From: "Geo." 

"Frank Haber"  wrote in message
news:3ee747d7{at}w3.nls.net...

> So no spring-wound shaker or screw stoker?

Nope, just a chute in the middle of the thing to hold a stack of coal so as
the bottom burns the coal drops down, automatic gravity feed.

>  You cart out the clinkers?

it's got a grate, you use a special tool to rake the grate which forces all
the ash into a tray on the bottom then you open a door on the front and
remove the tray to be emptied. I do that once a day in the winter, once
every 2 days as it warms up some.

>  Does  it sit on stone?  In a fireplace?

I have about a 5'x5' tiled section of the floor it sits on. The floor gets
comfortably warm but that's about it.

>  Doesn't char the wall, I guess.

Not at all, you only need 12" between it and the wall. Coal isn't like
wood, it's a very steady heat that takes a long time to get going hotter or
cooler. The stove itself weighs about 250 lbs so imagine heating a chunk of
steel that size to about 150 deg and letting it heat the air in the house.
On a really cold day I may get it up to 250 degrees, rarely need to go
above that.

I used to have a wood burner, it would regularly run 400-500 degrees and
the stove pipe would be at least that hot, with coal I can put my hand on
the stove pipe even when it's cranked because there is little airflow so
the heat is absorbed by the stove instead of flushed up the pipe.

Geo.

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-4