parlor stove / smaller base heater recommendation

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Jaydub
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Posts: 13
Joined: Fri. Oct. 15, 2021 8:42 am
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Quaker baseheater
Other Heating: Weil McLane boiler, forced hot water

Post by Jaydub » Tue. Oct. 26, 2021 2:49 pm

I bought a restored Quaker #6 base heater about 10 years ago 'sight unseen', with the intention of installing it in our LR, but when it arrived it was too big for the space. it's a stove with great heating features but just too large for the space, so it's been pulling duty in my shop.

Got the itch again for a nice antique coal burner for our LR and have been looking around enough to realize there are so many different stoves out there that I should ask for input.

Here are some of the things we're looking for:

~a cylinder-type stove sized a little smaller that will be tucked into an inside corner our LR; there are adjacent doorways but it's not a huge open space
~something that is efficient with coal use, possibly a smaller base heater as long as there's a way to vent closer to the body of the stove; or another design which recirculates combustion gasses rather than sending then straight up the flue
~are any of these really 'air tight' as Florence advertised?
~does the 'Hot Blast' add a lot of heating value with anthracite?
~are there many that are all cast iron rather than having steel barrels? Seems like it would make more sense - was that a cost and weight saving feature?
~something that can be 'dialed down' so we don't overheat a smaller space and can use it during the transition seasons, also with wood
~mica on all three sides would be amazing, but this seems to be only on the larger stoves
~I'd like to assume all of them were designed with real good fire pots but I'm guessing some are better than others - good in terms of complete burning of the coal; my Quaker tends to leave large, not-fully-consumed pieces - not sure if that's me or what?

One thing I was wondering about is whether it would work to slightly modify a base heater by removing the cooking plate at the top of the re-circulation chamber at the back, and inserting the stove pipe directly in there for vertical venting. But on my Quaker the damper is right there under the insert, so you have to vent out the back with an elbow below this damper if you're going to go into base heater mode. A vertical pipe installed there would take away this base heating feature. Don't know if any others are different in that regard.

We like the look of the more subdued 'Modern Glenwood Oak' stoves, how efficient are these? But mica on all three sides would be amazing as long as it was efficient. Then again, the 'Red Cross' stoves look amazing too, and the Florences look nice to my eye, and others that are more ornate as well, and on and on ...

Thanks in advance!


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