Please Help Me!

rocky wrote:Can't do a basement install, I ain't got no basement. Single level, stove will be in the living room. I'm a little worried about the dust but the wood can be messy to.

Some of the people in here have come up with very effective ways of dealing with coal dust. I've seen everything from sliding ashpan covers, to vacuum cleaners into water, to hand spray bottles of water to keep the dust settled.

I never had a problem with dust with my hand fed stove. Just be careful. It really isn't that bad

Welcome Rocky,I once was a wood burner too until I found the same thing you found(Nepa Crossroads) I switch and have never looked back and I'm sure you will feel the same way . Lots of info here so don't get to crazy all at once it will come over time ,coal is only messy if you make it and like the others have said It's easy to deal with once you get a routine down.
If you have any fears of being dirty this pic should calm you,my stove is in my finished family room on the lower level which is used daily. You have time to think about what kind and brand stove you want so take your time and ask for opinions trust me you will never run out of them here , Take care.

Keepaeyeonit

Like C12 said R, as far as dust, etc--the only REAL solution is to plan your approach & do it slowly & carefully. No need for a bunch of silly things. I dust my house every week on or off burning season & I think my 3 Labs & myself bring in way more dust, barn chafe, etc then the old 50-93 ever has:) Pix are kinda froggy, but give ya an idea all that's in my stove room.

Hi Rocky and welcome to the forum. Anthracite burning is cleaner than wood burning.
But you have to empty the ash pan once a day (for most peoples). If done correctly, it's not a dust issue.
I have 2 hand fire stoves and they are on the main floor, better than woo on all aspect, but the wood get a nice burning look.

Nortcan-

Whats your wife doing sitting in the CATS chair??? He must have terrific balance though...

PJT wrote:Nortcan-

Whats your wife doing sitting in the CATS chair??? He must have terrific balance though...

Guess who is the boss here

Nice pics. I enjoyed looking at all of them.

I share this little place on the side of the hill with a wife, two kids, three dogs and a cat. We seem to always be dealing with dust or mud so a carefully handled ash pan shouldn't be much of a problem. Like Fred, we probably track more in than the stove can create so theres constant cleaning going on here anyway.

While nothing to do with coal that is some nice millwork / trim around the fireplace.

You guys are way neater than me ! You'll be fine , I think ( coal is dirty) rep came from bit coal usage , .

Norcan I sure hope the first one with all the bright work has a stack pipe hidden behind it. It would be a shame to have it just be a decoration though does qualify as art in my house as does my Dad's WWII uniform and decorations along with his bayonet. I wonder if he brought back his rifle and sidearm too but sold them when he sold all his other guns in the 60's? Any that polished beauty is crying for a fire in it's belly in my eyes. I think of any well made machine like a work horse they have their own graceful lines can get it done attitude and suspect from a couple of years working on a farm ages ago that still had a couple of work horses they seemed to get a bit antsy if nothing for them to do. I have only seen pictures of them pulling plows and really leaning in hard doing serious work and seemed to have a quiet confidence that it was no problem like and 18 wheel steam locomotive pulling a string of coal cars as far as the eye could see.

Ok, did someone forget to tell him he has to put three screws in his stove pipe? If so I'll be the first to mention it. I know that it will happen when the install thread comes about.

sharkman

Don't worry about the dust. You will find a way to work the stove to minimize that. My first years were horribly dusty but then I developed a way to shake the stove so that I can do it with the doors closed and still see the tell tale glow of red in the ash pan that indicates it's been shaken enough. I also stopped my teen age male slave from emptying the coal bags from waist high into the "muck" buckets I use to store coal inside in. Now I just put the entire bag in the "muck" bucket. If I notice that a bag of coal is dustier than the others, I'll hover the nozzle of the wet/vac over coal while I scoop it up. I do the same thing over the air controller as I shake the stove to catch any escaping fly ash. Those little changes have made significant decreases in the amount of dust we have in the house due to the coal stove. In fact, DK and I were talking about this today and agree that the dogs are a bigger dust producer than the stove is.

Anyway, don't worry about the dust. I think you'll find the benefits of the stove far outweigh the negative of the dust. Take care, Lisa