Reccomendatrions for a Used Small Hand Fired Stove

Wow lots of info to digest! A lot of interesting stoves to take a lookat as well. A 'bottom burner' was mentioned what is it and how do they work differently than a different coal stove?
Dave

ddahlgren wrote:

michaelanthony wrote:Your question poses many bias responses and I will just say this..It is like going to a used car dealer and saying, "what is a good car to get me to work?...and this is what I want to spend." What is YOUR taste, new, used, antique? Do you know anyone burning coal and do you like there set up? Remember buyers remorse comes in all shapes and sizes. If it just to provide heat and looks don't matter, there are many many stoves with great personalities. Good luck and stay warm......oh like previously stated, where are you? and welcome.

I live is SE CT 5 miles from RI on the shore in an old historic homebuilt in 1874 by Levi Watrous and his wife. My grand parents second owner since Levi built it my kids 4'th generation to call the place home and hope one of their kids will move in when I am gone or can no longer take care of it or me.. It is a very safe and comfortable part of the country that has become painfully expensive to own but hate to think about selling it at a very young 61.. I am liking the chubby because of replacement parts available for a proven design and like the Hitzer 254 because of styling. soa thing to think about.
Dave

1874,well that house is the perfect one for me, humm for the Sunnyside:

The absolute best, why get anything else ?

You probably mean a base burner? Lot of infos on these antique base burner stoves on the forum. See post/videos from William and many other members then you will have a good idea about what is a good anthracite stove. If you want to burn wood in a coal stove it's possible but they are not the most efficient one for the clean burning side. Modern wood stoves are best for those wanting to burn wood and get all the work and pain they need, but when discovering all the advantages of anth burning, you forget wood burning for the rest of your life.

CoalUserWannabe wrote:The absolute best, why get anything else ?

CoalHeat.JPG

Not shure if the installation is a safe one and meets the codes, but certainly keep the house's owner warm

I think most "code enforcement officials" would not have much a problem with that install..... Neither would I now that I think about it!

Loving those 'Sunnyside' pics.. LOL

Talked to a couple of used repaired stove dealers and followed some links here and have to say the Hitzer 254 for 1500 is almost a gift..LOL They seem to throw around numbers in multiple thousands as though I lived in a mansion overlooking the Newport Yacht Club.. There was one good call to a gentleman that is south of Boston that understood what I wanted, something nice and functional but not running a museum. We chatted about size of house rooms sizes flue sizes and my ability to properly run a coal stove. He was unaware of this forum so passed him a link to it in an e-mail and has a large amount of knowledge that will hopefully be shared with all. it would be nice to have a stove that matched the age of the house but the real goal is to be warm so a we shall see thing. I did find a coal supplier that seems like my best bet Eastern Ice in RI that is less than most with a flat delivery charge 1 ton or 5 of 50.00 to me Cranston to Mystic and a bargain as far as mileage goes.

Russo coal stoves are an excellent hand fired and were built in Mass so they do come up on local craigslists quite often $300- $400. I purchased 1 for my parents and it has served them well

Take a real good look at a hitzer 30-95, it has a hopper, window, has the thermostat, easy to operate. Will put out good heat and can be run very low if all that heat isn't needed, bigger is always better, you can always turn bigger down but smaller can't always be turned up to your needs without over firing it.

japar wrote:Russo coal stoves are an excellent hand fired and were built in Mass so they do come up on local craigslists quite often $300- $400. I purchased 1 for my parents and it has served them well

I could never really tone down a russo to burn coal evenly and slowly (I always had to blast the hell out of it to get a complete burn and not have dead spots in the corners). It was always was a very heavy duty stove for sure, but I think you would burn through double the coal you would with a few other options out their in the same price range (just my opinion for the little its worth )

The hitzer 30-95 with its hopper and such would surly be a more expensive option (he is trying to avoid paying 1-2 K im sure), I also cant understand if you have to shake down the stove twice a day anyways why its so difficult to load the stove at those same intervals I have a 30 lb hopper too... its just next to my stove a I have a lil' shovel that loads it automatic into the top door twice per day I personally don't like the thought of a hopper fire or hopper jamb or concerning myself with the air tightness of a hopper top, etc. if I still have to tend my stove twice per day anyways How does this hopper feed into the combustion chamber? how does the thermostat adjust air flow (does it use electricity)?

I am trying to avoid spending 1500 and 2k is out of the question. In looking at used stoves are there any basic characteristics that make them good. So far about all I think I have learned is a tall circular firepot. If I look at a few used stoves on the net can I post photos of them to at least get an idea if they could be a contender. Long burn time is very important to me as is enough heat output. I am also not looking for automatic regulation with thermostats or any other complications or things to break / malfunction. Durning the winter we have very predictable temperature profiles. They vary from mid 30s during thew day to mid to low 20s during the night with the coldest at around 4am. My thought is I pick a setting that the house heat soaks to about mid 70s and when the morning comes it is around 60s and time to shake and reload then let it cruise for 8 to 12 hours until it needs some attention.

ddahlgren wrote:I am trying to avoid spending 1500 and 2k is out of the question. In looking at used stoves are there any basic characteristics that make them good. So far about all I think I have learned is a tall circular firepot. If I look at a few used stoves on the net can I post photos of them to at least get an idea if they could be a contender. Long burn time is very important to me as is enough heat output. I am also not looking for automatic regulation with thermostats or any other complications or things to break / malfunction. Durning the winter we have very predictable temperature profiles. They vary from mid 30s during thew day to mid to low 20s during the night with the coldest at around 4am. My thought is I pick a setting that the house heat soaks to about mid 70s and when the morning comes it is around 60s and time to shake and reload then let it cruise for 8 to 12 hours until it needs some attention.

If you watch craigs list you can get them for under $1000, there is one in my area now that is 4 years old for $900 and a month ago I bought one for a friend for $700, no need to spend $1500. The thermostat is right on the stove and regulates the air flow into the stove for the heat you want, nothing to go wrong. Your talking about enough heat output if 60000 isn't good enough look at the 50-93 hitzer which I have it is 100000- 110000 BTU and it will idle down to where you don't feel heat coming off of it. They can be had for under a $1000 also, just need to look around.

ddahlgren wrote:I am trying to avoid spending 1500 and 2k is out of the question. In looking at used stoves are there any basic characteristics that make them good. So far about all I think I have learned is a tall circular firepot. If I look at a few used stoves on the net can I post photos of them to at least get an idea if they could be a contender. Long burn time is very important to me as is enough heat output. I am also not looking for automatic regulation with thermostats or any other complications or things to break / malfunction. Durning the winter we have very predictable temperature profiles. They vary from mid 30s during thew day to mid to low 20s during the night with the coldest at around 4am. My thought is I pick a setting that the house heat soaks to about mid 70s and when the morning comes it is around 60s and time to shake and reload then let it cruise for 8 to 12 hours until it needs some attention.

Things to look for in a good coal burning stove are a combustion chamber that has NO corners and NO ramps (angled walls), a grate system that covers the entire bottom of the combustion chamber, baffles and/or dampers to hold in that heat before it flys up the flu is nice, external shaking is nice (so you can keep the doors sealed when shaking it down), typically its better to see a cast refractory firebrick or cast iron firepot (to produce better radiant heat output) precast firebrick is thick as hell, ive always been an advocate of a solid welded steel body (but a lot of people enjoy breaking a cast iron stove down and re-furbishing it and gluing/screwing it back together). Im sure others can add to this list as well and by all means your welcome to post some pics of stoves to ask the membership their opinions on them (we look forward to it!)

dcrane wrote:

ddahlgren wrote:I am trying to avoid spending 1500 and 2k is out of the question. In looking at used stoves are there any basic characteristics that make them good. So far about all I think I have learned is a tall circular firepot. If I look at a few used stoves on the net can I post photos of them to at least get an idea if they could be a contender. Long burn time is very important to me as is enough heat output. I am also not looking for automatic regulation with thermostats or any other complications or things to break / malfunction. Durning the winter we have very predictable temperature profiles. They vary from mid 30s during thew day to mid to low 20s during the night with the coldest at around 4am. My thought is I pick a setting that the house heat soaks to about mid 70s and when the morning comes it is around 60s and time to shake and reload then let it cruise for 8 to 12 hours until it needs some attention.

Things to look for in a good coal burning stove are a combustion chamber that has NO corners and NO ramps (angled walls), a grate system that covers the entire bottom of the combustion chamber, baffles and/or dampers to hold in that heat before it flys up the flu is nice, external shaking is nice (so you can keep the doors sealed when shaking it down), typically its better to see a cast refractory firebrick or cast iron firepot (to produce better radiant heat output) precast firebrick is thick as hell, ive always been an advocate of a solid welded steel body (but a lot of people enjoy breaking a cast iron stove down and re-furbishing it and gluing/screwing it back together). Im sure others can add to this list as well and by all means your welcome to post some pics of stoves to ask the membership their opinions on them (we look forward to it!)

I have come to the conclusion and given some thought I can easily see where a round firepot makes very good sense. I would think a volume surface area problem with the corners having litte volume but a lot of surface area to cool down the coal. Tall makes a lot of snse as I think the coal burns vertically bottom up from what I read here, I have been surfing a bunch of other threads to get a feel of what works well and what does not. I do not think I need or want a hopper I work from home and in the very coldest weather I will find something to do on the dining room table rather than walk out to the shop. My big goal is an overnight burn with a peak of 40k BTU / hr and a low around 5k. The 1 am relight on the woodstove is getting very old as is the constant work involved to have enough heat to get it done with what I have for a woodstove along with the stacking cover uncover etc of cords of wood. I think I want a stove with an external shaker handle to help keep dust down someone here metioned oiling the coal to keep dust down and sounds like a great idea. So the dust issues sounding better.

Looking at for sale ads around here from the usual suspects online I have found many Chubby and Oak stoves that are short and squat with a rear outlet and require too much floor space. There seems to be sme very poor lokking and very industrial cast iron boxes for sale along with a couple of Godins in various states of broken and a Russo along with some VC stoves in the 600 range. there were a couple of Citations though seem to defy the round firepot thing. there are a few pot belly ones that might work size wise but have no idea how useful. There are a few very old stoves going at a premium but many listed as display only with a laundry list of reasons not to fire them.

Is there a size limit to pictures and is it ok to link to a website that has a stove tosell and save some room here? I do not want to step on aa advertizers toes and hope that makes sense.

Dave