Looking for New Stove With Good Extended Burn Times

Hello everyone, first time poster.

I have a Vigilant 1C that I burn wood in and throw Alaskan sub-bit in with the loads. I also have a Jotul 507 that I haven't installed yet but am lookiing at doing this comign summer. My house is about 2000sqft and 2 stories - its very hard to get the heat to stay downstairs but thats another story I am looking at purchasing a stove that will allow me to be away for about twelve hours without reloading, but it seems all the stokers around don't run with sub-bit coal. Dealers in Alaska are able to get Harman, Hitzer, Jotul, and US Stoves . I am leaning toward something like the Harman Magnafire SF, like the hot water option, looks, simplicity, btus, and seemingly good burn times. Any experienced opinions on a similar situation?

I really like the price of the US Stoves but from the searchs on here and the looks of them they seem sort of chinsy...the wondercoal in particular has an attractive price but the topics ive found on it point to nothing but sub-par performance. Anyone super-happy with theirs?

We need to get Valley Trash in on this discussion, he is burning Alaska coal in a Romax. I was burning in a old kitchen range, but as far as new stoves I'm not sure, if I was going to burn by hand again I would find some form of potbelly stove, but most don't have suficient room in the base for all our ash.

Where are you in Alaska?
Valley Trash is the Alaska moderater.
You might ask this question in the Alaska section.
Sub-Bituminous stokers are a bit of a chalange to find, http://www.coalandheat.com/ has a stoker that he builds but probalbly bigger than you want.

I just tried a shade-tree conversion in my vigilant to burn just coal, its been working ok, got it to 450 degrees stovetop. I just put in some firebricks and set a grate on top of them. It works better than I imagined it would considering the stove has a bunch of air leaks at the seams. I did put new gaskets on it but didnt do the notorious lip-gasket retrofit.

Shortbus - Im in Fairbanks trying to get ready for the next cold snap.

I was curious about those Romax stoves seeing as how they are designed to burn our sub-bit. I wish that I wouldn't have to drive to Wasilla just to see one but I guess itgives me an excuse to get out of Fairbanks. Seems like I could almost just do some fabricating and weld up a hand fed unit if I knew what characteristics to stay close to. I have never burnt coal before a couple days ago so I am trying to get up to speed as fast as possible

Hey AKshadow, welcome to the forum. Its good to see another alaskan on here. Well lemme give you a rundown on the two coal stoves I have had experience with so far. The stove I run is a romax. It will get 12 to 14 hr burns when set up right. It does have its drawbacks like not having a separate ash pan door and the grates being even with the door making it hard to really pile the coal up in there. When it works it works great(ive been run out of the house a few times,92 deg ), but I would say that this stove would be better suited for a big garage where it wouldnt matter how dirty or unbearably hot the stove made things. Now the stove my buddy runs and the one I would recommend for you is the Hitzer 55. This stove is easy to use and rock solid. You can even order one with the whole hot water heater bit with it. One nice thing about this stove is the temp control on the back of it. You can pretty much just load it up set the temp and letr go. My buddys house is about 2000 sq ft and has the stove in the garage that sits under the house. I would definitely give the Hitzer a try with its ease of use and performance.

Thanks for the tip ValleyTrash - I have been eyeing those Hitzers now. Ive always had trouble with getting the air moved around my house so starting to think maybe a forced air unit would be the way to go - like the Hitzer 82 furnace. Does your buddy have the 55 radiant model or the furnace?

He actually has the forced air unit. Its a pretty nice setup with the radiant heat from the stove warming the garage and the blower pushing the rest through his existing heating setup.

So I called AK Cozy Coal today and got some prices for the Hitzer furnaces, they seemed pretty reasonable. Do you know what your friend gets for average times between reloading? Im thinking the Hitzer setups are gonna be the way I need to go unless the reloads are outlandish...