Coalpail.com Forum

Does anyone have some experience with coal circulators? I was looking at the U.S. Stove BCAC Circulator as featured here: https://www.usstove.com/index.php?route=product/p ... uct_id=508
Are circulators good stoves? It seems like they've been around a long time, I saw a ton of them on Craigs last year. Do they put out the same BTUs as a Chubby Sr? Manual says 105K BTU, but that seems way too high for such a small fire box. Will they run 12 hours like chubby or my Jotul 507? Good, bad, or ugly? Let's hear it!

I think the only advantage of a circulator stove is reduced clearance to combustibles.

The burning and heat exchange efficiency would still be dependent on the design although the heat exchange might be slightly more efficient because of the increased air flow velocity.

If you put a sheet metal box with air holes around your Jotul it would then become a circulator stove but would burn with the same characteristics.

The fire box and grate design of the stove you illustrate is probably far less than ideal. The high BTU rating only means that it is possible by greatly over firing. Not very practical.

Ah the Ashley. One of the stoves of my childhood. Many, many people have these in the South. It is principally an inexpensive, sheet steel wood stove, with some bricks put in it. It can have grates for coal and I have seen these used for coal plenty of times. They aren't really suited for it. The air space under the long bar grates is very shallow and the ash pan is undersized. This leads to ash quickly building up under the grates which causes them to warp very quickly.
Another problem is the loading door is on the side and therefore cleaning out under the grates in the back corners is nearly impossible with a fire going. This leads to the grates on the far end to get ruined quickly as well.

Seeing many of these being on Craig's List is an indicator of what the original owners think of them.

Please save yourself a lot of trouble and don't buy one. I had a US stove company wondercoal. It was uncontrollable granted I used soft coal in it, I had to comtrol the fire by how much coal I put in it and as im sure you know coal doesnt like to burn that way.

For the $1,400 dollar price of this stove you can certainly find one that would be a lot more satisfactory and a lot easier to operate. If you let us know more about the house and what you are wanting out of the stove, then it would be a lot easier to advise you as to the best fit for your needs.

Thanks wsherrick, I have 3 stoves right now capable of burning coal. My U.S. Army Cannon heater has moved to storage in my garage because it is simply too monsterous in size and BTU output to run in my raised ranch low ceilings. To put it in perspective my parents heated their 3800 SQ Ft colonial with atrium celings with that stove for 20 years without ever turning on the gas heat. They burned cords and cords of wood. Also, the shaker action on that stove is a dump-grate meant more for burning wood. Depsite my best efforts, I haven't found any way to replace or improve the shaker action for burning coal in it.

My Jotul 507 is what I used last year, and it did an outstanding job. In the end, that stove has an 8 inch round grate which based on calculations found elsewhere on this forum approximates to 31K BTU. It simply didn't have the horsepower to keep up on nights where the temps dropped below 20 degrees. But, all-in-all, I LOVE that stove and its design. The rotating grate and crank shaker handle made it very easy to operate. I just wish they were still produced and that someone would make a larger version of it.

And my most recent aquisition is a Chubby Sr. I've rebuilt it completely (I have a post on that). It has a 12 inch round grate which should get me to the 50K BTU output that I need to keep up with cold temps. The downside is that the shaker action is not as good as easy as the Jotul, and it will burn more coal than my Jotul but that's expected with the increased output.

That said, I'm always looking at other coal stoves and like to get opinions from this forum on them. The circulator seems like it's been around a long time so I wanted to see what everyone thought of it. A thanks to all your opinions!

Many antique stoves have radiant heat but some also have the convection heating, double heater... In the past, they got all the ""new"" ways to move the heated air.

How about buy another 507 if that is possible with your set up? Freddy and the snowman used multiple 507s. To own one is to be in love but I agree the BTU output is small and when it's cold it's easy to become a stove mistress. I'm replacing mine this winter with a Hitzer 50-93. For that money there are many better options especially if you are prepared to consider used. I bought my used Hitzer for $500 and it will run rings around the Ashley in my application.

Interesting. I thought about getting a second Jotul, but figured it would put my coal usage upwards of 40-50 lbs a day combined. There are so many happy Chubby fans out there, it seems like a good choice for a little extra output at hopefully 30-35lb a day. Only time and cold weather will tell. Im looking forward to giving it a run this fall, and I plan to post a good evaluation and comparison between the two.

I bet this circulator is awesome: http://www.amishcoalstoves.com/5262/5304.html
Looks pretty well built but maintains circulator design principles.