I've Made My Coal Heating Choice: It's an AHS S130 Coal Gun

I'm about to become an official member of the anthracite coal heating community. After weighing a broad spectrum of options, and with due consideration for the wife's dislike of the hand fired stove in the living room option, I've decided to go ahead and replace my failed oil boiler on my hot water baseboard system with an AHS S130 Coal Gun. One primary consideration that I weighed was the price and availability of delivered anthracite in my area. The only local bulk delivery option available to me is either anthracite pea or nut, so that (combined with the ultra high price for bagged coal in this area) eliminated nearly all of the other boilers that I have considered, as the others all seem to require rice (with the exception of the Axeman-Anderson). In only two years the difference in cost between the appreciably lower priced rice coal stoker boilers and the Coal Gun should be recovered merely from the differential in cost locally here between delivered bulk pea and delivered bagged rice. The other consideration leading to my choice was loads of testimony here on the forum regarding the excellent reliability and efficiency of the Coal Gun.

Sounds like your on your way now!

What made you choose the ahs over the axeman ?

To be honest I never thought to look into the Axeman boilers after seeing a number of posts here indicating that they are appreciably more expensive, even though no one except EFM owners would likely dispute that they are the best boilers available. My understanding is that if I grow tired of pouring coal into the hopper of the AHS, there is an auger option available, so in a year or two I may consider adding an auger. At that optional level of modification the AHS is to my understanding pretty much just about the same overall unit as the Axeman.

lsayre wrote:To be honest I never thought to look into the Axeman boilers after seeing a number of posts here indicating that they are appreciably more expensive, even though no one except EFM owners would likely dispute that they are the best boilers available. My understanding is that if I grow tired of pouring coal into the hopper of the AHS, there is an auger option available, so in a year or two I may consider adding an auger. At that optional level of modification the AHS is to my understanding pretty much just about the same overall unit as the Axeman.

The Axemans and EFMs are all H stamped and rated for steam. The AHS can get one but at additional cost.

yes I too looked at the ahs long and hard, good setup , basically the same as an axeman except the axeman comes with an auger the ahs its an extra.... plus the h stamp is handy if the inspector pokes his head in or the insurance agent... just my thoughts, I bought an axeman....

Oh man,you're gonna love that AHS-130 when you get it installed. Congratulations.
This is my first year with an AHS-130 and anthracite. Old instincts from my wood burning days make me check on it a couple times a day but it just sits there quietly pumping out the heat.

Glad to hear it, and thank you!