Tips on Starting a Coal Stove?

[hazmat]

Try running it on wood for a few hours build up the charcoal layer before adding the coal. We had a coal stove in my childhood house (20 years ago) I rember my dad running it on wood for a while before adding the coal. Once lit, he would run it all winter long.

My wood stove runs great after the charcoal has had a chance to build up (3-4 hours).

As others have mentioned - you may want a larger flue - I'm not aware of any modern wood stoves that run on anything smaller than a 6" flue.

 

[Egon]

Have you tried adjusting the stove pipe damper?

Egon

 

[bontai_Joe]

I've used wood and charcoal to start a coal fire. It sounds to me like you are waiting too long to add the coal and the wood fire is past it's peak to light it. Charcoal is definitely the easiest way to go, and you want a nice 2 1/2"-4" bed of HOT charcoal before adding coal. As mentioned before, draft is important, as is shaking the ash out. But shaking the ash too much can put out your fire.

 

[To20Chris]

Thanks for all the input guys - it's been a while since it was cool enough to try it again. I did not get around to getting more coal, partly because I fiugured that was not really the problem. But it's burning great right now, thanks to matchlight charcoal! I don't know how long it will burn, but I'll keep an eye on it tonight.

I'm sure I did most everything wrong a couple of times, including shaking the fire out. But I think the biggest problem with starting it was just that the stove is so small, it was very difficult to get enough heat, even from the best wood fire I could build. In a stove so small, you just can't get a hot enough fire, even burning old oak scraps. The charcoal just took off, and I could put a fair amount of coal on it right away without putting the fire out like when I was using wood. This allowed me to get a bit more coal going faster, and once it's lit it takes off.

The stove is quite old, which accounts for the 4" pipe. It seems to be drawing well. It's located on a sun porch, which is not presently open to the rest of the house.

Anyway, it's glowing a very dull red right now (visible with the lights out only), and the trim peice I made is allowing me to keep it under control better than the first time I got it lit. It will be interesting to see if I can keep it running - although since it's going up to 63 tomorrow I'll be letting it go out anyway!

 

[Holzster]

IF the air flow is OK try this:

Get some self starting charcoal light those when they are hot through some coal on top - make sure you mound it - - this seems to work for me.

 

[mjarrels]

start with lots of wood... then add soft coal first and then add hard coal.

 

[To20Chris]

I'm a coal novice - can you explain soft and hard coal?

I've had good success in starting it with matchlight charcoal, but I still can’t get the little thing to burn more than about 2hrs before shaking it down. And I’m just not getting up that many times at night. The grate gets blocked up and snuffs it out. There is usually still burnable coal left in it. I’m amazed at how fast it goes cold after that!

It does throw off plenty of heat though; it’d be the perfect sized stove otherwise. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[mjarrels]

started a coal fire in my harman mark II last night using lots of wood heating the firebox up... then added "hard" coal... i'm out of "soft" coal. soft coal (name starts with a B i think) is like charcoal and i believe from southern Virginia, Ky. etc, Hard coal is from Pa. (antricite?). wish someone would invent a stove fueled by walnuts... then i would have free fuel for life!

 

[Egon]

Peat - lignite - bituminous - anthracite with very wide bands for all.

Egon

 

[To20Chris]

Thanks - it look like all I've got is hard pa anthracite. But I've gotten pretty good at lighting it quick with the matchlight charcoal. Cheesy, but it works.

The last time I bought coal I got pea instead of chestnut sized. This is working much better for me. The smaller sized stuff is burning more completely, and more ash falls through the grate on it's own. So I don't have to shake it down as often - it will go almost 4hrs if I do a good job. This is double what it would do with the larger coal.