My Crane Coal Cooker 88 ( Like a 44 but Taller)

This will be my "blog" on My Crane Coal Cooker 88 I bought on New Years Day 2014. Easy date to remember for future ha ha

I will include everything from its history to setup to operation and my thoughtless dribble too. But for those wanting to give one a go its a great coal stove. Seems like quite a workhorse.

Stay tuned more to come.

EDIT. Everything here is actually about My #88. I guess it's actually a rare stove... Just taller than the 44. But I will still continue. I originally thought and told it was a 44

Jim D
Belchertown Ma

Congratulations on your new stove. I'm sure Mr. D Crane will be very happy to see another one being brought back into service. He is also very eager to share his knowledge and experience with all about coal. I think the "Crane users club" gets a little more attention though.

Day 2 with my 88... Still humming along, wife called me and she said she added a couple scoops of coal, I don't think she needed to, I told her just open the bottom vent about 1 turn... That got things a bit warmer for her

So let's back up a few weeks.
This may be redundant to some who read my posts on another topic but.....

I started into this whole coal thing with the want of getting my little pot bellied wood stove hooked up in our living room, I was going to uses it for just added comfort when we are in there.

Then I found out it was designed for coal...cool! Let's try it

No experience with coal, grew up with wood and even had a wood boiler for a while. Which now I realize had a shaker grate in it and I could have ran coal all those years instead of 10 cord of wood

So I got the stove all hooked up... Ran some wood through it then learning here I tried the coal... Wow hot stuff but great!
Until I saw the crack in the back of the stove, no refractory inside where the coal sits...just up against the cast iron.... Yeah I probably am the one who over fired the sucker and stressed it out..... Well good thing I saw it and didn't possibly have it crack more and spill its hot guts out onto the hearth!!!!

More to come

My pot bellied stove fit the living room just right. I installed stainless triple wall dura vent out the wall. So after finding the crack in the pot belly it was time to find a new Coal stove

Great site here at NEPA crossroads. . I posted and found one ASAP from Skobydog.... Ran up to his place, checked it out and bought it on the spot!!!

Here is the new Used Crane 88 being put in place New Years Day

Getting the Crane 88 going wasn't hard at all... Opened the adjustable draft vent in the lower door all the way. Then opened the Manual Pipe Damper (MPD) all the way...mine points down when open Then just started a fire with newspaper and some kindling... Let it build up adding more kindling and small pieces of hardwood .... Let that burn add a few bigger pieces of hardwood, letting the wood make a bed of hot coals.

After I had maybe 2" or more of hot wood coals I then added a scoop of nut coal.
I let that catch still keeping the draft vent and damper both open.

Letting that coal I added get to red hot coals I then added another scoop or two. Letting it catch and start creating the signature blue flame burning of the gasses. Continued soon

whow! stop the presses!.... what you have their Jim is a very rare model 88 (all parts, function, design is the same in both the 44 & 88 so no worries their). 88 holds more coal

Is that the Model 44's big brother? 80K BTU's perhaps?

lsayre wrote:Is that the Model 44's big brother? 80K BTU's perhaps?

see, larry knows its the big bro... its rated at 60k (underrated by today's none methodology), either way it can certainly make that pot belly look like a tonka toy (its a stove that can indeed be brought down to bear though because of its cylindrical shape and deep bed), unlike bringing a large flat football field down to bear (which is much harder)... its more akin to typical style/size of a parlor stove coal bed.

BAZINGA ! You mean I hit the lottery??? I know this thing cranks but sweet!!!!!

Of course if that's the case my whole blog is bunk.. Ha ha. I will have to edit

Tell me more !!! About it

JimD wrote:BAZINGA ! You mean I hit the lottery??? I know this thing cranks but sweet!!!!!

Tell me more !!!

well... because the 88 was not made to fit a fireplace and it was a lot more money (mainly because of the firebrick it has) and it was not designed until well after the 44 yet just prior to the 404 ... only about 500 were made (where as their were prolly like 40,000 44's made)... so that gives you some indication of its rarity

Looks nice. Be careful with clearance on the blanket.

Whats the burn time on an 88? That spot was made for a stove of this size. your going to love it for sure.

Yeah lol the blanket was moved after the picture....once it got started...

I am willing to bet I get a 12-14 hour burn if left alone

So is it worth more than 100 bucks?

Jim

What are the firebox dimensions. I'm becoming a big fan of determining the BTU rating (American Style, for Europe divide by 2) by multiplying the internal firebox square inches x 375. Inside of firebrick to inside of firebrick.

Ditto for the baby brother Model 44.

If the firebox is square or rectangular: L x W x 375 = Maximum BTU's

If the firebox is round: radius squared x 3.1416 x 375 = Maximum BTU's

Larry. It's running right now so can't stick a tape in it but I think its around a foot and round

lsayre wrote:What are the firebox dimensions. I'm becoming a big fan of determining the BTU rating (American Style, for Europe divide by 2) by multiplying the internal firebox square inches x 375. Inside of firebrick to inside of firebrick.

Ditto for the baby brother Model 44.

If the firebox is square or rectangular: L x W x 375 = Maximum BTU's

If the firebox is round: radius squared x 3.1416 x 375 = Maximum BTU's

Does the depth have anything to do with the formula or just square inches? interesting