. . . anybody else out there burning rice coal in a stoker? I have some questions about what the ash should look like.
Just bought a Hitzer 608 anthracite rice burner . . .
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Babaganoosh
Minister of Fire
bobdog2o02
Minister of Fire
Michael6268
Minister of Fire
Should look like crunched up rice cakes or rice crispies. On full burn hot coal should be about an inch from end of gtate.
mustangwagz
Feeling the Heat
im curious about these things too..i live in PA, and work for a coal company..id love to hear and see some testimonials about them.. guess ill have to read about them!!
Michael6268
Minister of Fire
Work pretty much like Harman pellet stoves. Air comes up through a grate/fire pot for combustion. Feed pushed pushes coal foewatd. Ash falls off end of grate into ash pan below. Convection blower pushes hot air into room. Coal loaded into hopper in back of stove. Any more ? S just ask.
SidecarFlip
Minister of Fire
Longer burn times and more BTU output. On the downside, the venting is entirely different and coal is inherently dirty as coal burners know. There may be a coal stoker in my future.
Michael6268
Minister of Fire
Anyone who has used todays bagged coal will tell you, the coal is way cleaner than pellets which aree very dusty. The ash from the burnt coal is dirty and can make a mess if your not careful.
SidecarFlip
Minister of Fire
I don't have a dust issue with my multifuel stove, I eliminated that years ago. I put a K&N washable air filter on the Room Air Intake on the fan, that eliminated all the dust from pellet/corn handling blown into the air by the stove and I leave most of the fines outside when I dump my bags into garbage cans on the deck. My pellets come in in 5 gallon buckets, not in bags.
My experience with coal years ago (chunk anthricite) is it's a good but dirty heat.
My experience with coal years ago (chunk anthricite) is it's a good but dirty heat.
Fsappo
Minister of Fire
Im trying to get Webfish to start a coal section. Anyone else that thinks it could have a place here should give him a nudge. But burned rice coal should be light in weight, light grey in color and break of in small cakes once in a while. You will actually see light grey pieces that have the original shape they were pre burn. You don't want to see any black and shiny in the ash pan. Whats important is how much burned coal is at the end of the ramp during high fire and idle.
I'm curious, does the Hitzer utilize a Coal-Trol?
I'm curious, does the Hitzer utilize a Coal-Trol?
SidecarFlip
Minister of Fire
I believe they do....
Heck, I've tried unsuccessfully to get him to start a corn burners sub forum. I'd be happy with that but I don't see that either. If John Abbott restarted IBC, I'd be gone from here in a flash and so would about 10 other posters.
Fsappo
Minister of Fire
Thanks for all of the replies, guys.
I was a member here about 10 years ago when Elk was a regular poster, if any of you remember that. The owner of the website used to post regularly, and was pursuing patents on chimney extenders, as I recall.
I have been burning wood for years. Designed my current house around an Alderlea T5. It keeps the house warm except during the two hardest months of winter, at which point we'd have to burn red oak 24/7 to keep the house at 7. Rather than commit to that, we've used supplemental electric heat (not too expensive in Western PA).
Now, we're a bit older, and very much busier. She has a new business, as do I. We needed something that required less tending.
After considering pellet stoves, I heard that they make coal stoves that work on a similar principle. Given the density of the fuel, the plentiful nature of the fuel, the ability to store it long term, and so on, we went with coal.
I installed the Hitzer 608 with a power vent about a week ago. It does, in fact, work with a coal trol.
What can I say? To say I love it wouldn't quite capture the warm feelings I have for it.
Installation was a bit of a bad start, because the instructions that come with the stove are disjointed and take some time to figure out if you've never seen a coal stove installation before. There were separate manuals for the stove itself, the stove for use with a power vent, the power vent, the vacuum cut out switch, the barometric damper, the vent spill cut out switch, and the coal trol. In the end, it was actually a pretty easy installation, and, besides a horrible gash in my hand which required an ER trip (my fault), the final result looks good.
More importantly, the stove is an absolute Beast. When you put it on full bore, it cranks out the heat. It can bring my 1800 square foot main level from 60 to 75 in an hour or so in the cold weather we've been having.
The coal trol is really nice because it uses a standard LAN cord to connect to the stove, and it gets all of its power through that cord. That means you don't need a 24V thermostat system.
So far, I love the stove. It's really, really nice to throw a bag of coal in in the morning, empty the ash bucket every 2 days, and wake up to a warm house because the Coal Trol turns it on high at 5 am.
The only downside is that there is fan noise - not from the internal fans - from the external fan (the power vent motor and fan are outside the house). It's not loud enough to bother me, but you're not going to get your crackling fire silent ambiance that make wood stoves so nice.
BTW - the coal I got is super clean. I dump it in the hopper and there is virtually no dust. When I empty the pan, just shut off the convection blower and you have no dust from that either - dump outside. After burning cord wood, coal is the cheapest, and the heat is regular and distributes very well with the double convection fan.
If anybody has any questions, please ask - I'll answer what I can based on one week's experience.
I was a member here about 10 years ago when Elk was a regular poster, if any of you remember that. The owner of the website used to post regularly, and was pursuing patents on chimney extenders, as I recall.
I have been burning wood for years. Designed my current house around an Alderlea T5. It keeps the house warm except during the two hardest months of winter, at which point we'd have to burn red oak 24/7 to keep the house at 7. Rather than commit to that, we've used supplemental electric heat (not too expensive in Western PA).
Now, we're a bit older, and very much busier. She has a new business, as do I. We needed something that required less tending.
After considering pellet stoves, I heard that they make coal stoves that work on a similar principle. Given the density of the fuel, the plentiful nature of the fuel, the ability to store it long term, and so on, we went with coal.
I installed the Hitzer 608 with a power vent about a week ago. It does, in fact, work with a coal trol.
What can I say? To say I love it wouldn't quite capture the warm feelings I have for it.
Installation was a bit of a bad start, because the instructions that come with the stove are disjointed and take some time to figure out if you've never seen a coal stove installation before. There were separate manuals for the stove itself, the stove for use with a power vent, the power vent, the vacuum cut out switch, the barometric damper, the vent spill cut out switch, and the coal trol. In the end, it was actually a pretty easy installation, and, besides a horrible gash in my hand which required an ER trip (my fault), the final result looks good.
More importantly, the stove is an absolute Beast. When you put it on full bore, it cranks out the heat. It can bring my 1800 square foot main level from 60 to 75 in an hour or so in the cold weather we've been having.
The coal trol is really nice because it uses a standard LAN cord to connect to the stove, and it gets all of its power through that cord. That means you don't need a 24V thermostat system.
So far, I love the stove. It's really, really nice to throw a bag of coal in in the morning, empty the ash bucket every 2 days, and wake up to a warm house because the Coal Trol turns it on high at 5 am.
The only downside is that there is fan noise - not from the internal fans - from the external fan (the power vent motor and fan are outside the house). It's not loud enough to bother me, but you're not going to get your crackling fire silent ambiance that make wood stoves so nice.
BTW - the coal I got is super clean. I dump it in the hopper and there is virtually no dust. When I empty the pan, just shut off the convection blower and you have no dust from that either - dump outside. After burning cord wood, coal is the cheapest, and the heat is regular and distributes very well with the double convection fan.
If anybody has any questions, please ask - I'll answer what I can based on one week's experience.
Brother Bart - Have you gotten up out of that bar stool since the last time I was in this joint?
Good to hear from you.
Good to hear from you.
tjnamtiw
Minister of Fire
Spot on with bagged coal. It's a learning process with handling the ash but if you have two ash pans, BEFORE shaking down, pull out the ash pan and cover it. Slide in the new ash pan and shake down. Take the old ash pan outside and dump it in a covered can. No dust. No dirt. Even with bulk coal, it comes wet and no dust accumulates. You can even spray it down if you want to make SURE it's wet as it comes in the chute.
tjnamtiw
Minister of Fire
It's nice to see someone come on here and back up what I've been preaching to the PA folks looking for a recommendation on a stove, pellet or otherwise. I've read up on that Hitzer 608 and it sounds like a beast! I've never seen one of them but have seen other PA makers' models. With the stokers, it does take patience to dial in the correct stroke, as you probably found out. But then it's just enjoy the warmth and plenty of it, compared to pellet stoves. Those with pellets haven't a clue IMHO.
SidecarFlip
Minister of Fire
SidecarFlip
Minister of Fire
The Hitzer is rated for 100,000 btu or about twice what a pellet stove is. Was taliking to the wife a few minutes ago about getting one. She's all for it (so long as I can source the coal here). I can haul it no biggie, especially bagged on skids. I shot Blashak an e-mail last night but haven't heard from them as of yet.
I certainly wouldn't want to see a cabbage install the likes of what we see on U-tube with a coal stoker. That would burn the house down, like right now.
I certainly wouldn't want to see a cabbage install the likes of what we see on U-tube with a coal stoker. That would burn the house down, like right now.
alternativeheat
Minister of Fire
You probably have several suppliers in Pa besides direct with the mine company..
Lucky you, seriously ! I was looking at coal stokers before we bought the p61 but up here in Ma. we just don't have enough distribution of small cuts of coal. We burned coal for more than 30 years ( nut anthracite in a hand fired stove) and I'm saying right up front pellets are definitely dirtier in the house. And even if you do get a dusty bag of coal just wet it down. How you remove ash from the stove is the critical part. Don't do anything that disturbs the ash is all.. Then carefully remove the ash pan not disturbing the ash. In this respect it's not so different from our P61. And about wetting coal down ? Coal can be stored anywhere for years or decades, in a damp basement, out in the rain even, doesn't matter.
I've said it before in the forums, coal is real heat, pellets are the Tickle Me Elmo of the heating world. Look at the rating you posted here, 100,000 BTU and with a stoker that still turns down. Figures Ma would be shy on rice coal, it just figures.
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SidecarFlip
Minister of Fire
My issue. I'm not in Pennsylvania, I'm in southern Michigan. I can picke it up, via gooseneck or tractor trailer but it could be cost prohibitive, If I can find rice coal somewhat locally, I'm all about it, especially if pellets go south, I mean to the EU for fuel.
alternativeheat
Minister of Fire
alternativeheat
Minister of Fire
That is not nesseacily true it depends on the stove the chimney and the coal but it does take less maintenance than most pellet stoves. The biggest difference is in venting no cheap easy to run pellet vent for coal. And coal is really hard on stainless as well
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