Does anyone heat with a Coal Stove?????????

Nasty135 · Dec 8, 2005

( A lot of this depends on what size coal your using and the inherent design features of your particular grate. ) 

I think thats the real issue with the different burning techniques for successful heating... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif another memory /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif My "Grammy" always cooked on a coal stove and if you ever needed your heat to be constant ,that would be it ... She was a pro at that thing ,The kitchen was always the WARMEST place in the house, The outhouse was the coldest but it WAS outside /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

I sure aint much help on this thread but I'm having a good time doin it.... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Dutch445 · Dec 9, 2005

Well, I loaded the stove last nite,, thought it was going good.,,
got up this morning and it was out. I think there was too much of the burned up coal, maybe it suffocated.
I also know the wind picked up last nite from the south or southeast.. possibly coming across the roof like that affected the draft... I'll have to restart from scratch tonight after I clean all of the coal out!
/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

scott_vt · Dec 9, 2005

Yeah Dutch,
I can feel your frustation /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Your probablly right about your draft conditions changing, it is definitely a pain to wakeup to a cold stove and have to start over, especially if you still have some unburned coal in there that you dont want to throw away, did I ever mention messy /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Stay with it Dutch, you will get it down pat /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

scotty

MDSteve · Dec 9, 2005

I used to heat my home with a woodstove for 5 years. This year we got a coal stove with a hopper. It is like a pellet stove for coal. I think it works great. I went away for thanksgiving and the stove ran on a low and it burned for 5 days. I haven't had any problems with dust or anything. My only problem is paying for coal. I always got firewood for free part timing for a tree service over the summer. I estimate I will go thru about 2 tons of coal this winter.

My stove is from alaska stove company. Kinda funny they are actually out of Pa.

Steve

Dutch445 · Dec 10, 2005

What should I be getting when I shake the grates?
If i shake it lightly, I can get some ash,, but I noticed after
a week of burning, I was getting what looked like coal that
didn't burn completely, white, and chunky, almost as if some of the coal didn't burn totally to ash.
Also, I may be noticing a pattern using the coal that was left in the garage, I'm wondering if some of it near the floor, on the bottom of this bin, maybe it's damp? or not as good as what I take off the top. (I'm trying to burn up this old coal before I buy new so I have all fresh stuff for the really cold weather!)
anyway, restarted last nite, and it went great all nite.
Is it recommended to only refill when the level of coal is down, and I can fill it with a lot at once, or is adding some every few hours if I am around ok also?

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

mjarrels · Dec 10, 2005

i have a harman mark II coal stove... burning right now. 72,000 BTU at full blast. Learned to start it was trial and error. Lots of wood to start. I have only learned to burn for 30 hours on one load of coal. Shake the grate 3 plus times each day. Ashes are the big issues. It will will burn you out of the house if fired to full copacity. My issue is learning to run twenty-four seven without the fire going out. Just bought 1540 pounds of coal today... 140.00$... Prices are going up. Last year, 118.00$ for a ton.

scott_vt · Dec 12, 2005

Hi Dutch,
Yes, you can add some every few hours if your around. Also, you need to shake it enough to to see some red coals going into your dustpan. You will get some useable coal falling through occasionally, but unlike my great grandmother, I dont sift through that mess to pick though it /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Yes, I have found that coal that is damp isnt the same as nice dry coal as far as burning. As some one else on this post stated, the new stoves have augers like the pellet stoves today. We are talking about older equipment /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Anyway, it sounds like your making progress. I forgot to mention, that night it got real cold and windy on you, you probablly could have cut down your primary air some and still maintained the same amount of draft, and not lost your fire during the night!

scotty

LarryRB · Dec 12, 2005

( My stove has 4 passageways in the corner bricks which have me confused a bit. The flames come up thru the bricks. I guess the other thing is to open the secondary air door which I keep closed.loader and can hold about 40-50 poun )

sounds to me that you have a "Warm Morning" stove. We ran one for 7 years.. Got rid of it because of dust, that we just couldn't seem to stop or slow down.. Those corner air pockets have to be kept very clean....

JimR · Dec 12, 2005

So far so good on the coal burning scene. I think I have it all figured out now. Using my secondary air vent seems to be a waste. The stove doesn't put out much heat that way regardless of the setting of that door. Keeping the lower primary vent open part way keeps the stove going great now. I can do a 24 hour burn with no problem now. I did find out that the stove will not work on a lot of pea sized coal. The air cannot circulate through it. I can however mix nut coal and pea coal together and still get a great burn. Thanks for all the tips guys and have a Merry Christmas.

6or7dazeaweek · Dec 15, 2005

Hi all...I've previously burned wood but after the ex decided the grass was greener on the other side, I had to do something about heat...since nobody was home during the day to feed the woodstove. I found a dealer that sold HARMAN coal stoves and I purchased the "stoker" version which is similar to a pellet stove.

I've been buurning that for the past 3 seasons and find that it's not to bad really. I now have a thermostat which helps keep the temperature constant. The nice thing about the Harman stoker is that I can add a stainless steel water loop inside the stove, and put in baseboard radiation in the upstairs if I choose to do so. Right now, I've been heating the downstairs family room and letting gravity feed the remainder of the house. No, it's not perfect but for my lifestyle, it's okay.

I also had difficulty starting the coal when I first bought the stoker...until I bought a bag of wood pellets. I just mound up some pellets, saturate them with the alcohol gel, cover that with some rice coal, more gel and let her go. In no time at all, I'm turning on the combustion & distribution fans and letting the thing run on automatic. Unless there's a major power outage, this will continue running on automatic from October till mid April. This year, I've purchased a small generator for just such an emergency. Now that the generator is in the garage ready & waiting, there will be no power outages. Murphy's Law!