Just bought a Hitzer 608 anthracite rice burner . . .

[Michael6268]

if you have to line with stainless, or class A it can be a little pricey, but its no "special" venting. Most are the same as woodstove set up except you usually add a barometric damper. If venting into a masonry chimney, inexpensive single wall black connector pipe is all you need. You will have to replace quicker due to ccorrosive properties of coal.stainless will last longer.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I wonder what Hitzer's power vent consists of? I found my Blashak rice coal in Urbana Ohio or Jackson, Michigan. Jackson is 70 miles west and Urbana is 120 south, both within striking distance.

How does rice coal compared to pellets for BTU per volume used, in other words, I use 4 ton of pellets and 4 ton of corn per heating season, would I be at or about the same volume/weight for rice anthricite?

Got the ok from the Missus.

 

[Michael6268]

Coal is approx 26 million btus per ton
Pellets are approx 16 million btus per ton

 

[Coal Ivy]

Weird - I never considered that coal supply would be a regional thing. I've got two Amish guys within 20 minutes of here that store it in bulk. I can drive up with the 3/4 ton, and put about 40 pounds of rice coal in each bag, throw in truck, throw in garage, carry up about 1.7 bags a day, so far. 250 a ton right now. It's been very cold around here.

Regarding the comment about "setting the stroke" or whatever, no clue what you mean. The 608 came with a coal trol. I started the fire on day 1, set the coal trol to the temps I wanted, and the 608 did the rest. It matches the combustion fan speed to the coal feed rate to get a complete burn at the rate you want. When 5 am comes, it goes full bore and about 45 minutes later it's putting out so much heat you literally cannot hold your hand in the air stream next to the stove because it's so hot. When the house gets up to temp, the coal trol turns the stove down. I literally set the Coal Trol once and set it down. Wife manually overrides on occasion when her ass is cold.

Regarding the vent, what is your question? The power vent I got came in one piece. I cut a hole in the wall, cut out the siding, and mounted the vent to the exterior side of the house. you put a cover plate on the inside, and you're looking at a 4" vent pipe (maybe 3", hard to tell), a small pipe that you connect to the vacuum switch that ensures the fan is running, and a bx wire that runs power out to the fan.

Regarding ash emptying, for me, I just shut off the blower, open the lower door, pull out the bin, which has a handle, walk it outside, and dump it. Literally no dust at all in the house. Not sure if that's because it's rice coal or if it's the 608.

Really love the stove, and highly recommend, with the understanding that I've only owned it a week. The Amish around here swear by the non-electric Hitzers.

 

[RKS130]

Het Ivy . . . I wanted to go with a coal stove when we went with pellets 4 years ago. Madame DeFarge was, however, convinced that the war on coal flowing from the White House would make coal a bad [more expensive] choice in the longer term, and a real problem if/when we go to sell the house. Any thoughts on that? We may get a second stove for next winter, and I would love to try coal.

Thanks!

 

[alternativeheat]

Het Ivy . . . I wanted to go with a coal stove when we went with pellets 4 years ago. Madamae DeFarge was, however, convinced that the war on coal flowing from the White House would make coal a bad [more expensive] choice in the longer term, and a real problem if/when we go to sell the house. Any thoughts on that? We may get a second stove for next winter, and I would love to try coal.

Thanks!

Same here, She Who Must Be Obeyed had the same notion. So later that year we found ourselves with a new P61 and in a pellet shortage !! But she is right in a sense, there is a war on coal, mostly soft coal and mostly for industry. It's the consumer and public impression who cuts anthracite short.

 

[alternativeheat]

Weird - I never considered that coal supply would be a regional thing. .

Very limited coal yards around up here anymore in Eastern Ma. One big one in Boston and they sell Hitzer as I recall too fwiw.. There are some dealers of bagged coal but it's all nut coal. There in is the problem, stokers use rice coal. I can get nut coal at any hardware store, doesn't do much good if you own a stoker though. Back in the Jimmy Carter years you didn't have to go further than a town or two away to find a coal yard. Just follow the train tracks and you would run into one. Not any more. For one thing most of it is trucked in now and maybe bagged.

 

[Michael6268]

I say it over and over. This "silly" war on coal is all about industry who burn soft bituminous coal. That stuff does pollute! Anthracite burns clean. As clean as natural gas. You can look at my chimney and never will you see anything coming out of it except on the coldest of days you might ssee a little steam.

 

[Coal Ivy]

This be one man's opinion:

The "war" on coal was for use as an electricity source. True enough that coal power plants are the worst polluters.

Once you decide that you are not going to burn cord wood that you yourself fell, buck, and process, then you're going to be embedded in the supply and demand of all fuels, whether FF or hardwood or anything else that you must pay to use.

All boats rise with the rising tide, as it were, and vice versa.

Anthracite coal for home use likely constitutes a very minor portion of the home energy spectrum and is not, as indicated above, substantially more polluting than the darling that is natural gas.

We had a connection and we got our 608 with power vent, all fittings, and 1/2 ton of rice for about 3350. I built a tile hearth pad for about 60.

In terms of do-it-myself projects, I have to rank the 608 very high on my list. Great value for the money.

My 2 cents is that anthracite coal will be available for home energy consumption well into the future. I can't see home use being enough of an issue to have it bubble its way to the surface of national policy.

The wild swings in oil is where the focus is going to be.

Loving the stove. Will update over time, as needed.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Weird - I never considered that coal supply would be a regional thing. I've got two Amish guys within 20 minutes of here that store it in bulk. I can drive up with the 3/4 ton, and put about 40 pounds of rice coal in each bag, throw in truck, throw in garage, carry up about 1.7 bags a day, so far. 250 a ton right now. It's been very cold around here.

Regarding the comment about "setting the stroke" or whatever, no clue what you mean. The 608 came with a coal trol. I started the fire on day 1, set the coal trol to the temps I wanted, and the 608 did the rest. It matches the combustion fan speed to the coal feed rate to get a complete burn at the rate you want. When 5 am comes, it goes full bore and about 45 minutes later it's putting out so much heat you literally cannot hold your hand in the air stream next to the stove because it's so hot. When the house gets up to temp, the coal trol turns the stove down. I literally set the Coal Trol once and set it down. Wife manually overrides on occasion when her ass is cold.

Regarding the vent, what is your question? The power vent I got came in one piece. I cut a hole in the wall, cut out the siding, and mounted the vent to the exterior side of the house. you put a cover plate on the inside, and you're looking at a 4" vent pipe (maybe 3", hard to tell), a small pipe that you connect to the vacuum switch that ensures the fan is running, and a bx wire that runs power out to the fan.

Regarding ash emptying, for me, I just shut off the blower, open the lower door, pull out the bin, which has a handle, walk it outside, and dump it. Literally no dust at all in the house. Not sure if that's because it's rice coal or if it's the 608.

Really love the stove, and highly recommend, with the understanding that I've only owned it a week. The Amish around here swear by the non-electric Hitzers.

Most all my questions have been answered including the Missus's ok on a Hitzer. I just have to wander over the Berne, Indiana with the pickup truck this summer and pay for and load up one.

Bagged rice coal is no storage issue for me, I have a huge Truss arch hay barn to store all kinds of stuff in besides farm equipment.

 

[Fsappo]

Having sold hundreds of tons of coal and hearing reports about Blashack and Reading Coal, customers up our way prefer the Reading. I understand coal is coal. The issue was with the quality of the bags and consistency in size from the breaker.

Also, beware buying coal from dealers who buy in bulk and bag it on site. Want to weigh a random bag once in a while. Have heard of 50lb bags being 5-10lbs under. Of course, no one would report if they found one 5-10lb over!

 

[tjnamtiw]

One word of warning on the power vent. Watch the factory video on properly cleaning it. It only takes a few minutes to clean it but several hundred bucks to replace it!

 

[Burd]

Tj
You must be loving this.
I did look into the stove and was really concerned on the control of the btu output. Is the 608 like a stoker and has to stay lit constantly? Thats alot of btu per hour and was concerned about sholder season. Does it have a ignition system/thermostat hook up.
I wish they had other designs on a insert. For the wife and my self there not very appealing looking. My nine year old said you might as well install a tank in the living rm.

 

[Fsappo]

Any decent stoker stove, Hitzer, Keystoker, etc that uses a coal troll turns down to about 5K btus when thermostat isn't calling for heat. shoulder season is fine. The one I used just idled on its "pilot" mode, sometimes for days, using about 1/2lb or so per hour of coal. Its nice to know that when its called for you have that high end with needed. All this without replacing an igniter.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Tj
You must be loving this.
I did look into the stove and was really concerned on the control of the btu output. Is the 608 like a stoker and has to stay lit constantly? Thats alot of btu per hour and was concerned about sholder season. Does it have a ignition system/thermostat hook up.
I wish they had other designs on a insert. For the wife and my self there not very appealing looking. My nine year old said you might as well install a tank in the living rm.

Yes, they stay lit but they have a control system that will back them all the way down to just 7000 btu/hr. Even if you shut it off, they are simple to start back up. You only get the 90,000 btu or so if you really need it. Some work from a thermostat and most have something called a Coal-trol.
As for looks, check out these sites.
www.leisurelinestoves.com
www.keystoker.com
www.readingstove.com
www.alaskastove.com

I'm not gloating. I'm happy that people are FINALLY waking up to the fact that they can save a lot of money using what's right in their back yards.

 

[Coal Ivy]

Tj
For the wife and . . . there not very appealing looking. My nine year old said you might as well install a tank in the living rm.

I had a similar experience.

So I had the wife and the 9 year old bring in all the wood from the stack last year, about 7 cords worth, from under record setting snow and in record setting cold.
By the end of the year they thought the coal stove was one of the most beautiful things they had ever seen, and, after I installed it, my nine year old said, "it's like you installed a beautiful work of art in the living room."

Amazing what perspective and removal of co-dependency will do for aesthetics.

 

[tjnamtiw]

I had a similar experience.

So I had the wife and the 9 year old bring in all the wood from the stack last year, about 7 cords worth, from under record setting snow and in record setting cold.
By the end of the year they thought the coal stove was one of the most beautiful things they had ever seen, and, after I installed it, my nine year old said, "it's like you installed a beautiful work of art in the living room."

Amazing what perspective and removal of co-dependency will do for aesthetics.

EXCELLENT! Things look different from the other side of the fence. Actually, there are some really pretty coal stoves with many colors.

 

[Pete Zahria]

Coal or pellets are not for everyone.
They both require owners that do not want to just program
a thermostat when they buy them, and never touch anything again....

You have to enjoy working a little for your heat, and with the exception
of furnaces, don't mind living with varying temps in different areas of your house..

I love the brute heat you can get out of a coal stove, and with one like ours,
you don't need power..

and no question, the cheapest way to heat.

But I do like my little pellet stove in the shop. You really can't use coal
like a wood/pellet stove... they take a while to get going. (hand feds)

Pluses and minuses for everything..