Cookin' With Coal

lsayre wrote:I just chatted with Lehman's Hardware (which isn't too far from me) and their 'Bakers Choice' cook stove can work with anthracite, but their 'Pioneer Princess' cook stove is a wood only proposition.

Yes, those two stoves are made by the Amish and are very utilitarian. If you are looking for a "pretty" stove, these might not be what you are looking for.

One other thing I forgot to mention.

As far as savings. For the 8 years I've been using this coal range, it has been averaging 3 tons of nut coal per year, for the 9 month long heating season here. But that's not all the savings. By using a coal kitchen range as a heat source for the back half of the house, it not only cut my fuel oil bill a lot, I also don't have to pay for 9 months worth of LP for my modern cook stove and clothes dryer.

Right off the left side of the range is the door to the pantry/laundry room. I put up clothes lines in there enough to hang up a large load of laundry. With heavy work jeans are dry the next morning. A few minutes in the dryer on the cool setting, to tumble the stiffness out of the clothes, is all I use the dryer for.

And, that drying laundry indoors helps cut down on the winter dry air in the house. So I don't have the cost and hassle of running a humidifier for months either as I had to do because one of my daughter's has asthma.

Within the first few years, the stove, flue pipes, and lumber for the coal bin were paid for by what I saved on fuel oil, or LP for cooking and the clothes dryer.

Paul

You have neglected to mention one more item that can save a whole lot. Using a waterfront and a storage tanke heated by thermal convection. I have the set up and one only needs to run the hot water heater during the time of year that the range is not being used. It makes plenty of hot water for a household at about 0 cost.

WOW, What a great thread! You should change the title to Cooking With Coal so as to help assist google searches 100 years from now...

coalturkey wrote:You have neglected to mention one more item that can save a whole lot. Using a waterfront and a storage tanke heated by thermal convection. I have the set up and one only needs to run the hot water heater during the time of year that the range is not being used. It makes plenty of hot water for a household at about 0 cost.

Not sure I could do that with this kitchen range. Can you post pictures of your setup ?

I still have the coal-fired hot water heater that was in this house when I bought it. Grates look terrific and the rest of it seems to just needs sandblasting and paint. I was thinking of hooking it back up in the cellar just to use as a heater, but I found out that without water in the jacket it may crack.

May be worth figuring out where/how to plumb it back in someday.

Paul

Photog200 wrote:It is good to see a thread on the cook stoves! SteveZee and I talked about starting a thread on starting one a while back but we never did get one going. We both did a conversion on our stoves so that we can burn coal in them. Actually I think SteveZee did do a thread on his conversion project.

As Paul mentioned, I do have a nice Colonial Clarion cook stove which I currently have hooked up in my garage. My plans are to put on an addition to my house and have a summer kitchen with the stove located there. I actually prefer to cook on this stove than on the new $2,000.00 stove I just bought for my kitchen. For me, the learning curve has been the oven but I think I have learned what I was doing wrong. Since I did the conversion to coal grates, I can now burn either wood or coal in it but it does handle completely differently. (another learning curve) My stove is set up very much like Paul's with the chambers/smoke path. The two things that differ on our stoves is he has a water reservoir and mine does not. Mine has a roll top warming oven and Paul's does not. The warming oven is the nicest invention...I use it to defrost, raise bread, keep food warm when cooking a big dinner.

I really liked using the stove for all of my canning this year. It kept the heat and mess out of my kitchen.

I did post a photo on the other thread but will re-post again on this one.
Randy

Another plus for your stove, . . it has an oven temp gauge on the outside of the oven door. That came a few years later on the Sunny Glenwoods than mine. I have a modern oven thermometer sitting inside the oven, but a lot of the heat goes out everytime I have to open the door to check temps. As I mentioned to you in PM I'm kicking around ides to have an external oven temp readout, . . somehow.

Paul

Double post - opps !
Paul

Paul and Randy thank you. I usually go off topic myself. Very interesting. I don't think I could convince the wife to break away from her modern stove, but it would be cool to have one. I like the idea of the extra cooking capacity around the hoilidays. Baking a turkey in one stove and pies in another. It would be nice during power outages too. Another thing they just look good. Thanks for the new topic. I'm sure people will enjoy it. Matt

DePippo79 wrote:Paul and Randy thank you. I usually go off topic myself. Very interesting. I don't think I could convince the wife to break away from her modern stove, but it would be cool to have one. I like the idea of the extra cooking capacity around the hoilidays. Baking a turkey in one stove and pies in another. It would be nice during power outages too. Another thing they just look good. Thanks for the new topic. I'm sure people will enjoy it. Matt

When I was still married, I would not have been able to convince my wife to get one of these stoves either. However, since I am single now, I can do what I want and buy what I want. There are some drawbacks to being single to, but that is for a completely different forum!

For me, the only drawback with this stove is the time it takes to get the fire going and heating up the stove. (especially for coffee in the morning) If I had it going 24/7 like Paul does, that issue would go away because the stove would always be hot. I just don't want to go through 3 tons of coal when the stove is just in my garage. In the dead of winter, I do keep a fire going out there because I don't want stuff to freeze.
Matt, you are right about nice to have two ovens! I have made very large meals when I have had guests over and for the most part, the cook stove handles everything nicely. If you do want to bake different things, it is perfect to have two ovens.

Randy

Yup, same here Randy. My city girl ex-wife would have never allowed a coal range in HER kitchen !!!!

Lucky me, the girl friend is a country girl. Her parents house (a large, old house like mine), had the coal range for cooking and also heating the back half of the house. And, a coal parlor stove for the front half of the house. With a coal bin off the pantry at the back of the house.

Our first Thanks Giving with the Glenwood, was shortly after I got it. We used both ovens. We (me) were still learning how to keep constant temps in it by juggling the dampers (turned out to be simpler than I thought). The girl friend decided it was safer to cook the turkey in the gas stove oven. Everything else got cooked in/on the Glenwood. Turned out terrific !

Since then, we (me again) have learned more about the Glenwood and we use it for all the cooking/baking. Even I bake using the Glenwood's oven. And sometimes it's even eatable !

Yes, it's nice having the stove always going. I really get spoiled. I keep a large Copco stainless steel kettle on the stove. It looks like an antique tea kettle and it's base is large enough to cover the round plates to quickly soak up heat. I keep it filled and always on the middle back burner. That spot keeps it just below a boil but steams enough to help cut down on winter dry air. I was going to get one of the cast iron steamers, but I didn't like how some rust very easily. And, it's really nice always having hot water ready for a hot beverage.

The girl friend and I both drink instant coffee. When I come down in the morning the water in the kettle is the perfect temp for instant coffee (or tea). And if I've been out working in the cold, just the right temp for a cup of hot chocolate. During the nine months the stove runs I really get spoiled. Come warm weather and the Glenwood is shut down, I go back to using the gas stove. I find myself missing not having to wait for the gas stove to heat up the kettle.

Paul

Sunny Boy wrote:After getting LDPosse's thread, "Oak" stoves vs modern "box" stoves, off track by throwing kitchen ranges into the "heating efficiency" mix, I'd like to first, apologize to LDPosse, . . and second, answer some more kitchen range questions that have been raised by as suggested, starting a new thread. Which I should have done before. Sorry LDPosse.

No problem, interesting stuff here!

lsayre wrote:Pardon my ignorance here, but do coal fired cook stoves burn anthracite or bituminous coal? And is anyone still producing coal fired cook stoves?

Hitzer used to make a cookstove too. Ive seen them on CL but Im not sure if they burn coal. A lot of cookstoves burn coal but I think mostly bit.

Ive got an old 1930ish Magestic I used to use. Once on a bet, I loaded a cold stove with real small wood, lit it and looked at the clock. 30 minutes later I pulled out a cooked Tombstone (only 10 minutes to cook one of them). It was perfect wood for the job but it shows how quick they can warm up the oven. When I used it for heating, with the fire wrapping around the oven and going out the bottom, and the oven door open to release the heat, the bottom little door under the oven open to slow the burn, I doubt I ever had a more efficient wood heater. But with the smaller firebox, even though I had enlarged it, it wouldnt have much heat left after burning overnight, if any at all.

I made whole wheat bread in mine tonight...turned out nice too!

warminmn, you are correct about them heating up quick and it does not take much fire to keep that oven hot either.

Whats a "cooked Tombstone?"

PJT wrote:Whats a "cooked Tombstone?"

I would imagine a Tombstone brand frozen pizza.