Anyone Ever See A SEDORE Stove

I am the new kid on the block here and am looking for something that I can heat domestic hot water and pretty much retire my peerless boiler along the way. I already have a masonary chimney which I built with a wood stove in mind that never came and currently serves the oil boiler. For the most part I heat my 1400 sf house with a Countryside corn / pellet stove for the last 4 seasons. I live in Upstate NY near Plattsburgh which is of course wood country. Currently I use wood pellets which are the cheapest for me and I do appreciate the utility of multifuel with corn going nuts. Of course around here nothing is cheap not even wood.
I want to capitalize on the multifuel aspect of whatever I can and put a wood / coal burner into the basement and heat the 1st and only floor via this, the Countryside and possibly some radiant off the hot water it generates. I know a few guys who heat the upstairs via the stairwell and they say it works better than ducting for them. Yea it sounds ambitious but why not leave open all the options. I am interested in this Sedore as they say it will burn anything and the wood doesn't have to be superdry, stacked nicely or anything else just tossed into the hopper via the lid and it operates as a downdraft stove. I have yet to see anyone who has one who doesn't sell them in my internet quests. That is a problem for me as I can't believe anyone who has $$$$ in the answers he gives. Does anyone have any experience or info on the Sedore

Some photos and/or a link to a site so we can see what it is would help... I haven't heard of it at all... But I'm VERY leary of any claims about burning damp wood, or 'just about anything' These type of units are serious compromises for all the fuels... They usually don't do a good job burning any of the fuels.

I found this out the hard way, I built a 'wood and coal' boiler. It is a compromise... it will burn both, wood better than coal.. Knowing what I know now, I would have designed it to be a really good coal burner, and forgot about the wood, 'cause wood will burn well in a coal appliance.

Get us a photo of the firebox, the grates, the ashpan and air controls for this unit you are considering...

Greg L

Welcome to the forum!!

**Broken Link(s) Removed**
impressive - but then web sites are designed to be!

Nowhere in the literature do I see coal listed, from what I see of the 'cutaway' drawing, it would not burn coal...

Why not buy a good hand fired coal boiler, like the Harman boilers?? it will burn wood just fine. But will make you a believer in coal.

Greg L

Yea I have my doubts also but also have a healthy dislike for Harmon. I just don't like the way they will not direct sell and won't even talk to an individual on the phone concerning price, been there done that. I like coal the way I like corn and I haven't even seen any since we lived along the St Lawrence River in the 60's when the trains went by still. There used to be coal all over the place even though they never burned it for who knows how many decades before that. Anyways I liked corn till the price went stupid this year and in my case with transportation costs coal could well do the same. The thieves of the world haven't figured out how to move trees yet but I am sure they would if they could. Thats why I am pretty insistant on something that does wood as well given my area. The reason I asked about it was seeing some reference someplace about it burning coal but not enough direct information to draw a conclusion. The thing burns only at the bottom in downdraft configuration and doesn't get smothered out by even corn once it is going somehow. Still having done roughly the same thing with corn I would much rather when I feel like it go get a pail of coal or corn and toss it on than deal with the headache and handling of wood if I get to be not in the mood or whatever. I have been running this cornstove for a while now so am pretty well versed in hauling cleaning and handling my own. I do it all with a grain shovel and a ton from the truck goes quick.
From a perspective of total ignorance just how much dust do you get from coal anyways? My ceiling is clouded with black oily soot deposits from the corn stove anyways but I don't want anything more if I can help it and I pretty much cured that by putting a switch on the Countryside so it would cut out the blower when I had to open the door. I would like to get into something that runs without electricity necessarily if possible at least partially. I see US Stove sells a wood coal unit at tractor supply. How do these fare? Otherwise who makes a combi boiler out there thats not over 5 grand like the gassifiers are? Thats enough dumb questions for now, time to go ride the snowmobile before it gets dark. Thanks.

driz wrote:
From a perspective of total ignorance just how much dust do you get from coal anyways?

Some but that only comee from loading and the ashes. If you're careful you can eliminate most of it. You dampen the coal before moving it so it doesn't create dust.

Hello driz, I'd steer clear of the US Stove combo fuel boilers.. They are, like I said above, a compromise and don't in general work a well as a boiler designed to burn one fuel
Use the search function and search the site for US Stove... We've had several members give up on burning coal in the combo stoves...
In my case, I converted my boiler to a stoker, then went with a completely different stoker boiler.

I understand your misgivings about Harman, however, they do make a good product, the dealer-only deal bothers a lot of us..
I'd keep an eye open for a good used boiler or stove.

Greg L

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Yea I figure I am sort of stuck with the world of compromise these days and location. Here wood is plentiful and in fact I keep holding out for the day when grass pellets gets going as I live smack in the middle of 10 acres of hay with more to be easily developed. I like pelletized whatever as I have been doing most of my heat with this Countryside stove since 04 and have managed to burn about anything in it while attended. Say LS Farms just how did you make a boiler anyways, got any plans kicking around. Of course anything around here home made has to be outdoors for insurance reasons. What I really want is a way to heat hot water all year and hook into my hydronic boiler without spending 10 grand to do it. Tarn is nice but lets face it so is a Corvette and I dont' have or want one of those either. Too nice for their own value IMHO even though a lot of it has to do with price of steel, *censored* dollar and skyrocketing euro. I guess in the end it doesn't matter why they are just too pricy. Even the Eco's are nice but right up there and those don't work all that well without a 400 or preferably much bigger insulated storage tank. Heck the nicest rig I have seen though primitive and only for winter use is my neighbors. he has a very heavy barrel stove decades old in his basement with an old hot water tank suspended over it. That preheats or completely heats the DHW before it goes into his oil boiler. All he has is a tiny sheet metal and steel stud closet around it on 2 sides to keep the heat concentrated somewhat. I would do something similar in a minute with a wood stove if it wasn't suc a pain to get the heat exhausted from the basement in the summer months. Electric would be ok everywhere but here as we are on NYSEG which is insane.

We use and sell SEdore stoves and put our first one in our home in Early Jan. Since mid FEb. we are heating our whole home with the Sedore 3000 because we ran out of oil and didn't buy anymore. Our house is 3000 square feet. The claims about the stove are true. It does burn green wood and wood that isn't dry, although it burns much more slowly and does not heat as well, so when we do that we often mix green or wet wood with seasoned, dry wood. It is an incredible stove and we are really pleased with it.
The stove does not burn coal, because of the amount of ash from coal. It burns just about anything else. The only thing we have tried so far is wood. So just wanted to clarify a few things because this discussion came up in a search for stoves.
If you want more info feel free to check out our website (http://www.visionstonestoves.com) or our blog (http://www.visionstonestoves.blogspot.com)
Jennifer

Ok LS Farms I see your point. Does anyone else besides Harman make a multifuel boiler? I didn't even know Harman made those. Any idea how much one of those 160's costs to buy and install into an existing hydronic setup? Of course what I positively hate about Harman is their secrecy in pricing and all their dealer only installation hoopla.

Take a look at the AHS multifuel boiler... member ktmrider has one and likes if very much.. it has a properly designed firebox for burning coal very well, and it also burns wood well.. and can be equiped with an oil burner backup.

http://www.alternateheatingsystems.com

What you are looking for in a good coal burning firebox is a grate system that covers the entire bottom of the firebox.. so the entire coal bed is resting on a shaker grate system..The walls of the firebox need to be vertical, so the coalbed will settle down on the grates as the coal turns to ash. You do not want to see a ' VEE' shaped firebox with a narrow row of shaker grate. The firebox needs to be DEEP, if it is 15" square, then it needs to be at least 12" deep, or more.. Coal fires need to be deep, and straight sided And a 15" square firebox is about 150K to 180K BTU.

So you do not want the shallow, long, vee bottomed firebox that you see in the wood predominantly/sort-of coal burning combo burners from Us Stove, and similar mix-breed burners..

Greg L.

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yes, I have seen a sedore! I've got one in my dining room. it's a sedore 3000.

my husband (an anal-retentive engineer) asked the US manufacturer tons of questions before we purchased our stove. the manuf. said that the sedore actually will burn coal, but it's not UL-approved for it.

ya know, it'd be a shame to not go sedore just because it sounds too good to be true. some of the dealers offer guarantees. so, you could get your money back if you find it really is too good to be true. right?

we burn all sorts of things in our stove. we've cut our trash load almost in half, because now we have a productive place to throw our paper and cardboard. even our cornstalks from the garden are going into the stove this winter!

we have our sedore hooked up to our hot water heater, which has been lovely. during the cold months, I can run the dishwasher, laundry, shower AND a bath without running out of hot water.

our house is not set up for radiant heat, but I know other sedore-users (including the manufacturer) run their stoves through their hydronic radiant heat system.

here's an image off of the website we purchased our stove from:
http://sedorestoveWEST.com


my stove is just like the one in the picture, with the red color. I insisted to my husband that we make it a fun color, since it does take up some space, and we don't use it all year-round.

i hope that helps your search!
gertie