Saw this advertised for $250...have not seen it in person. I think I heard these were not really good at burning coal??? so, I am thinking they aren't really good a a duel fuel appliance??? Any knowledge on this...I am not even sure what model it is....I know that Coaly will know.
Almost bought one few years ago. Think it’s called a coal bear. I’d buy it for 250$ would look good in the shop.
...I thought I read/heard that unit wasn't really good at burning either?...again, I don't know, sure Coaly and WelderDave can help. I have always liked the idea of duel fuel...I don't know if any unit ever did it well though? I am sure there are things to look for in terms of condition: grates, shaker, warping...not really sure what to look at actually.
For future reference shack you can place the @ symbol in front of a name and it will alert the person you mentioned. Then you can say things like, hey WeldrDave what's your opinion on this thing? Since brenndatomu was kind enough to call on Coaly already......
I am not the expert on these things, but generally on any dual purpose thing, they tend not to do either well. For instance, I have dual purpose sheep called Corridales. They are not as heavy as meat breeds of sheep like Montadales, and yet do not give as much wool as wool breeds. Yet they are heavier then wool breeds of sheep for meat, and give more wool then meat breeds of sheep. I like them because they do both things okay. It is the same most times with other stuff, stoves included. How can they be good at two things as to make something excel it must be designed for it? Coal burns drastically different then wood so it is hard to make a stove do both equally as well. Some however, like my New Yorker 90/130 can do one better then the other. In that case, the New Yorker does much better at burning coal then firewood. If you know which way the particular model leans, then you can assess if it will meet your needs. For me for instance, I burn more coal then firewood so I want a stove that burns coal well. If it burns wood for the shoulder seasons that is fine, but it must burn coal really well.
I thought I posted on this? ... That's called a Coal bear stove. They were few and far between. As far as I know about them and learned from Coaly, they do better with coal than wood. You can burn both but it's better with coal as I understand. It's a very unique stove and would be kinda neat to have one, Coaly does! I don't. Coal here is hard to come by and God knows if someone found out I was burning coal in a NJ neighborhood, the crazies would be out at my front door with signs and bull horns! . I would buy it for $250 just as a conversation piece. Coaly can tell you much more if he come's along.
Since you "can" burn wood in any coal burner, they simply burn wood faster since you are burning on a grate with oxygen coming up through from the bottom, so any coal stove will burn wood faster. The Coal Bear has reversible grates so when turned to the wood position, they are solid, leaving no oxygen coming up through open grates compared to other coal stoves. The firebox isn't large enough for longer wood pieces, so like antique coal burning cook stoves, wood needs to be cut short. Primarily an Anthracite burner and most will need grates and the cast iron hopper parts called liners if they were used with coal. Coal burning position Wood burning position This is what to expect before casting new liners Most people don't go through the expense and time casting new like this. So you will find them with home made grates and lined with brick such as this. Since you can't shake the above home made grates, I like to brick them for wood use only. They can always remove the brick and add liners with the proper grates if they want to burn coal in the future. I have the patterns for most of the internal parts.
I had one of them we put in a 8x20 mobile camp built on hay wagon running gear. Never knew it was coal burning as well, never had the grates in it, and had to cut the wood small for it.
