I cant remember if this was discussed before, if so and you have a link please post it, but I was wondering if anyone on here burned coal? Also what brand of stove do you have? I was looking at a keystoker but would consider others, I can get rice coal so thats not an issue just what you guys think of burning it and the brand of stove.

I have a hundred year old Glenwood Oak #30 I use to heat my house. I bought it in so-so condition and restored it except for the nickel plating on the trim. I love it.

I burn "nut" coal in mine. Rice is very fine which makes for a long burn time due to the amount of air that can make its way up through the bed but you sacrifice heat output to a degree. These things are serious heaters. I have anther antique coal stove similar to the Glenwood in the garage awaiting restoration. Get to them before the hoarders do.

I cant remember the brand of mine but they were built here in pa. Its a self feeding rice coal stove. Works good, burns less than 3 tons of coal a year. 1000 sq ft house. Feed it once a day unless its wide open. Its old, no thermostat, I have a rheostat hooked to it. But u have to crank it up before it gets cold out and lower it before it gets warm. Sometimes windows in house r open to let heat out. I have a sheet metal plenum on top of stove with an 8 inch pipe running into my regular furnace ductwork. I put a fab inline with rheostat to help push the air a little.
My dad has a keystoker and loves it. Newer than mine with t stat. But I know he has replaced the blower motor twice in less time than I have owned mine. Mine needed nothing except a rusted hole in stove, just welded a plate on it.

Just remembered the name brand of my stove. Tri burner.

Posco, I forgot to mention that I was looking at stoker types, hence the rice coal, however I didnt think about old ones and restoring them, thats a good alternative so any other info on those I would also like to see that as well. cmj that is some good info to I like to find out the probelms more than the best points.

TTT

Had someone offer me their coal stove over the weekend. Turned it down because I have no idea where to find coal unless I drive near the tracks by the power plant and scavenge some.

Tractor supply, and lowes are “nation wide distributors, here skei coal in Ames can get it kinda depends on how much you can take. It has been a while since I talked to them though.

warm morning if you can find one

Are you looking to put something in your basement or is it something you're going to install in a living space? I never tire of looking at my old stove, the thing is a work of art along with being a great heater.

There are downsides to it, though. There's quite a learning curve involved in these old stoves in trying to maintain a fire. It ain't like burning wood. And then there's the dust, it goes everywhere if you're not careful.

Very cool. I've always wanted to redo one.

It's not hard to do at all. Probably wouldn't be a problem to find a candidate for a restoration if you looked around a bit.

Weekly swap guides and Craigslist are great places to search.

We burned coal in our farm house growing up. The stove was from Pittston stove company,it would also burn wood(12" or less). My Mom always had something cooking on the stove and would bake in the oven. We would line up around the stove on cold winter mornings. great memories. We burned chestnut coal and my Mom would bank it off in the PM let coal gas burn off and it was good for the night. We also had a coal stoker in the basement,rice coal in a hopper but we switched to wood when coal got too expensive.

Had a coal furnace in the cellar of our old farm house.We burned anthracite "nut" coal.I remember the old man getting upset when they raised the price of delivered coal to $18 a ton!! LOL That was in the 60s.

A ton is going for around $300 here. It's still a bargain in heating compared to other fuels.

Got that right,when coal went to $40/ton,we went to wood for heat.

I’m looking at it for another heat source in the metalworking shop I’ve already got propane in there but we use to burn wood but took it out a few years ago and looking to go back to using another heat source. With the old wood stove we would stoke it at night and if it burned out over night the propane would take over so the coal would be about the same thing unless using a stoker type then it would be the full primary. After I thought about it if using a stove like yours posco I can burn wood in it if I wanted to.

You sure can although I've never done it. I work twelve hour shifts and have a commute an hour each way. I stoke the stove before I leave for work and come home fourteen hours later and the coal is still doing its thing. I could probably get a twenty-four hour burn if I throttled it down.

A winter project this year is a really old ROUND OAK OVAL stove. I almost threw it away a cpl of years ago but found out what they are worth and kept it. LOL Needs a lot of work, but I look forward to getting started soon. I think I can still get the nickel plated parts redone at a place in St. Louis.

I have never burnt coal myself, always wood. My g-pa had two coal stoves at their place and I still have very fond memories of them. Also had a huge pot belly coal stove in the extra/guest house. I never recall being cold in either house. He burnt large coal, I am guessing 4-7 inch stuff.

I woke up many mornings to him "shaking" the clinkers out of the bottom of those stoves. Always just about the right time to head out hunting of some sort.

Now, on the other hand. I grew up in a very large 3 story 18 room house built pre civil war. We moved there when I was 7 or 8 yrs old. It had a very large stoker coal furnace in it. I was tasked with feeding that thing. Five gallon buckets of coal from the coal room to the feeder twice a day. 8-10 buckets was common. A cpl years later I also had to remove the clinkers each time I stoked it. Had some rods and "grabbers" about 6 ft long to reach into the fire box to do it.
Not fun after the new wore off.

Looking back though, I am glad I did it......

One more plug for burning coal. I left my house at 5:30 yesterday afternoon and just got home. The better part of fifteen hours later and the stove is still cranking out heat at four hundred degrees on the last load I put in it. It could probably go a few more but I tended to it anyway.