had our old one, so decided to keep it and sell the newer one. It sold very quickly. We still have the old original one, all hooked up and ready to go. But we got nat gas on our street, so decided to get a gas furnace. But they are sitting side by side in my laundry room, so we have the option to use coal if the nat gas line to our 'island' ever gets severed. These, all coal stoves, create a lot of fine dust, so you wont want that upstairs. And if you build a coal bin, as my husband did, you cut way down on that dust. But you cant have a coal bin upstairs.
If you live anywhere near South East Massachusetts, my husband can give you a lot of info on running these. It was amazing heat, did the entire house, the 2 upper floors, were heated by convection with this stove. We kept our Metromatic oil furnace for back up, and run it even now in the winter on cold days when we feel like it. Price of oil has dropped, so we topped off our tank, but coal got expensive, but we still have plenty in the bin. Gas is cheap, so we use it mostly now. But you cant lose with this coal stove, but remember coal went up in price. Do NOT burn wood in the stove after the initial start, as it will mess up your clean chimney. Coal doesn't produce creosote or any of the nasty stuff which builds up in that chimney into which the woodie is hooked into. Go for it, its an amazing stove and the heat is amazing. You will have to tend it at least once a day, shake it down, fill it, stir it if you want, then every couple days empty the ash pan. GEE, I sound like a sales person, but we had 30 years using that stove and saved amazing amounts of money back when oil was expensive and there was no alternate fuel like gas around here. We did burn wood in the living room, as we got oak and maple for free, but that was a chore cutting trees, sectioning up the wood, stacking it, seasoning it, and carrying it indoors all the time.

 
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jdode
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Posts: 134
Joined: Sat. Dec. 22, 2018 12:21 pm
Location: SE MO
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Vintage laundry tank heater
Coal Size/Type: Nut Anthracite
Other Heating: Natural gas

Post by jdode » Tue. Jan. 08, 2019 9:17 pm

Jane684 Wow! Great info! I am considering the basement, as that's where the original wood furnace supplied heat to a grate in the living room floor. That's been covered and a closet built in that area (right next to the brick chimney). So, there would be a lot of work tearing out the closet, floor and hooking up to the chimney. Then, there would be all the work of taking the bagged coal to the basement. One of the members talked of 'oiling' his coal, to keep down the dust. I had wondered if the coal could be water rinsed a week ahead of time? If it's possible to eliminate the coal dust with a water rinse, that would be ok. It's much easier to get bagged coal onto the porch and into the living room. And, easier to run a flue out the living room wall.

I sure hate to dislodge 1000 Chimney Swifts from the chimney, but I could heat with electric, in the early fall until they leave and after they arrive in the early spring. This past fall, I happened to be at the cottage at 8:15 p.m. and I got to see the show they put on, while diving into the chimney. The neighbors thought they were bats and I had to explain to them that they were birds. It's amazing how they cling to the inner wall of the chimney and do, actually, cause the creosote to fall down.

 
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Jane684
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Posts: 53
Joined: Sun. Sep. 15, 2013 7:34 am
Location: Cape Cod
Hand Fed Coal Stove: King O Heat, we have 2
Other Heating: Oil and wood
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Post by Jane684 » Wed. Jan. 09, 2019 8:50 am

With a closet that close to the chimney, I would say no to that location.
Bagged coal, ouch, thats a lot of work. But if you dont have access to a basement window, or opening right into your coal bin, then you would have to deal with bagged coal. Do not oil your coal, it will stink and make a sludgy mess. But if you get it delivered by truck=loose, then they will hose it down with water before delivery if you ask them to. We covered our coal bin door with plastic sheeting, essentially sealing it off from the cellar, which cut way WAY down on the dust created when it was poured into the bin. Then about a day later, take the plastic off. My husband made a chute from an old metal gutter, so the coal slid most of the way, rather than just falling from the back of the truck. Less dust.
If you do choose to have the stove in the living room, you are going to get a lot of the fine black dust over time. And the ash which is sort of silver color, when you empty the ash bin. Or you can carry that outside and put it into your metal trash can there.
We used the ash for making a trail thru the salt marsh near our house, that trail was always muddy, but after we put several years of coal ash into it, it no longer was muddy, it was more like damp cement.

We have had chimney swifts in our huge chimney in our camp in Maine, but as you say, they always leave when we get up there. An Osprey came down the chimney once and was filthy and extremely angry, and sitting in the fireplace. My mom put the big screen across the fireplace, put the cat upstairs, as he freaked out seeing the huge bird, and called the fire department. The entire fire department arrived, all 3 of them, armed with a camera. They managed to put a blanket over the bird, open a window, and shove it out. Those birds can be dangerous if cornered, easily injure a cat, small dog, or young child. My brother made a huge chimney cover out of an old iron bed spring thing and installed it over the chimney. I have some pretty cool pictures of this.
Getting rid of the poop that these birds produce is nasty, and the chimney swifts create a lot of slimy poop too.

 
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jdode
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Posts: 134
Joined: Sat. Dec. 22, 2018 12:21 pm
Location: SE MO
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Vintage laundry tank heater
Coal Size/Type: Nut Anthracite
Other Heating: Natural gas

Post by jdode » Wed. Jan. 09, 2019 12:46 pm

Jane684 Thanks for the info on the bird poo. I never noticed any at the bottom of the chimney, at the clean out, but that was a different chimney that had a lot fewer birds.

I'm in MO and can only get bagged coal from TSC. I will be using a dolly to get it moved around. It sounds like pouring it into buckets with holes is the way to rinse it, and then, wheel it onto the porch when dry.

Yes, if the basement location is used, the closet would have to be torn out to reveal the floor grate, from years ago. Even if I used the existing heat ducts, the closet would still have to be torn out.

I have 10 months to plot and scheme! ;)


 
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Jane684
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Posts: 53
Joined: Sun. Sep. 15, 2013 7:34 am
Location: Cape Cod
Hand Fed Coal Stove: King O Heat, we have 2
Other Heating: Oil and wood
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Post by Jane684 » Wed. Jan. 09, 2019 1:28 pm

Sounds like quite a project. You might opt for the first floor, but be prepared for lots of dust.
We did put in a new gas furnace, when we got gas installation on our street. And the option to use existing ductwork is there, but we have 2 furnaces, and the new one is using convection, as we have a square house with 3 stories. (My husband can change that configuration when we and if decide, but its working extremely well now.)
Thats probably the easier part.
Quite a project you've got lined up.
Im curious to see how you go about this, so is my husband.

 
D.Torok
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: King-O-Heat

Post by D.Torok » Sat. Mar. 09, 2019 9:32 am

My Brother in Law has a King-O-Heat 390, one hundred pounder he calls it. The projections on the piece the grate sets on have bent downward allowing the grate to fall through. He asked me to try to find out if that part is available anywhere. Can anyone help us with this?

 
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Jane684
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Posts: 53
Joined: Sun. Sep. 15, 2013 7:34 am
Location: Cape Cod
Hand Fed Coal Stove: King O Heat, we have 2
Other Heating: Oil and wood
Contact:

Post by Jane684 » Sat. Mar. 09, 2019 12:24 pm

Im looking for the name of where we got parts long ago, and my husband is down cellar looking for info,,,,,,,,,,,,
Actually, I just found another thread where all my info is.
http://www.jcarter.net/king-o-heat/k0h-390.pdf
This is the PDF on my site where we got some parts.
And this one is an earlier bunch of posts on the KingOHeat on this forum.
King O Heat
Hope this helps. I think I do remember we got a part on a Craig's list, or gave away some extra parts there. Googling for info, I got more info this morning, so my guess is that these old stoves are still working. Ours is still hooked up and we have about a ton of coal left, but we got nat-gas on our street, so we went with a gas furnace, and a gas generator(automatic one), as we found coal very expensive and hard to find. And gas is cheap.

 
D.Torok
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: King-O-Heat

Post by D.Torok » Sat. Mar. 09, 2019 1:35 pm

Thank you. I'll take a look.

 
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Jane684
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Posts: 53
Joined: Sun. Sep. 15, 2013 7:34 am
Location: Cape Cod
Hand Fed Coal Stove: King O Heat, we have 2
Other Heating: Oil and wood
Contact:

Post by Jane684 » Sat. Mar. 09, 2019 2:07 pm

I found more info about getting parts just by running it thru Google. So I bet that you can find what you need, sure hope so, as those stoves sure were a good design and put out great heat.


 
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UncleDoDat
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Joined: Sat. Jun. 21, 2014 11:40 am
Location: Dover De
Hand Fed Coal Stove: King-O-Heat
Baseburners & Antiques: Herald #6
Coal Size/Type: Nut & Stove Size
Other Heating: Natural Gas

Post by UncleDoDat » Sun. Mar. 10, 2019 12:34 pm

Keep us posted on the fix. I'm curious about the fix God forbid I have the same issue. How'd the injury occur?

 
CapeCoaler
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Joined: Sun. Feb. 10, 2008 3:48 pm
Location: Cape Cod, MA
Stoker Coal Boiler: want AA130
Hand Fed Coal Stove: DS Machine BS#4, Harman MKII, Hitzer 503,...
Coal Size/Type: Pea/Nut/Stove

Post by CapeCoaler » Sun. Mar. 10, 2019 8:45 pm

Coal is running about $320 per ton on The Cape...
Some sale pricing can be had if ya know how to scrounge...

 
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Jane684
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Posts: 53
Joined: Sun. Sep. 15, 2013 7:34 am
Location: Cape Cod
Hand Fed Coal Stove: King O Heat, we have 2
Other Heating: Oil and wood
Contact:

Post by Jane684 » Mon. Mar. 11, 2019 7:43 am

We found somebody with a bin half full and they wanted it out for nothing. Lots of work, but we took it all and cleaned out her cellar of stuff she didn't want. Some boating stuff too.
I posted earlier, but seems I forgot to hit send. Oh well, wasn't that important.

 
CapeCoaler
Member
Posts: 6515
Joined: Sun. Feb. 10, 2008 3:48 pm
Location: Cape Cod, MA
Stoker Coal Boiler: want AA130
Hand Fed Coal Stove: DS Machine BS#4, Harman MKII, Hitzer 503,...
Coal Size/Type: Pea/Nut/Stove

Post by CapeCoaler » Mon. Mar. 11, 2019 2:16 pm

Yes if you get lucky...
Some will even pay you to get rid of their "problem"...
LOL...

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