Hitzer 354, how hot?

You all are so awesome!
So if I get the 354 with a heat shield, will that keep me from needing to install a heat shield on the wall behind it? The 55 and 82 needed a 36" clearance, I thought I was going to need to clad my wall with 24 gauge corrugated metal with 1 inch ceramic standoffs to meet some standards; so I could get the space behind it closer to 12 inches... Which I don't mind, I think it might look kinda cool.

newheatcoalwood wrote: ↑

Tue. Oct. 12, 2021 1:29 pm

Thank you for that confirmation.
The lady at the manufacturer said that when she cooks food in hers, she uses wood, but coal for heating.
I think our house is big enough to absorb the extra heat from "cooking" especially if it is only for those really cold or wet days that you don't want to cook outside.
The cabin I lived in for a year with my parents and lil sis was about 16x20. That earth stove wood roast me sometimes. Especially because my room was in the loft.
The Amish fella said as much about the heat. He says they will throw a log or two on for a burst of heat, then coal to maintain a reasonable temp.

The only issue with that line of thinking is that once you get coal going...it's going. That stove will easily hold 80 lbs of nut coal...and once going...it's going to go for days even if all you do is shake it down. Hard to know when a power outage will occur. See what I'm getting at. I modified my stove to hold over 100lbs of nut coal.

My point is, when the power goes out...if you get a radiant model...then it won't matter which fuel you have in the stove at that time. The stove top will still likely be more than hot enough to cook off of, and especially boil water. So, that said, with a radiant model you won't have to worry about when the power goes out or which fuel you're burning. You can just roll with it and do what needs to be done.

If the home is newer ( I already forgot your description) and well insulated, then a 254 might work as well. That for certain will get hot enough to cook off it being a slightly smaller stove. Again, it also burns coal or wood, so fuel type, with regard to an outage or cooking, isn't an issue.

Shoulder seasons, use wood if you want and save the coal for the cold season. Or, just burn the coal and forget about it. It'll give you the easiest tending and most constant heat output at a set temperature.

One option Im almost surprised Hitzer doesnt offer is a cast iron top with removable lid (like on a cookstove) on the model 55 and 81. But I suppose that would involve new UL testing. Ive been thinking about doing that with my Riteway. It would be a great selling point.

My Riteway is roughly the same model as the 81. I have triple protection on my wall (I have it, why not use it) and my stove is maybe 15" from the wall (narrow side towards wall) and the wall doesnt even get mildly warm.

Starting out you may think your going to keep it 70 in the house but once you realize how simple it is to keep it 75 or 80, and if you or wife likes it warm, you will be cold if the temp falls below 75. Maybe half of us burners like it 75 or hotter. I used to sleep with my head 4 feet from my stove, lol If I wanted to be cold I'd buy propane.

warminmn wrote: ↑

Tue. Oct. 12, 2021 10:52 am

It doesnt sound like the blower model makes a very good humidifier not vaporizing water at all. (per Hoytmans post)

Least not at the temps I run my stove. I have no doubt that running my stove hotter that it will also boil water. Just not sure how hot the stove would be to get water to boil or to cook off of. BB would be in a better position to answer that than me.

newheatcoalwood wrote: ↑

Tue. Oct. 12, 2021 1:39 pm

You all are so awesome!
So if I get the 354 with a heat shield, will that keep me from needing to install a heat shield on the wall behind it? The 55 and 82 needed a 36" clearance, I thought I was going to need to clad my wall with 24 gauge corrugated metal with 1 inch ceramic standoffs to meet some standards; so I could get the space behind it closer to 12 inches... Which I don't mind, I think it might look kinda cool.

If you are building a new hearth then by all means build it to current code with air gaps behind for air flow.

If you already a hearth and don’t mind the looks of the corrugated metal behind the stove, then go ahead and do that.

Yes, having a stove built with a heat shield on it, along with the corrugated metal behind it may be over-kill, it certainly can’t hurt anything either and should be relatively cheap for Hitzer to do for you, considering how reasonable their parts pricing is.

It also afford you additional closer clearance spacing even with the corrugated metal and both off extra assurance and peace-of-mind knowing you have an additional heat shield to guard from the heat of a radiant stove.

You seen the pictures of my stove running 260+. Keep in mind my stove is a blower model...only part of the back of it is shielded. Now I will show you some pictures of how cool my wall runs while burning coal and measured right behind the UN-shielded section of the stove back.
Keep in mind this is in a blower model and my stove is 9” from the hearth wall.

My hand placement on the wall is directly behind the un-shielded section of my stove. You can see the partial shield where the blower moves cool air from down low in the floor and up the back and out the front of my stove. The air comes out just between the top of the stove and the gold trim piece above the doors. This will be eliminated on the radiant model.

warminmn wrote: ↑

Tue. Oct. 12, 2021 4:04 pm

Starting out you may think your going to keep it 70 in the house but once you realize how simple it is to keep it 75 or 80, and if you or wife likes it warm, you will be cold if the temp falls below 75. Maybe half of us burners like it 75 or hotter. I used to sleep with my head 4 feet from my stove, lol If I wanted to be cold I'd buy propane.

Soooo true. Frost forms on the inside of windows at 74°....

Hoytman wrote: ↑

Tue. Oct. 12, 2021 4:54 pm

F0902E2D-6CC3-4DCB-A73E-E6D949DB8E52.jpeg79372692-FE37-475A-9E90-BE13A5721541.jpegD0D768C5-8124-47E9-B48B-EE830AFCA772.jpeg

My hand placement on the wall is directly behind the un-shielded section of my stove. You can see the partial shield where the blower moves cool air from down low in the floor and up the back and out the front of my stove. The air comes out just between the top of the stove and the gold trim piece above the doors. This will be eliminated on the radiant model.

Now that's one Hot Dog!!!!!!!

In that picture I had just moved the stove into the house and NOT hooked the pipe up yet. Stove was empty. Molly was being nosy. LOL!

warminmn wrote: ↑

Tue. Oct. 12, 2021 4:04 pm

One option Im almost surprised Hitzer doesnt offer is a cast iron top with removable lid (like on a cookstove) on the model 55 and 81. But I suppose that would involve new UL testing. Ive been thinking about doing that with my Riteway. It would be a great selling point.

My Riteway is roughly the same model as the 81. I have triple protection on my wall (I have it, why not use it) and my stove is maybe 15" from the wall (narrow side towards wall) and the wall doesnt even get mildly warm.

Starting out you may think your going to keep it 70 in the house but once you realize how simple it is to keep it 75 or 80, and if you or wife likes it warm, you will be cold if the temp falls below 75. Maybe half of us burners like it 75 or hotter. I used to sleep with my head 4 feet from my stove, lol If I wanted to be cold I'd buy propane.

Warminmn, you bring up a point not mentioned so far with the idea of a stove top with lift out lid--there is a reason for that. My Vigilant 2 has no trouble coasting along at 700 degrees (I try to stay around 650 in cold weather) on the iron top, but when the top is around 400, an iron pot on top is not nearly that hot--eventually it may boil. The reason cook stoves had the lift out lids was so you could set a skillet or pot right over the hot coals rather than the cooler stove top. Mine has a griddle-top that serves as the top-load door, but the griddle itself is too hot to cook burgers or bacon and eggs on; we have to use a pan sitting on the griddle. That will be much cooler than the stove top, but sometimes an iron trivet is needed to keep a pot of stew or chili gently bubbling, once it comes to boil. So a stove top at 225 degrees would probably never boil a pot, though it might work like a crock pot 6-hour slow cooker. A big roaster pan with tight cover that covers a large part of the stove top could be effective with the bird or meat sitting on a rack over some water for long slow cooking.