A while back my friend gave me a bag of anthracite and said it burns very hot and very long.
So, as others have tried, I tried chucking a couple of hand fulls of it in with the wood.
It burned o.k., but most of it did not burn well do to the lack of air passing through a needed coal bed.
Some manufacturers offer add-on components, and some members here have had success with that.
I figured I'd try something different with the coal I still had in hopes to just finish the bag, or give it back to my friend.
What I did was put a bed of the coal on the floor of the fire brick in the bottom chamber so that the flame from the secondary
burn is blowing right on top of it. I only put a bed approximately 1 1/2" high so that the flame still had plenty of room to do it's thing.
After starting a normal fire over a good bed of charcoal I returned after about 15-20 minutes to check on things.
I found that the water temperature had raised much faster than without the coal bed, and with the blower fan off I opened the bottom door to find the coal
glowing an extremely bright orange. The heat coming out of the lower box without the fan was tremendous and I attribute that to the coal.
So now it's time for your thoughts on this.
Do you see any reason not to use this type of coal bed to assist during a regular burn of wood?
The chimney only shows heat vapors coming out with no smoke at all.
I would think that the firebrick would hold up to the coal temperatures, but let me know if you think otherwise.
Thanks.
So, as others have tried, I tried chucking a couple of hand fulls of it in with the wood.
It burned o.k., but most of it did not burn well do to the lack of air passing through a needed coal bed.
Some manufacturers offer add-on components, and some members here have had success with that.
I figured I'd try something different with the coal I still had in hopes to just finish the bag, or give it back to my friend.
What I did was put a bed of the coal on the floor of the fire brick in the bottom chamber so that the flame from the secondary
burn is blowing right on top of it. I only put a bed approximately 1 1/2" high so that the flame still had plenty of room to do it's thing.
After starting a normal fire over a good bed of charcoal I returned after about 15-20 minutes to check on things.
I found that the water temperature had raised much faster than without the coal bed, and with the blower fan off I opened the bottom door to find the coal
glowing an extremely bright orange. The heat coming out of the lower box without the fan was tremendous and I attribute that to the coal.
So now it's time for your thoughts on this.
Do you see any reason not to use this type of coal bed to assist during a regular burn of wood?
The chimney only shows heat vapors coming out with no smoke at all.
I would think that the firebrick would hold up to the coal temperatures, but let me know if you think otherwise.
Thanks.