Coalpail.com Forum

need some advise. currently I have a franco belge hand fed coal stove in my living room, never used coal stove before,it came with the house I just bought. 10.262 is the model number.pics attached. I think it is rated at 26,000 btu. my house is 2 stories open floor plan for the most part. 2100 square feet, I have all electric base board heat. I want a stove to heat the whole house.i don't think this stove is big enough to heat the house.i was looking at a ds 1500 stove,rated at 96,000 btu. also has a much bigger hopper than the franco, seems like the franco needs more attantion than the ds 1500 stove, as far as adding more coal and cleaning the ash pan. any thoughts if I should get the bigger stove? thanks. I am in bethlehem pa.

Get the DS...

Yes, you need a bigger stove.

No question about it. You will have that FB overfired continuously trying to heat that much space.

I have the DS1500 and am very pleased with it -- however, I would probably bite the bullet and get the DS1600 in your scenario. There really isn't any efficiency penalty for going too big on a coal stove. The DS is about as close as you can get to "set it and forget it" as you can get for something that is hand-fired. On the coldest days of the year, just shake 'er down about every 12 hours and top off the hopper. That's it!

The only gotcha in your situation, is you will need to move the crock of your chimney up a bit. That would be $$ well spent though. You would probably recover the entire cost of the stove and the masonry work in the first heating season, compared to running the electric baseboards.

Good luck!

i was quoted on the ds 1600 stove 1700.00 but that doesn't include install or mason work on the chimney. how, this stove has a real big fire box, does this mean it will burn alot more coal? also I was told that you don't go by the BTU rating of a stove as different companies rate stoves differently. my concern is the room where the stove will be will be like an oven and the upstairs will be real cool.

You have several options depending on how much money you care to spend.

If possible speak to the previous owner as to the effectiveness of the present stove. Also get from the electric company how much electricity was used.

Any stove will heat the area it is installed in more than outlying areas. You did say your floor plan is fairly open. Upstairs will be cooler.

You could consider getting the larger model of the same stove which would give you 7 or 8 thousand more BTU than the present stove with no hassle to connect. Would need 8 hour tending times rather than 12 and in the coldest part of the winter you might have to supplement with electric depending how tight and well insulated the house is.

franco b wrote:Yes, you need a bigger stove.

It is tired. Like my old Buderus those European stoves are a little small for most U.S. homes.

i am going to get a ds 1600 coal stove. the only problem is that I will have to seal up the hole in the chimney where the current stove is and put a hole higher so the new stove can hook up. so I guess I have to get a mason in to cut a 6 inch hole into the chimney. is this expensive? also looking for a company to deliver and install the stove.is there any companies that will cut the hole and install the new stove? I called 1 company and they said will deliver and install the stove but I would have to have someone else cut the hole in the chimney. chimney is brick with flu.does any one know of a company here in bethlehem pa that would do the whole job?

Coring company will do a nice job...
Mason can do too...
brick by brick...