coal and wood stove?

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mjm4jc
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Post by mjm4jc » Tue. Aug. 09, 2022 9:59 pm

Hello everyone,
I am thinking of putting a stove in the room next to my kitchen. It technically is a dining room, but I am considering this room b/c the chimney runs up through there on the other side of the wall where my mud porch is. My questions are: Is there a draft advantage by using a chimney vs. piping it out the wall? Can you recommend an older, perhaps even vintage, stove that burns both nut coal and wood? Lastly, I have a kitchen coal stove in my basement for when the power goes out. It's a typical 6 burner stove with oven, bread box, skillet, etc. Do these stoves burn wood efficiently as well? The firebox doesn't seem very wood friendly as far as size/shape goes. But I can't see why I couldn't burn wood in there too. I welcome you thoughts?
Thanks!
Mike

 
nut
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Post by nut » Wed. Aug. 10, 2022 10:21 am

First, my experience with Metalbestos coal rated stainless steel chimney pipe was it lasted 5 years. I was burning the stove cool so there was a lot of condensation probably. I assume that is what you mean by piping it out the wall. Second, I have an old Gilbralter coal/wood combo that I burn coal in. It works well for coal but the fire box is rather small for wood in my opinion. Third, I grew up with a kitchen stove similar to what you have. We used to burn wood in it during the day and bank it off with coal at night to keep it going. My Mom did a lot of cooking on it and it worked great but had to be tended often.


 
mjm4jc
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Post by mjm4jc » Wed. Aug. 10, 2022 7:53 pm

Thanks man. I guess there's no substitute for a real chimney :-) I would imagine that if a stove is designed to burn both coal and wood it would state that through the manufacturer. Unfortunately, I find many stoves advertised online as both coal and wood, but there are not.

My kitchen coal stove in the basement is a beast. It's awesome when the power goes out. But I'm looking for an old wood coal stove for the main floor. If I find one, I'll burn wood as longs as I can. But if the price of coal ever goes cheap again, you know what I'll be burning. :-)

 
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Sunny Boy
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Post by Sunny Boy » Thu. Aug. 11, 2022 6:11 am

The rule is,.... you can burn wood in any coal stove. But you can't burn coal in a stove meant for just wood.

It has to do with the design of the grates to effectively be able to clear coal ash and clinkers daily. Plus have a fire brick lining to retain heat in the firebed and get a more efficient burn rate. Plus where and how much the air is fed to the firebed. Coal needs feed air under the fire bed - wood gets fed air from above.

There are many "Oak" stoves that can burn wood and coal and the larger ones with about 16 -18 inch firepots are big enough to hold enough wood to keep a fire through the night.

Antique kitchen ranges were not designed to be "heating stoves". Their fireboxes are not as big as heating stoves. When using wood you'll be feeding it about every three to four hours and relighting a cold stove every morning. The same range using coal will go easily go for 11-12 hours on a load of coal and can be kept running 24/7, just by refuel, shaking ash, and emptying the ash pan every 12 hours.

The modern versions of ranges are really wood stoves that have a larger firebox to hold more wood to get longer burn times. To gain more market share, they make them "coal ranges" by putting a set of flat "coal grates" in them,... which are not a good design of grates for clearing coal ash and clinkers.

If you want to heat primarily with wood, get a modern range.

If you want to burn coal most of the season and some wood just in the shoulder months, then get an antique a range that has true coal grates and a fire brick lining in the fire box.

Paul

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