What stove to buy

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Foxy24
New Member
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat. Jan. 19, 2019 1:26 pm
Location: Southeastern PA
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Keystone stoker 90,000
Coal Size/Type: Rice coal/anthracite
Other Heating: Electric backup

Post by Foxy24 » Sat. Mar. 09, 2019 8:13 am

Hey guys, I'm in the market for a second stove and I wanted some input. I currently have a keystoker 90 running in my basement, powervented through the block wall, and hooked up to my central air ducting. It works great but I would like to put a small stove in our family room on the first floor to make some cozy heat on special occasions, and also as a back up heating source. I love my current setup but I also hate that it depends on electric. If I loose electric I will be up s**ts Creek without a paddle. That would lead me to believe I need a hand fired stove? I have a hearth and chimney in the room I want it in so I won't have to power vent. Do they make any hand fired that burns rice? It would be really nice to not have to buy two different kinds of coal. I was looking at the keystoker hearth models and I really like them but obviously they depend on electric also. Thanks in advance for any input!

 
BostonBob
Member
Posts: 254
Joined: Sat. Dec. 22, 2018 2:29 pm
Location: WNY
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Harman DVC500,Alaska Gnome 40
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by BostonBob » Sat. Mar. 09, 2019 8:24 am

Hi Foxy24, Welcome. I am also looking for a hand fired stove, I have not seen one that uses rice coal ( I would say it’s just too small and would fall through the grates) my thing is to reduce noise, my current stove is in the living room and has 3 fans and a feeder motor ! I’d put the new stove into the living room and the rice burner in the garage. If I see anything handfired that takes rice I’ll let you know. Good luck with your search and let me know how you make out thanks

 
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StokerDon
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Posts: 7486
Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
Location: PA, Southern York County!
Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Sat. Mar. 09, 2019 10:17 am

Welcome to the forum Fox.

It would be a good idea to have a hand fired for power outages, you won't burn Rice in it though. They burn Pea, Chestnut or Stove. I have a hand fired furnace connected to the plenum in the basement and it will heat the whole house and almost the whole house when the power is out.

In my opinion, power venting a coal burner is just a bad idea. Having to constantly clean and service a mechanical device in the exhaust path of a coal stoker does not sound like fun to me. I don't know how you guys put up with it.

You will love a hand fired.

-Don


 
BostonBob
Member
Posts: 254
Joined: Sat. Dec. 22, 2018 2:29 pm
Location: WNY
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Harman DVC500,Alaska Gnome 40
Coal Size/Type: Rice

Post by BostonBob » Sat. Mar. 09, 2019 6:00 pm

StokerDon wrote:
Sat. Mar. 09, 2019 10:17 am
Welcome to the forum Fox.

It would be a good idea to have a hand fired for power outages, you won't burn Rice in it though. They burn Pea, Chestnut or Stove. I have a hand fired furnace connected to the plenum in the basement and it will heat the whole house and almost the whole house when the power is out.

In my opinion, power venting a coal burner is just a bad idea. Having to constantly clean and service a mechanical device in the exhaust path of a coal stoker does not sound like fun to me. I don't know how you guys put up with it.

You will love a hand fired.

-Don
[/quote
Hi Don, when we moved back up to NY, I needed to heat my garage a bit (had Chickens in an add on to keep some what warm) and in our old house I had 2 stokers 1 a Hitzer 608 (loved that stove) and this Alaska Gnome 40DV well I found this Gnome on Craig’slist and discovered it was my stove (s/n and date) figured I was only using it in the garage no big deal, but I moved it into the house to help with the heating bills ( got rid of the chickens), don’t like the fan noise, and yes it is a lot of maintenance to pull the fans, clean them, oil them, then start up the stove and an hour later one of the fans start rattling!! UGH😵 LOL. So yeah I’m with you on that !!!!

 
xmanjeff
Member
Posts: 52
Joined: Thu. Apr. 09, 2015 7:41 pm
Location: niagara falls new york
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: keystoker 90 dv

Post by xmanjeff » Sun. Mar. 10, 2019 2:19 pm

nice thing about direct vent , I can run at 50 degrees +, I have a keystoker 90 , never felt I was putting up with anything , runs like the energizer bunny

 
Foxy24
New Member
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat. Jan. 19, 2019 1:26 pm
Location: Southeastern PA
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Keystone stoker 90,000
Coal Size/Type: Rice coal/anthracite
Other Heating: Electric backup

Post by Foxy24 » Tue. Mar. 12, 2019 5:18 pm

Don,
I was a bit behind the 8 ball this winter when I decided to go coal, and I didn't want to commit to a 2,000 block chimney just yet. I picked up a used power vent unit for cheap and so far it's done very well. I do understand that a natural draft would be more reliable/cheaper but I think I'm going to see how long my vent lasts at least. And Jeff is right, I do like the ability to control my draft. Even on startup when the stove is cold I can turn it up and pull alot if not all of my smoke out which can be hard to do with natural systems until it warms up. As far as a hand fired goes, how long can I expect to spend on startup? I have my stoker down to about 15 minutes which isn't bad but I've never played with a hand fired. Also, this might be a dumb question but if I get a hand fired that is rear vented, I can just run my exhaust pipe up the chimney a bit and then just stop? Do you have to seal between the pipe and the chimney to ensure all my draft is pulling from the 6 inch?

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