Benefits of a Hand Fired Stove

My brother has a big hand-fed Hitzer in his basement, and it sits right next to an EFM stoker boiler...so I think he is well qualified to comment on the differences. He summed it up admirably by saying "When I was heating the house with the Hitzer even the coffee mugs in the kitchen cabinet were warm. That was his way of saying that the radiant heat warms every board and object that it can reach...I call it the nuclear reactor feeling. Of course there is another side to that coin, and that is the second story bedrooms in his house were very cold when using just the stove...it simply wasn't possible to distribute the heat that far.

Benefits of hand-fed stove: Cheap to buy, cheap to install, reliable, no electric required, and comfortable radiant heat.

Downsides: More frequent tending required, limited distribution of heat throughout the home, can overheat the house on warm afternoons.

It's not just heat to me. If that were the case I would just have a thermostat on the wall and be done with it. I've worked with a few boilers in my life, even the ones that roll on wheels, so; I have some perspective to work from. Even if I didn't need one, I would have a stove.
There is a connection to something internal that gets satisfaction from doing something with your own hands. There is also a connection to the ancestors, and a point of warmth and life that draws people together. There is also the feeling of mastering your own environment that can't be rendered from automatic systems.

wsherrick wrote:There is also a connection to the ancestors, and a point of warmth and life that draws people together. There is

wsherrick wrote: There is also the feeling of mastering your own environment that can't be rendered from automatic systems.

Beautifully put. And by putting it to use that dead artifact comes to life again reminding us of how we got here by the struggles and innovation of those who have gone before us. Antique machine tools and clocks have much the same property.

Not in accord when said that a hand fired stove can't send heat in ALL the ENTIRE house.
In fact no heating unit can send heat in all the house except if:
having some heat transfert device like a fan, a central blower (air handler), ductwork ..........like central heat system, base board in every room..........
So if having a hand fired stove coupled to a good warm air Handler, the entire house can be at the same temperature, even if having a 3 levels house and the stove installed on the midle level. Warm air can be send to the upper floor as to the downstair floor. But a system able to do that should be calibrated with great care....A bigger central blower, working only as an air mover( a used unit can do the job) can run at a very low RPM while moving lot of warm air and being less noisy. Less noise than a stove's blower.
Anth burning having a so steady heat output, it becomes easy to send that warm air everywhere in the house while the stove runs at a moderate rate.

We know a lot about your modifications to your Vigilant but only a little bit about your air handling system. Can you give some basics about what you learned and built? As far as I know you are the only poster who has carried air handling this far.

Hey SMITTY, how much did you sell the Harman Mark III for?................bet yah' won't

Have you ever been in a discussion with the significant other and you can feel things slippin' away and you need time to gather your thoughts...well that's when you say "honey hold that thought I gotta' go tend the stove"

nortcan wrote:Not in accord when said that a hand fired stove can't send heat in ALL the ENTIRE house.
In fact no heating unit can send heat in all the house except if:
having some heat transfert device like a fan, a central blower (air handler), ductwork ..........like central heat system, base board in every room..........
So if having a hand fired stove coupled to a good warm air Handler, the entire house can be at the same temperature, even if having a 3 levels house and the stove installed on the midle level. Warm air can be send to the upper floor as to the downstair floor. But a system able to do that should be calibrated with great care....A bigger central blower, working only as an air mover( a used unit can do the job) can run at a very low RPM while moving lot of warm air and being less noisy. Less noise than a stove's blower.
Anth burning having a so steady heat output, it becomes easy to send that warm air everywhere in the house while the stove runs at a moderate rate.

I should have said that hand fired stoves have limited heat distribution capabilities without the use of electric.

To each their own, but for me the silence and off-grid capability are two of the largest benefits of a hand fired stove.

And about the thread question:
Nothing can beat an antique anth stove...to my own opinion.
Steady heat output, no elecricity, easy and very clean to use, mine have radiant and convection warm air transfert, and are showing to us that these guys could make very good and complicated cast iron stoves without modern tools like laser, computer...almost 100 parts for a Baltimore Heater and it works
One other thing: they have refinement

Rob R. wrote: To each their own, but for me the silence and off-grid capability are two of the largest benefits of a hand fired stove.

Yep

Rob R. wrote:

nortcan wrote:Not in accord when said that a hand fired stove can't send heat in ALL the ENTIRE house.
In fact no heating unit can send heat in all the house except if:
having some heat transfert device like a fan, a central blower (air handler), ductwork ..........like central heat system, base board in every room..........
So if having a hand fired stove coupled to a good warm air Handler, the entire house can be at the same temperature, even if having a 3 levels house and the stove installed on the midle level. Warm air can be send to the upper floor as to the downstair floor. But a system able to do that should be calibrated with great care....A bigger central blower, working only as an air mover( a used unit can do the job) can run at a very low RPM while moving lot of warm air and being less noisy. Less noise than a stove's blower.
Anth burning having a so steady heat output, it becomes easy to send that warm air everywhere in the house while the stove runs at a moderate rate.

I should have said that hand fired stoves have limited heat distribution capabilities without the use of electric.

To each their own, but for me the silence and off-grid capability are two of the largest benefits of a hand fired stove.

I invite you Rob to come home, sit in the living room, in front of the stove (Baltimore 1874) and if you hear some fan/blower noise, I pay you a beer while the 3 levels are at the same temp.

Lightning wrote:I love my hand fed. I think there is some art and finesse that goes into operating one. It's rewarding to me

Very true Lightning, got my hands on some pea size coal ( honest mistake ) and I wanted to start the burning. Normally the pea coal would fall through the grates so yesterday I crossed the road to interrupt my neighbor throwing his 8 cord of wood through his basement window and asked for a few chunks. I loaded up the stove with maple and birch and lit her up and covered the grates with a nice bed of charcoal and loaded the pea and everything in my house is between 75*-80*, I am ready to put the light bulb inside the oil burner! It feels good to conquer cold, woke up this morning to 20* outside inside niccccccce.

First of all, I will drink your beer regardless of the noise level of the Baltimore.

I have no doubt that you have your system "dialed in". However, are you using the air handler to keep the temperature even through out the structure?

Eventually I'll get a coal boiler probably stoker, but for now I love my Glenwood. Enjoy sitting by it with a cup of coffee and wondering what life must have been like 100 years ago. I always enjoyed playing with fire. I poke and prod my fire during reloading, no problems yet. Same fire for eight days now. Plus I like things simple. Shake, load readjust air, done. I can wait a little longer before I have to worry about feed rate, idle time, etc. Plus I'm still learning about plumbing. I'm still a beginner. To each his own. Matt

Rob R. wrote:First of all, I will drink your beer regardless of the noise level of the Baltimore.

I have no doubt that you have your system "dialed in". However, are you using the air handler to keep the temperature even through out the structure?

The blower is used for pulling the warm air from the faux-foyer then send it to the basement and a small part to a small living room. Runs 24/24 at very low RPM and the motor is outside of the blower's cage to reduce the noise. I got a bigger blower so it can turn at a very low speed while moving a lot more warm air to downstair( harder to send warm air down)
The electric central air handler runs 24/24 at a very low speed to reduce noise and be able to drink that beer in the ""sound of silence""
Entire house/rooms at the same temp + - one degree , 2,200 Sq Ft.

franco b wrote:We know a lot about your modifications to your Vigilant but only a little bit about your air handling system. Can you give some basics about what you learned and built? As far as I know you are the only poster who has carried air handling this far.

Hi Franco, there are some détails about the air distribution in the house at:
Venting/ plumbing/Chimneys/Controls/Coal Bins.///Co detector with ability to shut off power.