Estate Heatrola

[OrthoSean]

We've discussed these before, but here's a neat brochure for one of those furnaces that was shaped like a victrola.

Sean

[Brad]

I like the crank in the front.

Interesting in that the picture on the left looks like there is a flue port at the top back, and the sales picture on the right looks clean.

Has anyone ever seen one of these in person?

[Tinkerbell]

How cool is that?! Of course, I wasn't around when it was discussed previously, so this is new to me.

[phonogfp]

I've seen a couple of these in shops. Nicely grained, and with the distinctive shape that catches the eye from across the room... I was tempted to buy one, but couldn't bring myself to sacrifice phonograph space for a heater.

George P.

[gramophoneshane]

We dont need heaters in our tropical climate, but boy I'd love to find one & convert it into my backyard barbeque
I think the lid might be a wee bit heavier than your average Weber though.

[larryh]

I think I discussed a phonograph styled heater here that was running on ebay.. It was even more of a "copy" of the styling of a victrola. These Heatrolas are interesting to me since I still heat with and often cook on wood. I have run into a couple locally but they are always beyond being used any longer. The last one I saw had a cracked fire pot and the doors were falling off with broken iron supports. If a person has access to coal they are said to be quite good in actual use if you can find a still solid unit. A member of a stove group I have always mentions that the Heatrola was his favorite heater and when it finally died he never did come up with another heater that worked as well for him. They also produced a rather slick book which I have a copy of somewhere which is mostly aimed at providing salesmen with a head full of ways to expand on all the features of using the stoves. To me the style is a bit dowdy looking. Some years ago I ran into a very impressive coal stove that was almost impossible to tell at a distance if it was acutely a sonora bombe cabinet or not. It had all the wonderful lines and details of a sleek cabinet victrola. It was in perfect shape as well. But the cost was more than my budget and really I have no access here to decent coal, so other than just sitting here to look at it was of no use, but fun to see for sure. I think stoves are just about as interesting to me as are victolas, but of course the victrolas serve a much more useful purpose as a collection.

[Henry]

Years ago I saw a cast iron coal stove that was almost a dead ringer for my VV-XI. It was in use where it sat, in the Locust Summit breaker of the Reading Coal & Iron Co. at Locust Gap, PA. I failed to get details as to maker. Similar, if not identical, stoves to this one have appeared on the auction site, as noted by previous poster. If you live near a source of good old Pennsylvania anthracite, a stove like this would heat your house and then some. I did heat my house with anthracite for about ten years, but I used a "modern" circulating stove. I typically burned between one and two tons of coal a year. My back neighbor just had a delivery of anthracite; he paid c. $210/ton. Definitely cheaper than oil, but not quite as convenient! It takes some technique to burn hard coal, which must be burned on a shaker grate; you don't just toss it on the fire like wood (or nasty bituminous coal). Once you get it started, it burns with a soft blue flame and emits very little visible smoke or ash: a beautiful fuel, really! You do need a dependable draft and a (preferably) masonry flue.

Unfortunately, that "Victrola" coal stove disappeared along with the breaker, which was dismantled some 15-20 years ago. I do hope that it ended up in the hands of someone who appreciates it, and not at the scrap dealer!

[larryh]

Henry

Your lucky to live in the area where hard coal is available. The amish about two hours north of me in Illinois import it from there. They used to have bulk and bagged. Now its almost all bagged and sold by the pallet. Seems like a lot of extra for bagging the product to me. At that time about 7 years ago I could still get a ton for about 90.00. It seemed to take a big jump as they cracked down on coal and oil use price wise. Its only going to get worse I fear. I too have a interest in oil heat and have a yahoo group devoted to that topic as well as other oil appliances. Oil has become so expensive around me since its not a big heating source that I can't afford to buy it any longer. The coal would be about half the cost even at the 300 + cost that a fellow quoted me last spring per ton in bags. I just had a portion of my wood delivered for the winter and split and delivered I can heat the home warmly for less than 500.00 a year. That is way cheaper than either coal or oil. But I would still love to have one of those glowing coal stoves just once to see how it would do.

Larry

[Henry]

Larry, heating oil is expensive here in the Northeastern US too, where it is the common heat source. The last delivery I paid $2.73/gal. When I moved into this house in 1970, oil was 17.9¢/gal. I typically run about 700 gallons a season through my furnace, which is only seven years old and highly efficient. It adds up.

Where anthracite is available, you must match its size to the grates of your stove. Pea and chestnut ("nut") are the common domestic coal stove sizes. Rice and smaller sizes are for stokers. Larger sizes (egg, stove) are typically used in old-fashioned industrial applications, e.g., steam locomotives. The function of the coal breaker was to process mine run coal, removing non-coal materials (rock, slate, wood, etc.) and sizing the coal by passing it through a series of screens, which are large, vibrating steel sheets with holes of appropriate sizes to catch or pass through the coal. At the end of the process you have clean, sized coal, and coal fines which are used today in steam boilers at co-generation power plants and in various filtration applications, since anthracite is almost 100% pure carbon. I've been in an operating coal breaker; the whole building shakes, and the process is very noisy and dirty, even with water sprays to keep down the dust.

The Amish (gray buggies) or Mennonite (black buggies) coal users may not have a ready source of wood, since they are largely farmers (and very successful ones at that). I'm not aware that they have any doctrinal reasons for favoring one fuel over another, except of course they will not use electricity, so that may eliminate oil furnaces as they need electricity to power the burner and work the thermostats. But bagged anthracite, typically 50 lb. bags, at $300/ton retail in Illinois strikes me as not all that unreasonable, considering that a good deal of the retail cost is due to the expense of transporting it from the breaker to the end user. Needless to say, anthracite is readily available in eastern Pennsylvania!

[larryh]

I think I may be "hijacking this thread as the saying goes". But yes Henry the reason most of the amish north of me do not burn wood for the most part is that there are a lot of them, and it fairly wide open farm land with scattered trees. The were very into oil. They like myself used the old time Pot Burner heaters such as the Sieglers and especially for the amish the Jungers stoves which are said to be rather thrifty and also don't use oil in pot burners but sleeve type burners. They only use a flue to send the gases out, not the heat which probably is one reason the Jungers are said to do so well. I have never had one but would like to try one some day.

The real problem with oil now is that the government has set new standards for oil and it is causing major problems from red dye in much fuel clogging the wicks of wick stoves and lamps and a lowered amount of sulfur content which has caused it to carbon up much faster the wicks than the previous fuel.
the only kerosene available here is hitting 4.00 a gallon and has for quite some time.

Larry