England Stove Works

My old days were, we were first married and lived in a 900sqft double wide. The heat was resistance heat in the wall unit. Cost a fortune to run. Had a zero clearance fire place . I had a saw, maul and truck. I went to work cutting wood. Kept us warm for I think it was two Winters in there. Heat was set at like 55f. The Fireplace kept the main living area warm she cooked and the kitchen was warm and since it was a FP we couldn't really keep fire all night all though I did load it when I got up through the night. But we kept a small cube type electric heater with a tip over safety, on the dresser to keep the bedroom in the upper 60s for sleeping. We pretty much kept the electric heat off all the time.

Did this out of necessity, we were very poor, I was in school and she couldn't find a job.

 

Yes, I have. I have been looking at a new Drolet Myriad II that's been marked down.

 

Nothing wrong with being poor. It can keep you humble. I will mention one thing my grandma used to tell us. "Just because you're poor doesn't mean you have to be dirty. It's not a sin to be dirty, it's a sin to stay that way." The moral of the story...don't be lazy and/or slothful.

Edit: If grandma would have lived longer, she'd have been 100 yrs. young this week.
Grandma...her and I spent many a night after church shelling peas, stringin' beans, listened to those old stories about hard livin', sloppin' the hogs, makin' lie soap, salt curin' hams, and my first remembrance of the walkin' farts. LOL! (Hollerin' out the back door at grandpa in the garden) "Your plantin' them tater's in the wrong sign." Silence... "Hush! I'm plantin' 'em in the ground!"

 

Are we sure we don't have the same Grandma, and are cousins or something?? I had to look, no way your in Ohio! Haha.

And my grandmother would be close to that age as well if alive, maybe the exact same age?

 

I think I saw that on another thread...I love our stove.

 

[QUOTE="T.Jeff Veal, post: 985797, member: 2893"...I love our stove.[/QUOTE]
Do you mean the wood stove I have now? I'm still looking and going to get a wood stove to replace my wood stove.

From this morning to this afternoon...somehow a beast of a stove made it's way into my garage...though it's not a wood burner per se.

 

Do you mean the wood stove I have now? I'm still looking and going to get a wood stove to replace my wood stove.

From this morning to this afternoon...somehow a beast of a stove made it's way into my garage...though it's not a wood burner per se. [/QUOTE]
Our Drolet stove

 

Our Drolet stove[/QUOTE]
Yep...I misread that. Don't hold it against me. I need

 

[/QUOTE]From this morning to this afternoon...somehow a beast of a stove made it's way into my garage...though it's not a wood burner per se. [/QUOTE]

The above must have slipped through the cracks. However, I am still looking for a wood burner.

 

Yep...I misread that. Don't hold it against me. I need [/QUOTE]
Don't worry, I need new ones...

 

Ohio...Yes, Sir...born and reared although I don’t feel like I was. Lots of Bluegrass and “Clay”and coal dust in my family.

 

Here’s how that story ended.

Hey...it can burn wood too...and it’s EPA exempt to boot. Now I just have to make a removable secondary air system for it for the times I may wish to burn wood.

 

I should have bought Mike’s NC-30 also, but I didn’t have any plans to be up his way or I would have. I bought the 20 year old nearly unused Hitzer 354 coal/wood combo to try anthracite.

 

12th season coming up on our NC-30. It has been awesome. Best $$$$ I ever spent on a stove.

 

I’ve run the heck out of (but within safe limits) my 2013 model nc30 and the dang thing just keeps asking for more! It really is a hoss.

 

Edit:
You know you’re getting old when you spend an hour typing a post, like the one below, and discover you’ve already told everyone about your new stove. Lol!

Oh heck, no sense in erasing it now...I’ll just leave the post below rather than erase it.

Yes...and I found one, but forget the model...oh wait Myriad II... for $899...probably should have bought one of them. It’s as big as the nc30 I believe, just not as clean burning. I actually liked that stove a lot for what it is...a cheaper stove...seemed built rather well. One fault I did find on that particular stove was the door would wobble up and down a bit. Not sure why or if it had an adjustment on it. I would like to check another stove like it for comparison. If I found the door to be adjustable I’d probably but it over the nc30 just for the larger ash pan. Has a by-pass and a really nice window.

Incidentally, I bought the giant stove that was sitting in the kids bedroom. It’s a Hitzer 354 anthracite coal stove with a double door...more rate though can still be ordered...and it burns wood as well. I’m going to make removable re-burn system for I think. Here it is below:



It has a removable baffle, primary air inlet with bi-metallic thermostat control, blower with temperature control, and secondary over fire air inlets in the doors which can double as primary air intakes for wood burning should I choose not to use the rear thermostat, ash pan, shaker grates for coal use, step top, 5/16” top plate thickness, 1/4” for rest of stove, 7” stove top flue outlet with internal mpd.

The blower is huge and blower air comes out just below the steel top and above the brass trim above the doors. The know in the center above the doors is the internal mpd...damper.

One Hitzer 354 owner has posted phenomenal single load heating statistics for his stove with just a minor stove modification...starting a wood fire in the stove to get the coal going, loading fully with 90lbs. of anthracite ( nut coal )... his stove burned with out adding any more coal...and only shaking down a little each day...burned for six days solid before the fire died out completely.

Now, obviously it’s not super efficient with wood as is, but with a minor modification it can be greatly improved to burn better the burn with wood. I wanted a Combo stove...at least I think I did. If I like coal...I’m going all in and may buy a strict anthracite coal stove...though if I can get 24 hours between tending I’ll call it good and I’ll keep this stove. I don’t have much in this stove at all...pert near stole it actually compared to a new one ordered with the double doors.

You can see the bricks are like new and barely stained from just a handful, if that, of wood fires. A widow owned it, then new owners bought the house and used it one time. Said it eats wood...well yeah...if you don’t cover those grates with bricks it’s going to eat wood.

So why am I still looking for a wood stove?
Well, this stove may be waaay too big for my house. I knew that going in, but since this stove was on CL 30 minutes from me, and given it’s condition, and the price...well, was I supposed to let someone else buy it. Nope! The purchase hedges against the cost of a new wood burner if need be...or 23 tons of coal...enough for about 10-13 years worth of heat.

So , yes, I am stoked about my purchase and excited to try things out, yet it’s to be determined how much I will miss burning wood in an efficient wood burning stove. It’s to be determined if I will like anthracite coal at all. It’s to be determined if I will want a single piece of glass to enjoy my fires by, and it’s to be determined if I will like those dancing blue ladies and steady red glow, or if I’ll miss that brighter glow of fancy orange flames, and even more so if I’ll still long for those different colored dancing secondaries giving off their hide-and-seek charm. The only thing I won’t miss about cutting firewood is freezing fingers and toes.