Im a long time wood burner and so is my father. My old all nighters door had a crack in the area that holds the wood off the air vents so I bought a DS160 last spring. I have been burning wood mainly oak on and off since temps got around 50 at night. I purchased 2 ton of nut coal to try since this stove burns both. Plus I'm looking for long burn times as poss with my job. ( I work 16 hrs on 8 off certain weeks). I have been pretty happy with the wood burning but still needed to load heavy 2x a day and a small load in the middle some days. Well I started a coal fire yesterday on top of a good bed of wood coals that took pretty fast. I had to read about coal because I'm new with burning it. It's been going for about 24 hrs now and all I did was shake it 1x and add some I top of the coals. This stuff burns long and hot. I have temp turned all the way down and it's still about 80 upstairs lol ( made it up to about 50 today and mid 39s at night) I like the constant heat its staying. Also it looks like I can get away with tending it 1x a day. This just seems to easy. Just a bucket of coal per day and I think I will have all the heat we need. It's also heating the dhw . I have had the elect off to it for about 2 weeks now. Have many of you tried coal? If so what is your thoughts on it? I may start just using wood for shoulder season burns and go to coal when it gets cold. I feel like I have been missing out all these years.
Have I been missing something good?
- Thread starter tiswood
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If you have a combo stove I would highly recommend it . I'm tending it 1x a day and the heat is a constant temp. I like the fact I can rest assure that after working a 16 hr shift my fire is still going and the house is warm. You may be able to get bagged coal at tractor supply? Might have to order it. I can order bulk ( cheaper about $230 ton) equivalent to 2-cords of wood . Or bagged about $299 ton.
I see tractor supply near me has bagged rice, and nut coal. 299 a ton plus tax. I can buy wood at 120 a cord no tax, For white ash so wouldn't be saving anything versus buying wood. If I could buy at 230 a ton for bulk then I might actually save a little versus buying wood. I will probably buy a bag just for fun. would the nut or rice work better ? I'm guessing the nut...
I switched from wood to coal several years ago, for a few reasons, and wouldn't go back... No creosote, longer burn times, etc... Definitely recommend it, especially if you're buying your firewood, as I was...
I don't need long burn times as I have storage and a slightly over sized boiler. I also don't have creosote because I have a Gasser with storage that never idles.
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