Anyone burning coal in the Yucon Big Jack?

[johnsopi]

I wanted to burn coal in the B.J .I called the company about coal shakers but they don't make them.
Is anyone coal in this type of furnace?

 

[laynes69]

Your not going to have much luck burning coal without shaker grates. The only coal you might be able to burn is lump, which burns more like wood. Coal requires under fire air. Without the shakers, it becomes difficult to remove the ash.

 

[JustWood]

I burn mine run (dust to volleyball size) mixed with wood in a Woodchuck 526 with no problems. No shaker grate. There is a learning curve to it.
What I do is put layers of wood up to door level on a good coal bed. Then I put a walmart bag of coal on top of the wood and then finish filling with wood. I can get 16-18 hour burn time with this method. When you reload you'll have to use an L shaped poker to run along the grate to sift the ashes through and break up any left over coal.
Start out with small amounts till you get the gist of how it works.

 

[brenndatomu]

I ran some Blaschak brand (santa claus on the bag) anthracite in my BJ, worked fine, burns down to a white ash just like wood. Like previous poster said, just use a L shaped poker rod to stir and rake the ashes through the grate. You can shut the "secondary" air on the door off, 'cause all the air needs to come from underneath. Mixing wood and coal works good too. Like already mentioned, there is a learning curve to it...

 

[johnsopi]

Good thanks. Im looking for longer burn because starting 12hour shifts

 

[johnsopi]

What should I start with 20lbs ?

 

[brenndatomu]

That's probably a good place to start...get your feet wet

 

[JustWood]

Are you going to burn anthracite or bituminous ?
I burn bituminous . Tried 3 bags of anthracite over 10 day period mixed with wood and warped my grates. I don't think it gave out the heat that bituminous does either. It doesn't make BTU sense but that was my observation.

 

[brenndatomu]

Huh, I thought anthracite was supposed to be higher BTU, cleaner burning? Kinda like softwood vs hardwood...maybe no?

 

[JustWood]

I know it doesn't make sense but I just don't think I got the heat out of it that the bituminous gives me. IIRC there was only 2000 BTUs difference in the coals.

 

[laynes69]

I went thru over 100# of soft lump coal and I went thru about 300 pounds of blaschak anthracite. I did have shaker grates (wood/coal furnace), and found it didn't produce enough heat to make it worth while. The soft coal did burn hotter for me also. With the anthracite, I ended up with about 110# of coal at first, then would reload with 30 to 40 pounds at a time. Looking back, my draft was too high, which was the reason for the lack of heat. Also my firebox had angled sides, which is a poor coal design. It ended up becoming a chore and I just went back to wood. There's many furnaces that were specifically designed for coal, and ours wasn't one, even though it advertised as one.

 

[johnsopi]

I went thru over 100# of soft lump coal and I went thru about 300 pounds of blaschak anthracite. I did have shaker grates (wood/coal furnace), and found it didn't produce enough heat to make it worth while. The soft coal did burn hotter for me also. With the anthracite, I ended up with about 110# of coal at first, then would reload with 30 to 40 pounds at a time. Looking back, my draft was too high, which was the reason for the lack of heat. Also my firebox had angled sides, which is a poor coal design. It ended up becoming a chore and I just went back to wood. There's many furnaces that were specifically designed for coal, and ours wasn't one, even though it advertised as one.

 

[johnsopi]

I've been burning coal for 2 days now. Have not been home yet to see if it still going reloaded 20hrs ago.

 

[johnsopi]

Well been burning coal on and off a couple weeks. The Big jack is not very good for coal. To get air under the coal you have to crack the clean out door. Plus I can not get the house as hot
with coal as wood. With all this snow it is hard to move wood.

 

[JustWood]

Well been burning coal on and off a couple weeks. The Big jack is not very good for coal. To get air under the coal you have to crack the clean out door. Plus I can not get the house as hot
with coal as wood. With all this snow it is hard to move wood.

On my Woodchuck ash clean out door there is a 2" hole with a spring loaded adjustable flap . I have to crack this about 3/4" to get the coal to burn good as well as have the forced draft running.
If your ash door doesn't have this it wood be cake to drill out and add one.
Are you mixing coal and wood or just straight coal ?

 

[johnsopi]

On my Woodchuck ash clean out door there is a 2" hole with a spring loaded adjustable flap . I have to crack this about 3/4" to get the coal to burn good as well as have the forced draft running.
If your ash door doesn't have this it wood be cake to drill out and add one.
Are you mixing coal and wood or just straight coal ?

 

[johnsopi]

Coal and wood. getting low on wood. This is the first time that ill run out of wood in 8 years.