What Stoker Should I Buy - I Have Specifications

Well I already have a coal room and shoot, I live in North-East PA so I figure I'd be pretty foolish to keep running gas with current prices! The house is about 3000 Sq feet, and has 2 furnaces (gas steam) as it used to be a double. Last winter, I lost one due to internal rust that rusted through so I was running 1500 Sq foot worth of heat to heat 3000 sq feet. It actually worked pretty well though it ran almost 100% of the time when it was very cold and did not get it real warm.

What I would like to do this winter is hook up the broken gas system to a stoker that is capable to run the second steam system. The ones I priced (so far) that were able to do this were cost prohibitive... Another option is just to install a cheaper stoker in the basement that is not capable of hooking into the steam system and let the heat radiate through some floor registers. Anyone with some suggestions of models I should look into buying? Prices would be helpful too. Thanks!

Any of the boilers will be expensive, not to mention fairly unavailable. If you can get a Keystoker Koker, or an Alaska 140 Auger feed and set it up in the basement with some floor registers, that will heat most of the house. The entry costs will be lower too. Timing is another issue. Keystoker is out 14 weeks on their stoves (boilers are done till next April), A-A is about 3 months out, EFM is doing about 10 weeks for their boilers, and Alaska is keeping pace at about 5-6 weeks for any of their product line.

Mike

With the cost of oil and gas, the payback time for a new boiler, even an expensive one will be fairly short.. You can get by with supplemental heat from a coal stove or hot air furnace and try to circulate the hot air,, but this is often frustrating.. No matter what any coal fired supplemental heat will help keep the fuel bills down.

Read, read, and read some more,, there are dozens of topics and threads on similar subjects here..

I'd PM to scraper_23jr or to coal berner about a used EFM or other steam capable boiler. Matthaus may have a steam capable boiler as well.. I would plan on buying a good steam boiler eventually,, new or used, but I'd stay with the steam system for comfort and even heat distribution.

Do you have an extra chimney in the basement or next floor up so you could add a suplemental hot air stove??

Hope this helps. Greg L'