first night burning coal and i failed

[Tnguy]

Hi yall, for my first night of burning coal i had a good hot fire burning nice had 40# of Anthracite nut coal in there, BUT it started getting to hot in the house so i shut down the draft once and waited about an hour and it was still too hot so i shut it down more, problem is i shut it down too far and it went to a dull red bed of coals by morning and no heat i shook it and opened up the mpd and both drafts wide open but it was a gonner, left it go for about an hour and checked it again and it was worse than before, SO i pushed it in a pile in the back of the stove and piled up my charcoal in front and lit it and now that its hot i drug some of the coal back to the front and some on top the charcoal to get it fired back up, now when i get it hot again does anybody know where about to set the controls on this furnace?? picture is below its new so i dont know much about setting it for coal. thank you

PS: the ash door has a spin out draft that comes out about an inch and the feed door has a low med high slide draft on it. also i had the ash door draft shut down to about a 1/4 inch last night when it died and the feed door draft closed and the mpd closed

sorry for the long post

 

[Fsappo]

Next time Id suggest not loading a full 40 lbs of coal in there. Experiment with a smaller amount as well as the draft. How large of a home are you heating?

 

[Tnguy]

Next time Id suggest not loading a full 40 lbs of coal in there. Experiment with a smaller amount as well as the draft. How large of a home are you heating?

Hi, i loaded the 40# over about a 2-3 hour time, 1200 sq ft is all

thanks

 

[laynes69]

Good luck with anthracite coal with that furnace. It's not designed properly to burn it. Coal needs a good draft and a good deep bed to burn. That furnace is designed to burn 110 pounds of coal. 40 pounds is just a start. Once it's burning then load it to the top of the firebrick and when it starts burning well adjust your draft for the burn. That furnace is overkill for a home that size making you closing it down and losing the fire. I tried burning hard coal with a furnace that was the same and I gave up. Go to nepacrossroads.com and there are some on there running their furnace on coal. Hope this helps.

 

[spirilis]

FYI http://nepacrossroads.com/ is an excellent forum for all types of Coal-related questions. I have no experience running a coal stove myself but one thing I remember from reading those forums is that coal does work better (and stay lit) when you have a deep bed of it, so the 40# might not have been bad, but it sounds like the furnace is putting out a bit too much. Maybe buffer the firebox with some firebricks (laid vertically) so you can get a deep coal bed with less coal? Either that, or when you found the coal looking rather dim in the morning, adding some more on top (to establish the deep coal bed again) with the drafts open might've worked better.
I'd probably run any of this by the folks at nepacrossroads.com first though...

 

[Tnguy]

Thanks guys, im still working on it

 

[JustWood]

Holy shnikeys 40lbs !
I've never loaded mine with more than 20 of bituminous.
The amount is the problem.
A little coal goes a long way.

 

[laynes69]

He is talking strictly coal, not mixing it. Putting firebrick in to change the shape and size of the firebox is a great idea.

 

[JustWood]

I'm in NY ,he's in TN.
I'm getting 16-18 hour burn times on 10-15lbs BITUMINOUS (not anthracite) + wood on below zero nights .
Anthracite has prolly 30% more BTU.

 

[smokinj]

I'm in NY ,he's in TN.
I'm getting 16-18 hour burn times on 10-15lbs BITUMINOUS (not anthracite) + wood on below zero nights .
Anthracite has prolly 30% more BTU.

Where in the heck you find coal at?

 

[JustWood]

I'm in NY ,he's in TN.
I'm getting 16-18 hour burn times on 10-15lbs BITUMINOUS (not anthracite) + wood on below zero nights .
Anthracite has prolly 30% more BTU.

Where in the heck you find coal at?

Knox,PA

 

[Fsappo]

Its hindsight, but I would never sell someone a coal furnace for a 1200 sf home. Too much fiddlin to not overheat and waste coal. More so in a wood furnace that has a coal grate slapped in there. Your dealer should have advised you better.

 

[JustWood]

Agreed.
He needs a heat dump like a garage or greenhouse

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

I've heard enough horror stories about newbies usin coal that I'll not give you any advice. When I first heard 40#, I thought that sounded like a lot of coal, but what do I know. Then some of you tell him to use more!


If yer still lookin for a heat dump, I hear that hot water and cold air make some women,um, you know . . . . Of course, some Single Malt tends to accentuate . . . just sayin

 

[EricV]

Years ago I had 4,600 sq ft boarding house for college girsl (read in lots and lots of showers) and I bought a boiler from France that was built only for coal. the difference is a coal unit has it's draft control from below so the air flows through the fuel. In a wood appliance the air flows over the fuel. I'd keep that upper control closed or almost closed and control the fire from below. I never weighed the load I'd put in but 40 pounds in a 1200 sq ft house in Tennessee sounds like alot to me. Mine had an automatic damper so I'd load the hell out of it anyway, twice a day.

I would heat that house and all out hot water on 10 tons of coal and 500 or so gallons of oil, and I'm in northern NY.

I wish i had that furnace in my shop.

 

[Tnguy]

thanks for the replies,

im still having trouble keeping it going, ive added 4 foot to the chimney pipe in hopes of creating more draw, if i leave the ash door vent wide open it will burn good and get hot BUT as soon as i start to close the vent any at all it starts to die down and then i dont get no heat, so i have to open the vent and the ash door to get it cranked back up for heat, i do know the furnace is over kill for a 1200 sq house BUT its outside pumping hot air into the house through a 6" insulated duct pipe... now i used this same set up with mu old furnace that was bigger than this one for 3 years with wood and it worked great, i just thought with my health problems coal would be easier to manage and maybe cheaper in the long run. i am going to give up on the anthracite and try bit net week and see how it does.

thanks again

 

[JustWood]

Try heaping it in the middle and not covering the whole grate. Air should be able to go through and up around coal to burn good

 

[laynes69]

If air bypasses that coal it won't burn.

 

[spirilis]

hey actually come to think of it when I was visiting a hearth shop near home, they happened to sell coal stoves and the sales guy was telling my wife and I how he loves using coal for heat, and he described the manual work involved--shaking the grate until a few red embers start to fall through, loading up the firebox leaving some of the glowing embers from the previous load exposed, then he mentioned how he uses a poker to drive 3-4 holes through the middle of the coal pile to help air get through the mass easier. might be something else to try if you have easy access to do that.

and he definitely said if you don't find a working "routine" or forget to follow it every single time, burning anthracite will be a royal pain and make you hate it.

 

[Duetech]

For the hotblast and coal you have to use the spin draft control on the bottom door but not very much. Starting a fire you migh have it wide open but once it starts burning good maybe only a 1/16-1/8" (+/- for your stove)

 

[Fsappo]

Years ago I had 4,600 sq ft boarding house for college girsl (read in lots and lots of showers) and I bought a boiler from France that was built only for coal. the difference is a coal unit has it's draft control from below so the air flows through the fuel. In a wood appliance the air flows over the fuel. I'd keep that upper control closed or almost closed and control the fire from below. I never weighed the load I'd put in but 40 pounds in a 1200 sq ft house in Tennessee sounds like alot to me. Mine had an automatic damper so I'd load the hell out of it anyway, twice a day.

I would heat that house and all out hot water on 10 tons of coal and 500 or so gallons of oil, and I'm in northern NY.

I wish i had that furnace in my shop.

About this school and the endless showers...

 

[leaddog]

thanks for the replies,

BUT its outside pumping hot air into the house through a 6" insulated duct pipe... now i used this same set up with mu old furnace that was bigger than this one for 3 years with wood and it worked great, i just thought with my health problems coal would be easier to manage and maybe cheaper in the long run. i am going to give up on the anthracite and try bit net week and see how it does.

thanks again

This might be part of the problem. You are using COLD air as intake air and cooling the coal. Can you draw your air from around the stove before it is used. 20* air hitting the coal will tend to stop burning. I'm not a coal burner so I could be all wet
leaddog

 

[Mike Wilson]

Once you get it started, using wood, charcoal, etc., coal needs a good draft, a deep bed of burning coals, and time... lots of time. Once it starts, don't fiddle with it too much, and when you do, certainly wait an hour or more between fiddlings. Also, never push your burning coal bed to the back, you lose all your progress. You want a deep bed of burning coals, with no air passing anywhere else than right up through that bed.
I burn anthracite coal in a stoker, 40 lbs per day, completely different from your setup, but I will tell you this, once you go to coal, burning wood will become just a hobby.
Go to NepaCrossroads and post in the hand fired section. They are to coal as we are to wood. You'll get all the advice you need there, from experienced coal people.

-- MW

 

[Tnguy]

thanks for the replies,

BUT its outside pumping hot air into the house through a 6" insulated duct pipe... now i used this same set up with mu old furnace that was bigger than this one for 3 years with wood and it worked great, i just thought with my health problems coal would be easier to manage and maybe cheaper in the long run. i am going to give up on the anthracite and try bit net week and see how it does.

thanks again

This might be part of the problem. You are using COLD air as intake air and cooling the coal. Can you draw your air from around the stove before it is used. 20* air hitting the coal will tend to stop burning. I'm not a coal burner so I could be all wet
leaddog

thanks for the reply, my stove is in its own little shed/tin building outside, it gets its "draft air" from inside the room so the air is about 50 or so deg. i have a vent at the bottom of the shed door that lets fresh air in for the stove to burn

 

[Tnguy]

Once you get it started, using wood, charcoal, etc., coal needs a good draft, a deep bed of burning coals, and time... lots of time. Once it starts, don't fiddle with it too much, and when you do, certainly wait an hour or more between fiddlings. Also, never push your burning coal bed to the back, you lose all your progress. You want a deep bed of burning coals, with no air passing anywhere else than right up through that bed.
I burn anthracite coal in a stoker, 40 lbs per day, completely different from your setup, but I will tell you this, once you go to coal, burning wood will become just a hobby.
Go to NepaCrossroads and post in the hand fired section. They are to coal as we are to wood. You'll get all the advice you need there, from experienced coal people.

-- MW

thanks for the reply