New to Coal- Buying a House With Frank's Heat Coal Furnace

Hi everyone,

I am completely new to coal stoves/furnaces. We are currently looking at houses and one of the houses we are interested in has a Frank's Heat Wood/Coal furnace. I tried to google this type of furnace but it looks like the company is out of business and I couldn't find much information on it. The house has propane and the propane furnace is adjacent to the coal furnace and appears to be hooked up to the vent work. House was built in the 80s. I have attached a picture. Does anyone have any knowledge of these types of furnaces, or can you tell by looking at it some basic information (stoker vs hand fired). I did open up the front door to it and there is a grate in there and apears to be some ashes... so I am guessing it is hand fired? My mom had a wood burning stove growing up, but this is completely foreign to me. I'm sure if we end up buying the house we will have someone come out to inspect the furnace, but would just like to get some basic information on it before making an offer. Also, what is the black tubing/pipework entering the stove below the door? Is that the cold air intake? Thanks for the help!

-Jim

Welcome to the forum.

Unless there is a hopper and a stoker motor attached to it, it is a hand fired unit tied into the propain furnace ductwork.

I never saw one like that but it does look fairly new and well taken care of.

And yes that does look like an air intake possibly tied into the cold air return lines or may be a cold air intake system. You would have to follow where the lines come from to be sure.

Rick

I have not seen one of that model, but I have seen a Frank's hand-fed boiler before...and it was a very well built unit. It would be nice to see what the firebox looks like inside.

Yes please post more pictures. Inside the fire box and the flue pipe ..

Welcome Jim,

I doubt if it is the case, but if the air intake pipe is in any way attatched to your ductwork ; remove it before you start the unit. CO will kill you with certainty. Im curious what the elec. box on the intake pipe is connected to. maybe you might post some more pics of the unit.

Waldo

Electrical box would maybe be a butterfly damper wired to house t'stat controlling outside combustion air intake.

McG is absolutely correct. I have 2 hand fed Frank's Boilers that are 35 years old and operate as new. I have never seen a Frank's hot air unit, but the history of the Frank's Equipment is vague.

The 70's and 80's were the maximum exposure days and quality Plumbing and Heating Supply Outlets distributed thousands of them. Extremely common around here, and many still in use.
Too bad the old timers are silent, because as old as I am, I only remember the Supply house side of the story. Most all of the ones I see burned wood, and that says a mouthful right there.

She looks like someone took real good care of her. YES, some more pix would really help-I'm sure the black pipe is for under fire air, so I'm presuming it was used for just coal which is what direction I'm hoping you chose. It must be set up well due to the fact that the people are still alive to sell the house Again, some more detailed pix would really help. Do grates move smoothly--is their an ash pan in the bottom--IS there a hopper, Etc

Thanks for the help everyone! Next time I am at the house I will take some more photos. I had originally emailed a coal/wood retail store here in ohio and he pointed me towards this forum. Definitely a lot of good advice here. I am excited for the opportunity to burn some coal! The hard part will probably be finding a supplier near Toledo. Grew up with a wood burning stove... it was a lot of work carrying in wood, stacking it, walking through tall drifts to get it, etc. Thanks again everyone

Hey everyone,

I was back at the house today and was able to take some more pictures. Thanks for the input! I did not see a barometric damper anywhere, but there is a control box on the air intake and it has a sticker on it talking about a damper? The owners told the realtor its easy to use and was installed less than 10 years ago.

Oops... when I uploaded the pics noticed all are rotated. The grate/ash area is upside down, and the stovepipe picture and inside of firebox needs to be rotated as well.

just west of Toledo about 18-20 miles is 'Dennis Farms' He sells bulk and bagged anthracite coal. He should be in the 'white pages' phone directory..

I might have their number somewhere.

Greg L

Yo-Ho,Jim OH ! Believe it or not,I reached into the way-way-back time machine and found one of Greg's(LS Farm) Posts from the 2007 ! Greg,at that time you posted the Dennis Farms # as 419.335.4665. Here's The Original Post :

Where in MI Can I Buy Soft Coal

Any chance you can show the wiring of this Frank's coal furnace? Need to hook it completley up the blower, fan speed, draft, and limit control switch where unhooked and I need to get it rewired.