What Stove Should I Buy.

McGiever wrote:Best see the boys over at "the Hearth"...your thinking is more inline w/ theirs.

Think Wood Gasifier.

We believe there is NO such thing as Free Wood!

well spoken...

either way, your home sounds like it will be fairly easy to heat (even the garage). A unit such as the one's Larry mentions sounds like the ticket (lots of company's make these square box designs for both wood and coal burning, are built like tanks and can burn both wood and coal well (neither perfect... but acceptable), I will say this though... no matter what you believe your going to burn now, after you have started using good anthracite coal it is 99% likely that your NOT going to be burning a lot of wood anymore (coal just beats it so badly in all aspects and that will become painfully clear to you after you have tried both). But at least with these big square type coal boxes you can stuff them with enough wood in many cases to achieve at least "similar" results for burn times as a 100% wood stove. you should be able to tone down any good quality air tight stove to the degree you need, so my advise is to get a larger box size (even if you don't require its full BTU ability) because for wood you WILL want to be able to pack in as much wood as possible.

Best Wishes!

The DS Machine stove gets very good reviews from their owners and crank out the heat but it will cost you at least double what you paid for you present wood/coal combo unit. Once you put 80 -100 lbs of coal in it and walk away for, YOU WILL be carbon nuetral for 12 - 16 hrs.

Can't do this with a wood fire! ...minimum 14 hr burn in a itsy bitsy living room stove!

Done With Wood!! Coming Back to Coal. New Hitzer 50-93

See the above thread if you haven't already.

You may want to plan ahead a few years and get a stove made for coal that can also acceptably burn wood. A Hitzer with a removable coal hopper might be a good idea.

I used a Harman Mark III for 15+ years. Early years burned mostly wood (80% wood, 20% coal) since we were clearing dead trees and blow downs, chain saw & hand split. You know the drill.....cut, haul, split, stack, haul, stack then finally burn. Good exercise - saved on health club membership. After a few years got a little lazy and bought a used wood splitter. After a few more years burned less & less wood as we worked out way through the supply & more coal until it was wood only in early season and late spring to get chill off the house in the morning and coal the rest of the time.

A few years ago made the move to the stoker, but I still have the Mark III in the basement in case we get a long blizzard induced power outage.

Bob pllease carefully my son in law burned wood some 15 years total .Cleaned chimney religously also labeled wood like 2008 an 2009 an so on .No staining on chimney to indicate creosote .Well house caught on fire .Even tho wood was aged an covered with tarps .Gary has some 11 acres of Oak woodland .It was a bad fire I mean it .Seriously get your exercize with wood an sell it .Answer this when you start your wood fire the house hits 90 or 100 degrees then tapers off .I took down 4 oaks last January an sold my oak wood in Feb . for 190 a cord.Anyway study this forum check out Hitzer Harman etc .good luck jack

These guys are "hard-core" Bob. Your 1st post is like joining a Firebird website, and asking questions about your camaro.

joeq wrote:These guys are "hard-core" Bob. Your 1st post is like joining a Firebird website, and asking questions about your camaro.

I can see that. I think i'll just buy a vermont castings wood stove. I love how there were only two people willing to be helpfull instead of single minded.

Single minded ?? this is the coal forum ,not the wood/coal forum,try posting on the wood forum that you want to burn coal but be able to burn wood a few times as it suits you,think their answers would be labeled single minded ?? I reread this entire thread & do not see where you see only 2 helpful members ?? is that because no one sugar coated the truth ? you wanted someone to tell you to buy ZXSW stove because it will do both wood & coal equally well,so you buy the recommended unit & find the truth after using ? When McGiever suggested you ck in with "the hearth" , that was not rude but a suggestion based on what is closest to what you actually want ,..... a wood burner. Actually is quite a helpful statement, if you want a wood burner,talk to the wood burner guys. Ask the Ford fans which GM product is best ..... I thought the idea behind a forum was to steer its inquiring members the right direction ,what am I missing ? I spent too many years on the farm ???

Hitzer 983. Freestanding or fireplace insert. Burns wood and coal well. Get the double door option.

http://www.hitzer.com/documents/product/983_Broch ... e_2011.pdf

[quote="bobdog2o02"][quote="joeq"]These guys are "hard-core" Bob. Your 1st post is like joining a Firebird website, and asking questions about your camaro. [/quote]

I can see that. I think i'll just buy a vermont castings wood stove. I love how there were only two people willing to be helpfull instead of single minded.[/quote]

hey I resemble that remark The V.C. Vigilant 2310 coal stove can burn Anthracite coal, Bituminous coal, and easily converted to burn wood as well! Damn smart looking stove too.
I think if you do a search in the search box top right corner, you will enjoy the reading about the 2310. Best of luck with your choice. Mike.

Bob.....

You mentioned you had oil fired forced hot air.

Go all the way and completely free yourself from the tyranny of muslim terrorists and their Dino juice.

Click the link below;

http://www.harmanstoves.com/Products/SF-1500-A-Wo ... rnace.aspx

Hey Scott, that looks pretty good to me. I too have forced hot air, and that furnace looks to be a direct replacement. Good tip.

Bob, you should check out Craigslist or local papers for end of season used stoves. Many times folks want something bigger OR smaller and a very affordable find can be had. I do have to admit that the VT Castings 2310's are classic to look at and EVERY wife would love one. Remember that the 2310's have the below the deck ash tray, and trust me, it is worth waiting for. If you have the 2310, it is designed for pea coal, and not wood also, however my guess is that the older models are much more readily available. Do not overlook any Hitzer product, either. Baker seems hard to get your hands on used, they never are for sale. As mentioned, Harman has a whole raft of wood/ coal burners, but as most say: they do better on a simple fuel usage and not mixing wood and coal. If you absolutely have to have a brandy new model, at least the timing is excellent. We are all hoping winter is sliding into history, but up here we have 2 storms and 16" to look forward to this week.
-2 on Thursday AM, and I read about "spring shutdown protocol" topics.......right......you heard 'Phil' lie about 6 weeks left......how about 16 weeks!

I have found that a lot of people who are secretly interested in coal don't pursue it because they are afraid of what the peer group might say.
And it is crying shame at that.

Bought a BlazeKing and a tank of oil.