Occasionally Burning Anthracite in a Woodstove

[stonehousemike]

I live in central PA with the Amish and Mennonites who switch from burning wood in the late fall and early winter to burning coal in the deep winter. I am just across the Susquehanna River from the hardcoal region and on these real cold nights I have been wondering about throwing on a big chunk or two of anthracite before going to bed. Will this work?

 

[philaphire]

the pros and more experienced folks will follow, but unless you hav a coal/wood stove - you can't burn coal. Coal needs to be on a grate to burn. It needs air from underneath. Again, I'm sure more techinical answers will follow....

 

[Corey]

I've burned a couple hundred pounds of Wyoming's finest in my stove. I would say if you just want to throw in a couple of chunks, you could get away with that. If you want to actually load the stove and have it burn coal, you will need some way to get air coming up from the bottom - for me, cracking the ash pan door worked OK. But in reality, coal is not some 'super fuel', you would probaby be better off heat wise and efficiency wise to just burn wood. Of course if you have free coal, or just want to try it for the heck of it, that is another story. But from my experience, I certainly wouldn't go out of my way or pay any premium price for coal.

Corey

 

[Martin Strand III]

Unlike wood, anthracite is a "community cooperative" burning fuel. Aside from needing diffeent air requirements from burning wood, as pointed out by Corey above, burning "a piece or two" of hard coal simply does not work to any measurable degree of success.

A wood match will burn by itself. A stick will burn by itself. Single pieces of wood, even a tree, will burn all alone. Not so with anthracite. Regardless of the sized piece of anthracite, it needs close family companions to do it's thing. Why? The scientific explanation is because anthracite is not wood (duh-huh). Maybe it will be in several million years, but that won't help this winter.

Take a single piece of burning anthracite out of an existing hopper of burning anthracite with a tong and, in short order, it will stop glowing, stop burning. Put it back with the "mother load" of burning anthracite and, off it goes again. Try it.

Aye,
Marty

 

[webbie]

I concur with Marty - soft coal will work in this type of case, but hard coal will not. Even if it did partially burn, the resulting ash would mess up your ember bed.

Read this: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Anthracite_History/

for an idea of how hard it is to light and burn.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I've comingled coal and wood with a reasonable degree of success, but that was only to get rid of about a half ton of coal that was sitting in the basement of a house I bought. I would just toss a shovel-full or two on top of the wood coals. That was in a boiler with grate and combusiton air coming in from below. It would crackle and glow and throw out some awesome heat. I got rid of the coal and got some heat out of the deal.

But I'd be concerned about making a habit of it. Seems to me any sulfur in the coal would react with any water in the wood smoke, possibly creating sulfuric acid which could play hell with your firebox and chimney. Not sure whether Anthracite is high- or low-sulfur coal, but all coal contains some sulfur, I think.

 

[webbie]

The grate and full fire was the key - in an Acclaim like stonehouse has, the air comes from the top and it is also a downdraft stove - would make it much harder.

Coal does attack the chimney with acids, but my guess and experience is that burning some of each (in the proper stove) is better than just burning coal. The wood ash or tar can coat the inner chimney, thereby protecting it. Also, the coal may even improve the ability to clean later by eating though tarry creosote.

A better course of action for those long nights might be to try and find some iron wood. This is the name I give to standing dead oak that had lost most of it's bark and turns a gray color. It makes a chain saw spark! Hard stuff, but burns forever and makes beautiful coals. Perhaps others can give wood hints for other species, but in Southern NJ, it was mostly small oak trees....and swamp maple or gum....neither of which was exactly top notch.

 

[Martin Strand III]

I've comingled coal and wood with a reasonable degree of success, but that was only to get rid of about a half ton of coal that was sitting in the basement of a house I bought. I would just toss a shovel-full or two on top of the wood coals. That was in a boiler with grate and combusiton air coming in from below. It would crackle and glow and throw out some awesome heat. I got rid of the coal and got some heat out of the deal.

But I'd be concerned about making a habit of it. Seems to me any sulfur in the coal would react with any water in the wood smoke, possibly creating sulfuric acid which could play hell with your firebox and chimney. Not sure whether Anthracite is high- or low-sulfur coal, but all coal contains some sulfur, I think.

Hi Eric:

I suspect you burned soft coal (that nasty stuff - Hsssss), as the hard stuff prolly woodnt get-a goin'.

Regardless, I agree all coal has sulfur - hard type having less. The anthracite (hard coal) I get from PA is labelled "low sulfur" but what that actually means is anyone's guess.

Still, because of the sulfur content in fly ash in metal chimey/stove and water vapor in the Spring air, it's always good to clean the metal chimney and coal stove before the sulfuric acid gets a hold of the metal and has its way with it. Sometime sprinkling a box bicarb down the chimney and in the stove after cleaning helps neutralize any residual acid.

Aye,
Marty

 

[Corie]

One of the other resident coal burners is just checking in to say that I'm with Marty on all accounts here.

 

[sstanis]

I have tried it and have had mixed results. Most stoves today do not exhaust air through thte bottom, but rather through the doghouse and airwash. With that said, unless you can get your hands on a coal grate (which is raised about an inch or so), it will be tough. IF I could get my hands on one, I would burn it for the weekends I am not home (ie working 24+ shifts). Problem is if you throw stove sized coal onto a fire you run the risk of smothering your fire. Tis better to start with rice-sized anthracite on your wood coal bed and then add stove sized when that gets going. Getting back to propering burning the only way you are going to get those nice long blue flames is to have your raised coal grate or open the ash pan a crack and only a crack. Problem is that once nice blue flames die out, stove could in theory loss draft, then you would have CO escaping through the ash pan that you left open a crack. Me personally am not a big fan of giving CO free access to the hoiuse, especially in a down draft weather condition.

 

[Corie]

The message of this thread is:

Burn coal in coal stoves and wood in wood stoves.

In fact, if you look in your manual, many of you will see that burning coal (among other things such as garbage, etc) will VOID your warantee.

 

[Martin Strand III]

The only thing I can think of to get more "warmth" out of a stove is burning an efficiently packed firebox full of dry (recommended fuel) seasoned wood "hot" (without over firing the stove), then add ambient humidity by boiling water (lots of it) on the stove top. The increased humidity (more water in warm air than in cold air) will make it "feel" warmer.

Aye,
Marty

Grandma used to say, "Work smarter, not harder."