O.K. Since I am new here I will say that I do not want to ruffle too many feathers. But I will tell you my story and you all can judge me by that.
Back in 2000 I wanted to supplement my heat pump and looked into many different kinds of appliances. I finally settled on a Harman P61 pellet stove, pretty much the best there was at the time. Alot of people thought it was strange since I live in the "Coal Region" and why wouldn't I burn coal. Well my wife,also from the "Region", said absolutely not,not in my new house. So I burned pellets. Until this year. I coud not find pellets, at a reasonable price, or at all. Pellets around here were $300 a ton and coal picked up at the breaker was $145 a ton. So I decided that rather than let the stove sit, or buy a new stove I would experiment with coal. I will say, this may not work for all auger fed pellet stoves and in no way do I recommend that you void your warranty,my 6year "harman gold" warranty had expired for what it was worth,so I thought why not. I will say, I have been pleasantly surprised by the performance. It does not give me the heat that pellets do, it was not designed to burn coal, but harman did design a coal stove called the 44 magnum, with the same feed system and burn pot arrangement. There are different electronics involved, which I coud not get from the dealer, but I have worked around that. I started burning anthracite rice coal on Oct. 24th. I worked with the settings on the stove and have the feed set to below 1 on the dial and the stove temp also set below 1 on the dial. I have the airwash to the door glass blocked off because coal likes air from below and I found too much unburned coal in the ashbin. So far I have burned 1 ton of coal at these settings. I did shut the stove down the first week of Dec. to check for wear or other possible issues. I found none. The surface temp is not as high as with the pellets, and the exhaust temp is actually lower with the coal. I will say again, I do not recommend this, no warranty is expessed or implied, your results may vary, do not attempt this, yadda yadda yadda.
My wife doesn't know the difference, its all heat to her. And it helps to keep the local guys working. Feel free to ask questions,I am not trying to convert anyone, just letting you know what I did and my results.
Bill
Back in 2000 I wanted to supplement my heat pump and looked into many different kinds of appliances. I finally settled on a Harman P61 pellet stove, pretty much the best there was at the time. Alot of people thought it was strange since I live in the "Coal Region" and why wouldn't I burn coal. Well my wife,also from the "Region", said absolutely not,not in my new house. So I burned pellets. Until this year. I coud not find pellets, at a reasonable price, or at all. Pellets around here were $300 a ton and coal picked up at the breaker was $145 a ton. So I decided that rather than let the stove sit, or buy a new stove I would experiment with coal. I will say, this may not work for all auger fed pellet stoves and in no way do I recommend that you void your warranty,my 6year "harman gold" warranty had expired for what it was worth,so I thought why not. I will say, I have been pleasantly surprised by the performance. It does not give me the heat that pellets do, it was not designed to burn coal, but harman did design a coal stove called the 44 magnum, with the same feed system and burn pot arrangement. There are different electronics involved, which I coud not get from the dealer, but I have worked around that. I started burning anthracite rice coal on Oct. 24th. I worked with the settings on the stove and have the feed set to below 1 on the dial and the stove temp also set below 1 on the dial. I have the airwash to the door glass blocked off because coal likes air from below and I found too much unburned coal in the ashbin. So far I have burned 1 ton of coal at these settings. I did shut the stove down the first week of Dec. to check for wear or other possible issues. I found none. The surface temp is not as high as with the pellets, and the exhaust temp is actually lower with the coal. I will say again, I do not recommend this, no warranty is expessed or implied, your results may vary, do not attempt this, yadda yadda yadda.
My wife doesn't know the difference, its all heat to her. And it helps to keep the local guys working. Feel free to ask questions,I am not trying to convert anyone, just letting you know what I did and my results.
Bill
" pellet police to soon chime in.
