Best Warm Morning for Burning Bit.

I am a brand new member. Looking for a warm morning but discovered through research that there are MANY different model numbers and that 720? is not recommended as a good coal burner. Could you please let me know which model number was the BEST model that warm morning ever made for Bit coal. I know, except for the 720, that they are mostly all good. I have decided that if I am going to scour ebay, craigs, grandma's barn, etc., I might as well search for the best.

By the way, is there any reason these babies have to be in the basement? I live in an old farmhouse with no basement. Can't I put the largest model on the main living room floor?

Thanks

Sure you can. The models with an enclosed cabinet would probably be best, requiring less clearance to combustibles, and reduced surface temperatures, as well as better air circulation.

Smokey wrote:By the way, is there any reason these babies have to be in the basement? I live in an old farmhouse with no basement. Can't I put the largest model on the main living room floor?

I don't burn bit but I do burn a hand fed Mark II and I would think that what I'm about to say would apply to a bit stove as well. I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong.

You really need to pay attention to the number of BTUs that the stove is rated for, the more BTUs the more the stove is going to cost. If you don't need that many BTUs to heat your space or your set up won't provide good distribution of those BTUs there is no sense in paying for the larger stove. The heat from the larger stove will drive you from the room.

My set up is a prime example, the Mark II is rated about 60,000 BTUs and that should heat my entire square footage but because I have a split level with lots of walls and corners I have a difficult time distributing the heat to the farthest rooms of my house. Because a hand fed stove produces radiant heat my family room - where the stove is - is always burning up while the upstairs is on the cold side. The living room between the two is just fine; kind of like the story of the 3 bears. I didn't know any better at the time but I would have been better off getting two stoves of 30,000 BTUs each - one in each end of the house. That would have allowed for better distribution of the heat making each room more comfortable.

So my advise is take a good look at how many BTUs you are going to need to heat your square footage and how your are going to distribute the heat. Then buy the stove which is designed to produce that much heat and save your money for coal. Good luck, Lisa

although lisa has a point, in most circumstances I would reccomend an unenclosed large stove for burning bituminous coal. bituminous will slow burn very well for a long time in the shoulder season, so oversizing a bit stove usually isn't a bad idea, and you won't lose much efficiency by doing so.

Please tell me which model of the Warm Morning stove was the best. Every car has a good years and bad years, as well as good models and bad models. I figure it would be the same for stoves as far as design changes and workmanship and materials, So far I have found there are at least 29 different models: #120, 520, 701A, 400, 528, 420A, 522, 24, 524 3flue, 521, 120, 414, 701B, 617, 523, 422, 818, 524 2flue, 700B, W24, 320, 428, 701, 618, 616, 460, 618, 500, 700

It would already be helpful if someone could tell me which of the above model numbers are the largest(and heaviest) models which hold the most coal.

After that, I would like to know which # of the largest model was the best design built with the best materials and workmanship. There seem to be a few lovers of Warm Morning coal stoves on this site. One of them had a #400.

This way when I search in ebay, craigs, classifieds and old barns, I will know which model # to look for.

Thanks

P.S.I asked this question less clearly in another topic heading, so I won't mind if Richard wants to delete those others. I will do it myself, if I can figure out how to do it.

I did not know there were that many models of the Warm Morning. I am one of those with the Model 400, and of course I love it. It is rather large, like a small refrigerator, and holds about 100 pounds of coal. Runs for several days at a time!

I have a 617-A. It is a good stove BUT I wish I had a 100 pounder convection model. Without looking it up I think that would be the 400. I find that with my drafty house the 617-A has a problem keeping up with the heat load when it starts getting below 20 degrees. If it gets below 10, I have to kick the oil burner on.

Thanks for the replies so far.

As I said, my first task is to narrow down all the model numbers to the largest models.

So far we have established that the 400 model is large and holds 100 pounds.

I already found out that the 523R model is probably large because the AD says it holds hundred pounds. It says it is 42 inches high, 18 inches wide, and 18 inches deep and it is 285 pounds.

Envisage, when you have time, please measure the height, width and depth of your 400 model and just estimate the weight.

I noticed that the painting of the 523R model, even though it holds 100 pounds like your 400 model, has a different jacket design(more a a rounded ventilation grill on the top and bottom whereas the 400 model had a flat ventilation grill in the middle and has a squarer look). Besides the cosmetics of the jacket being different, do you think there was any functional design difference?

It also said in the add that the Warm Morning, besides burning wood and coal, it also burns coke. Do they mean it burns coal into coke or do they mean you can load the stove up with coke instead of coal or wood if you want to?

Please spare me the cocaine jokes.

According to this old ad, Model 524-B holds 200 lbs. of coal.

Envisage, don't bother measuring your warm morning. I already found the ad that says your 400 model is 42 i/2 inches high, 29 inches wide, 25 inches deep and 378 ibs. That makes your 400 the king of the hill for now and, until I hear of a larger one, the one to look for. Who knows....maybe there is an even larger one out there. I noticed in the ad that your 400 model offered an optional fan. Did yours come with the fan? Personally, I am not interested in a fan because I don't want to depend on electricity. Just curious. I have an old classic oil burner that came with a fan. Besides not wanting to depend on electricity, I removed the fan because I found it oppressive. I also found (especially at higher BTU settings) that too much oxygen was being removed from the house....so I took advantage of the fan being removed and attached a 6 inch aluminum dryer vent to the lower 6 inch pipe that the fan used to blow into and ran that aluminum dry vent just 2 1/2 feet out to the outside wall so 95 percent of the combustion air is coming only from the outside! Much better ambiance.

It is curious that the 523 model which is a lot skinnier than your 400 model, and 100 pounds lighter, is supposed to also hold 100 pounds of coal. Do you think that must be a misprint, or is it designed differently to be able to be skinnier but still hold the same amount of coal as your 400? The ad calls the 523 a radiant heater and calls your 400 a circulator. What is the difference between a radiant heater and a circulator? Are they talking about a radiant heater that has a fan is suddenly a cirulator? If your 400 model didn't come with a fan, does that mean your 400 model is a radiant heater, and not a circulator?

Update: so far I know that models 460, 414A, 617B, probably 818, are too small for me and the 400 is even larger than the 523(but the 523 may load the same amount of coal) And now Tamecrow just informed me that the model 524B is the new king of the hill holding a whopping 200 pounds of coal! I expect Envisage might suddenly be jealous of the 524B! Thanks Tamecrow!
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Tamecrow, thanks for the heads up on the biggest warm morning so far. Do I understand your info correctly that you currently own and operate a Warm Morning 524B? It looks almost like a giant Chubby coal stove. How well is it working for you? Does it really hold 200 pounds of coal? Does it operate with the patented 4 flu system?

Envisage, if you removed the jacket on your 400 model, does the burner pot look like the picture of the 524B in Tamecrow's ad?

Do you think there is any functional design difference between model 524B and the model 400, besides higher coal capacity?

Smokey wrote:Do I understand your info correctly that you currently own and operate a Warm Morning 524B?

No, I have the 520 model, which holds 100 lbs.of coal.

so now we know that model 420A and model 520 can be added to the list of large models that hold 100 pounds with the 520B sill the largest.

Tamecrow, does your 520(except for being smaller) look the same as the 520B in the ad, or does it look more like the 420A in the same ad?

Smokey wrote:Tamecrow, does your 520(except for being smaller) look the same as the 520B in the ad, or does it look more like the 420A in the same ad?

It looks exactly like the 520-B in the ad.

Thanks, so the same question still applies. Are you happy with the 520? Does it have the 4 flue system. Do you think the 420A and the 400 probably look the same as your 520 if you the jackets for the 420A and 400 were removed. Do you think that your 520 operates and has the same functional burning design as the 400?