Do you burn coal?

[wampum]

This is the first year I have not had time to cut wood.I have about 3 cords cut and split from last year. I got a very good price on that coal stove I bought,very good. So I bought it and went to the local Amish coal dealer and bought 5 tons of coal for $215 a ton.I could have drove out to a mine and bought it cheaper,about $150 to $170 a ton. But that trip would have been about 5 1/2 hours one way. Plus waiting to get loaded and the cost of diesel going and coming.Fuel would have been around $150 so that did not make sense.

I just put a down payment on a new house that I am planning on building with in the next year,so I probably will not get much wood cut and split this year either.I will sell this old farm house when I get it built. I heat this house entirely with wood or now coal so I have to have one or the other in stock.I have burnt wood for well over 30 years. I also grew up burning coal.

I get a kick out of those that claim coal is dirty.Yep it is especially if you are not careful the way you handle it. But wood is just as dirty in its own right.With wood you can also have bugs and critters.Coal is not a good home for either.I have never had a stoker.However I ran 2 commercial ones where I worked and we had one that we heated our church with.

In a couple of months I will repost and give my thoughts on how this stove does.From the reviews I read it is pretty unique,we will see.

 

[Marshy]

Post some pics when you get a chance, I couldn't find any. Thanks.

 

[artbaldoni]

I'm burning a combination of wood and coal in my OWB. Works great. Recently purchased a hand fed Crane 404 stove for inside the house for $50. A couple repairs and a coat of paint and I will have a nice bun warmer for those Polar Vortex days!
Just know if you plan on burning coal it is a completely different beast than wood.

 

[wampum]

Got the stove hooked up and running.I had trouble getting it started,because I had to learn how to use the coal trol. Then after I got it started I have to admit I was concerned I did something wrong.I adjusted the control to 72 degrees,but it just kept rising and went to 79 degrees in the room.I was almost ready to throw water on it(just kidding).Then it started to cool down.It has now run for 3 days,keeping the temp between 6PM and 6AM at 72 degrees and the daylight hours between 6AM and 6PM at 70 degrees.You can adjust the temp and the hours anyway you like.

For a coal stove they tell you to install a barometric damper. I never used one of them in almost 40 years of wood burning.So there is also a learning curve with the damper.

After I was confident the stove was running okay I filled the hopper that holds 90 pounds and MTed the ash pan.In 2 days I would say I have used about 15 pounds of coal.I will update my experience as we get into winter.But right now it is amazing me.

The only problem with cleanliness so far is the coal dust when you fill the hopper.But I have learned to reduce this to almost nothing.I just went to a smaller bucket and fill it inside the hopper rather then just dumping it.Little or no dust that way.

Here is a link to a pic of a stove like mine:http://www.hitzer.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Hitzer4_cAd.pdf

 

[Marshy]

Is this rice or pea coal? Ask your supplier about wetted or oiled coal, it has no dust at all unless it's left inside to dry for days.

If you get an opportunity to get a picture of the internals where the coal is burnt post a pic. I have a tip for lifting that will save you a lot of headache if it like my mothers stove.

 

[laynes69]

I've burned anthracite and bituminous coal and the bituminous coal was nasty coal. It was soft Ohio coal, 90 dollars a ton. It burned hot, but very sooty and dirty. The anthracite on the other hand was washed clean coal. Somewhere around $7 a bag, burned very hot and clean. The problem for us was even though the furnace was advertised as a coal furnace, it was a poor coal design. With the cost of anthracite, I tried it and it wasn't worth it.