Hitzer 354 test fire, install, first fire

I'm just offering a solution with no negativity.

 

Just thought I’d let the pictures do the talking, that’s all.

On a serious note, I decided it wasn’t proper to start a thread “about a stove” and not finish it.

If anyone has questions or concerns about buying/using a wood/coal stove, please ask away. I am happy to help and give fair non-biased opinion. I will never quit burning wood and will likely always burn some coal as well. I like freedom... to use whatever fuel I wish...or to be free from paying high prices of any...#2 oil, wood, or coal. As it stands at the moment I can heat my home 6-7 ways if I need to.

This stove has far exceeded my expectations...and so has burning anthracite hard coal. This stove is not going to be super efficient on wood, but I can still burn wood whenever I want. It will, however, be more efficient than the standard old stove just because of the bi-metallic thermostat on the back of the stove that works like a champ.

Currently I have 3 1/2 cord drying for a rainy day and planning to get another 3-6 cords while it’s cheap so it can also be seasoning. Having dry wood means I can wait and buy any and all coal when it’s in sale at a cheap price.

All this affords me the time to wait on the “steal of a deal” on a modern wood stove...and allows me some time to let some of the bugs get worked out the latest stove designs that may suddenly rear their head.

Looking forward to when I can shut down burning the coal and just need an hour or three burn of good dry wood. As it stands right now...one match since January 20, 2020 and cut my heating expenses by over half from using fuel oil. From that savings I can buy another cord+ of wood if I want, or little over half a ton of coal. Don’t have the final figures yet, but fuel oil tank will likely remain full for a long time without being refilled. Hope I never turn it on again. Lol!

I have a sneaky suspicion this stove will be just as impressive with wood when comparing it to the old wood stove it replaced. In this stove though, the coal will be more efficient that the wood, as was expected.

If anyone has a chance to buy one of these and think having a dual fuel stove would fit your situation...even triple fuel when considering bituminous coal as well...I would highly recommend giving it strong consideration. It’s built as heavily as a Fisher wood stove, for comparison, and Hitzer customer service is second to none. Dean Lehman and family are top notch folks and so are the Amish folks I’ve met that build those stoves. Dean went out of his way to assist me in no less than 3 visits and multiple phone calls and that’s even with purchasing a used stove from a private individual.

 

Nice thing is...with the top being double layered, all that heat comes out the front glass and stoves sides as radiated heat and out the top as convection heat all without the blower being turned on. Don’t really need the blower, but it’s nice to have if I ever needed it. The side benefit to that is the back of the stove stays much cooler than a radiant only stove and provides just enough heat to the wall behind the stove to also allow the wall to radiate some heat itself.

 

I imagine some oak splits or hunks of hedge would last quite a while using the bi-metallic thermostat on the back. Looking forward to trying at least some oak. Most of the big hedge around here is gone now.


Looking forward to designing and building a secondary burn system for this stove, which has been the plan since seeing the stove on Craigslist.

 

Like I said at the start as far as combo units go they are one of the best.

 

How much area does it heat and how long are your heat times ? The flame looks like blue heaven.Very nice.

 

The stove is rated for 2500 sq. ft, I think. Possibly 3000...

I‘m underwhelming this stove with my 1300 sq. ft. Since the stove I have had a blower and the air comes out the top of the stove I take my stove temp readings above the doors...where my typical operating temps are never higher than 365F and are currently only 265F. I’ve had the stove as low as 230F above the doors. For comparison at 265F above the doors the stove top is only 160F...house is 74F.

Heating time or burn time isn’t quite looked at the same way as wood.

Burn time has been constant since January 20, 2020 and the fire has yet to go out.

When I started this stove with wood I put 96lbs. of nut coal in it. As I gained experience that amount could have easily been pushed to over 100lbs. Some days when I tend I might add only 12 pounds of coal to as high as 20-24 pounds of anthracite coal...and that just keeps it full. From full load of 100 pounds or more to burn completely out and start over could be 3 to 6 days, but keep in mind people don’t typically let the fuel load get that low let alone let the fire go completely out.

I generally shake twice a day in temps 35 and below. In these warm temps I shake and load only once. I suppose I could only shake at day and a half intervals in these warm temps, but I have not tried it. As it continues to warm up I may try it.

Stove tending is 5-10 minutes once to twice a day...again depending on outside temps. As big as the stove is for the house I could tend only once even when it’s cold out, but I just do it out of habit...to build a tending regimen. I generally shake once to twice a day...and may not load any coal, but generally add a couple scoops to keep the coal bed deep to slow the flow of air through the coal bed. Shaking takes 5-15 seconds and just a minute or two to add some coal.

Those of you used to seeing flames and liking those blues...don’t get used to them. Typical is the dark box with glowing red coals. The blues are volatile gases burning off of the coal and with experience I’ve learned that burning them like that often wastes btu’s up the chimney rather than putting the btu’s through the stove and into the house. I’ve learned to control how big the blue flames get and I can often avoid them if I want...which sort of hinges on how much fresh coal has been loaded.

 

You'll find if you use the smaller coal from around the bin edges known as "fines" on warmer days, it will burn slower with the same amount of air due to less space between the pieces slowing the air and burn rate. Cold nights larger pieces will burn faster with more heat output. You get the same amount of heat per pound out of the coal, it just burns faster with the more air space between larger pieces. The main thing to realize is not all coal is equal and can vary by not only breaker, but by the vein taken from.

I had a European coal stove before the Hitzer (Efel / Surdiac type) that was more efficient with a more accurate fluid filled thermostat actuator. They use pea size instead of nut, and with the smaller grate area burn with more flame. They use a heat exchanger on the back that requires yearly fly ash cleaning from inside. They are cleaned with a slicer knife instead of movable grates.

I went with the Hitzer EZ-Flo 50-93 internal hopper that only needs filing daily. Starting at the end of October burns the entire heating season until left to go out. I find when no longer filled in the spring, it takes about 3 days to burn out.

I control the Hitzer burn with the low fire front ash pan intake more than the thermostat. Opening thermostat allows much more fuel use with high blue flames, but much more heat as well. The barometric damper controls draft but flue temp does rise opening thermostat, so efficiency is sacrificed for a hotter burn. You can't go by surface temp since it is not all radiant heat, with convection from the blower, air temperature is the heating factor.

As far as grates, the old Gibraltar which became Glacier Bay has the best grate shaker system I've used. Like huge gears that grind and pulverize any thing semi solid that may not be soft enough ash to fall through. No poking from the bottom necessary. I find when really cold if I want max BTU, to poke from each hole in the Hitzer grate up through the bottom. You can overshake the Hitzer easily by moving the shaker handle too far jamming a piece of coal in the grate until it burns out.

Rarely do I get any puff back or small explosion opening hopper door, but any coal stove that is stoked (filled through front door without hopper) should have a shallow spot in the fire to support a small blue flame as a pilot to ignite coal gas as it is created. If this goes out, the time it takes to come back up to temp with glowing mass only, increases your emissions drastically. Boilers are the same way and fired heavy around the outside of wall sheets to avoid air leaks up through fire which cools sheets. Without a blue flame people get excited when you're firing an outdoor mobile boiler such as locomotive, traction engine or other industrial equipment. After firing locomotives with a firebox the size of a pick up bed, stoves are a toy.