Coalpail.com Forum

Just curious if anyone has one of these, and how it's been for you?

This is similar. Not the one I'm looking at specifically. The one I'm looking at is from a local dealer.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/US-Stove-3-000-sq-ft- ... e9fbcc3174

Have you considered a coal boiler? Those cast iron baseboards deserve it!

michaelanthony wrote: ↑

Thu. Oct. 26, 2017 9:44 pm

Have you considered a coal boiler? Those cast iron baseboards deserve it!

I'm debating it.I haven't ruled it out but the boiler seems like more of a hassle. I like the idea of running ductwork then I can instal central air.

It won't seem like such a hassel when you're sitting in a chair grinning yourself to high Heaven.

I doubt that one can find many users of this stove who would buy another one for burning coal.Why waste your money on a unit that will require lots of patience & give you lots of frustrations too.
Many who buy these cheap units are short term coal burners..
Short term because they get frustrated & claim that COAL is just too much work & aggravation..
They won't generally admit that the CHEAP unit they bought was the real reason.

The blowers on that furnace will only move enough air for a 2 ton A/C (24000 btu). If your house needs more cooling you will not use this furnace.

David

I didn't realize this was considered a cheap unit. What would be a good usefull unit? Hitzer/DS Stoves? I think Hitzer has blower model units. I'm conflicted I could put in a boiler but i'm out of business if we lose power. I could put in a regular stove too, Hitzer 50-93 comes to mind. I figured if I was gonna have central air installed I might as well have something I can use the ducts to blow the heat around. I saw the US Stoves unit at a Hardware store in VT, it looks robust. The only concerns I had for coal burning are the slanted walls.

I have a fairly well insulated 1959 ranch. 1800 sqft upstairs and about the same in the basement. The basement is unfinished however Im not opposed to heating my work area down there.

Would a Hitzer Furnace be a better bet? http://hitzer.com/our-products/stoves-furnaces/model-82

ASea wrote: ↑

Fri. Oct. 27, 2017 11:28 am

I didn't realize this was considered a cheap unit. What would be a good usefull unit? Hitzer/DS Stoves? I think Hitzer has blower model units. I'm conflicted I could put in a boiler but i'm out of business if we lose power. I could put in a regular stove too, Hitzer 50-93 comes to mind. I figured if I was gonna have central air installed I might as well have something I can use the ducts to blow the heat around. I saw the US Stoves unit at a Hardware store in VT, it looks robust. The only concerns I had for coal burning are the slanted walls.

I have a fairly well insulated 1959 ranch. 1800 sqft upstairs and about the same in the basement. The basement is unfinished however Im not opposed to heating my work area down there.

Would a Hitzer Furnace be a better bet? http://hitzer.com/our-products/stoves-furnaces/model-82

Hitzer & DS offer quality coal burners,many opinions will be offered on both of those.
Furnace or boiler without power is no difference,unless you are going to hand crank the blower. LOL
A handfed stove is optimal for no power situations & the 50-93 has many happy users.

The "only concern was the slanted fire pot walls "

The slanted walls alone make it totally undesirable, the grade of metal used vs what the good brands use is another undesirable.

ASea - I'll give you some feedback from someone who has used a similar stove although a multi-fuel design.
I have a HB1557m. It burns wood and soft coal (bit). It actually burns both of those 2 fuels very well. I use eastern KY bit in mine.
As an add on furnace in my 100+ year old home it does a really god job.
I can and have burned anthracite in my stove. My stove required some modifications to burn anthracite successfully.
The absolute biggest challenge to burning anthracite in my stove is the shaker grate configuration. It does an awful job of clearing ash from an anthracite fire. It will clear wood ash and bit ash just fine.
I have 2 rocker style grates that shake side to side. In this new 1602r stove that is designed specifically to burn coal only, the grates are designed more like grates in traditional anthracite stoves. See page 10 and page 16 in the manual (click this link to the manual http://www.usstove.com/index.php?route=product/ca ... path=72_76 ).
This leads me to believe that US Stove has done some research while designing this new stove.
These grates will actually fit in my stove. When I come up with an extra $200, I may consider buying them ad switching them out.
Member Lightning on this forum runs a Clayton 1600 stove and burns anthracite in his - and burns it as efficiently as anyone on this forum in a hand-fired stove near as I can tell. He has made several modifications to his stove in order to burn anthracite. But, in my opinion and based on first hand experience, the only modifications necessary to have relative success burning anthracite in my stove and what appears to be a very similarly designed in the 1602r, is to block the liners in the front and back of the firebox with some insulation to force all of the air up through the fire bed. This isn't quite as desirable with bit coal (you need secondary air) BUT, is a necessity for burning anthracite. I say that assuming this 1602r with the newer designed grate assembly will effectively clear the ash.
I would be curious to hear Ligtning's opinion about this 1602r stove. It looks to me like his Clayton and this new stove are very similar, if not maybe even identical, with the exception of the grates. Maybe he will chime in at some point...
There are others that have similar stoves on here that find them incredibly challenging. Larry Foster has several threads on here that will scare you away from ever walking near this type of stove. He has some flue/draft and poor quality bit coal issues that complicate his efforts...

With all that said - If I were looking to buy an appliance to burn strictly anthracite, in my opinion, there are other proven stoves out there that are priced similarly that would provide more reliable and easier to use service.
This newer designed 1602r may turn out to be a fantastic stove - But someone will need to give her a test drive and see...

I do like this stove, I'm sure it's a step up from what we're using. It appears heavily built and has bigger blowers. The slope of the fire bricks are much steeper than ours and the grate clearing area looks wider too. Both these aspects would be beneficial with anthracite.

My stove is identical to yours. I'd be curious if the shaker system in the 1602R would fit in our stoves.

I have heard that the linkage connecting to the grates can get squirrelly and the pivot point that the shaker handle leverages against gets wore out and has to be replaced. I'm not sure but I think that entails a welding job.

You are probably right to say that there are better stoves for the same money, provided that they also have the plenum adaptability and blower size.

That's about all I can say about this unit.

In my mind, the perfect furnace would have the DS or Hitzer shaker system, vertical fire brick with fuel bed that can hold 120 pounds easily, a big fire view window with air wash, preheated secondary air tubes, a damper style that provides a low exhaust port with no baffles, heat exchanger tubes and a blower with variable speed up to 1800 cfm, and prepared for at least two water coils.

Time to get building?