Kimmel's : What's the Latest Skinny on Their Bagged Coal?

I spoke with Tim at Kimmel's Coal & Packaging, Inc. yesterday, and his current price for bagged (as well as bulk) coal seems reasonable (to this admitted newbie at least). I require pea. Any comments from recent users of Kimmel's as to the quality overall (as well as the price)? I'm concerned about things such as moisture, rocks, wood, and other contaminants, consistency of size, amount of fines, ash quantity, ash color, and most of all how well does it burn (particularly in an AHS Coal Gun or AA 130).

Kimmel's anthracite coal comes from many different breakers. It's not easy to know the quality of the coal that you end up with. Over the past four years I have burned about 90% kimmels in a hand fed stove.
The Pea seems to have less fines than the Nut. The coal burns well and at the moment the ash is light gray & tan. At the start of the season the ash was red....If I ever get the AA 130 up and burning, it will be using Kimmels Pea.

Ask Whistlenut about using Buckwheat in the AHS over the summer months.

I have burned a few tons of their rice since I started my EFM in January. It burns excellent. Lots of heat, and 11-12% ash based on my rough calculations. The ash is tan in color, as shown here:

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There are a few small twigs and oak leaves from time to time, but they burn just fine. The rice is sized a little smaller than the Reading I've burned, but the EFM doesn't seem to care one way or another. Your S130 will burn the Kimmel's pea with NO PROBLEMS, so if they have it in stock for a good price...call them up!

Edit: I bought a TT load of nut from them a few years ago, and three of us burned it all with no complains. I have also burned some of their pea in a hand-fed boiler, and it was well sized and clean.

I assume you are buying bagged this year, so content is important. The Meet & Greet guys will probably be at DiRenzo coal in a couple hours, and if you could have been there you would see how the raw material is transformed into a gleaming, well sized finish product. It takes great care to remove every possible 'over and undersize' pieces and the same for debris that may or may not come in the raw material. Kimmels is available almost everywhere, so I am not making any recommendations since it has been well analyzed here on the forum. I have some on hand, and have found it to be just fine. Blashak has been even better, but stokers aren't too fussy....actually MANY owners are way to fussy too! Up here we don't have the luxury of going to 15 different breakers/washeries/yards. We get what is available, and like it!!

I have no complains with Blashak, Kimmels or Reading; the companies we have available to us, and unless you want to bag bulk yourself, we can't get UAE, DiRenzo, Casey Kassa, Superior, Lenig's, Hudson.....and many I forget to mention (sorry),
I was in NEPA this past week, and saw on my way home Kimmels on TT's headed north and east, and Reading too. I saw more Blashak being trucked also, so from the limited perspective of my driving time, there is bagged of all brands moving right now.

Oh, forgot to mention, I don't think anyone but Reading sells Buck in bags. I sell it , but bag my own. I burn buck in AHS& AA's, EFM, Keystokers, even a Yellow Flame. Matt suggests buck in the LL 120K boiler as well. It is not a 'one size fits all'
kind of thing, but like in life, it what it is. If you have to follow the yellow brick road straight to the edge of the cliff, I sure hope you don't take that extra step, just because someone wrote it in a manual. PLEASE don't start a 60 page 2000 entry posting marathon. Nuff said!

PC 12-47E wrote:Kimmel's anthracite coal comes from many different breakers. It's not easy to know the quality of the coal that you end up with.

A lot of their coal used to come from Medowbrook Coal, not sure if that is still the case. Regardless of how many sources they have, it is "blended" product. Things like ash color might change, but it has always burned very well for me.

markviii wrote:I have burned a few tons of their rice since I started my EFM in January. It burns excellent. Lots of heat, and 11-12% ash based on my rough calculations.

Is 11-12% a bit on the high side, or is it acceptable?

I would say their ash content is average. Low ash coal is nice if you have to carry the ash tub up a lot of stairs, but I don't get all cranked up over it. To each their own, but I shop for btu's/dollar.

You need to relax on the 'perfect coal', and yes, you can find 7-9% coal, and it won't be available bagged, only in bulk.
Bagging is costly and time consuming, so we get what we get. It is fine, not perfect.
For example: I would prefer to buy my gasoline with NO ethanol in it at all (less output, se: ash content), but I can't, so I do the next thing that is available to us, buy what is available. You will see where this is going to go, so no, Dorothy, they is NO "Yellow Brick Road" to perfect fuels.... but you can follow along with the masses, and stay affordably warm, and not make payments on the latest 'Limited Production' Sheik-Mobile.

Rob and whistlenut, I agree that decent BTU's delivered per dollar is what matters most. I will not need to carry the ash up any stairs. Thanks for all of the comments. It seems that the consensus is that for bagged coal in particular Kimmel's offers a product that is about as good as bagged can be had overall for the price, and that it will do the job required of it. I agree that there is no need for this to become a 2000 post thread with lots of nitpicking. Thanks much!!!

markviii wrote:

PC 12-47E wrote:Kimmel's anthracite coal comes from many different breakers. It's not easy to know the quality of the coal that you end up with.

A lot of their coal used to come from Meadowbrook Coal, not sure if that is still the case. Regardless of how many sources they have, it is "blended" product. Things like ash color might change, but it has always burned very well for me.

That is the main breaker that the bagging plant get the finish product from there are many surface mines that sell their
coal to Meadow brook Kimmel was sold a while back same guy owns both bagging plant and breaker as you said many different coal go in to the breaker so the quality of coal will vary

Like Homogenized Milk, many breakers buy from many strippers, however like homogenized milk, it is a product for the masses. We are the masses in this case. I heard that there is another supply is coming on line for them specifically.

I don't know how many members were 'whole milk drinkers' when they were young, more than Freetown Fred and me, that's for sure, but today it is hard to find a coal product specifically from one source, and as demand ramps up, probably the 'homogenization of coal' will be a reality we all have to live with. Between the raw milk and all that lead paint ingested....sniffing the nitro methane every weekend.....well that is an excuse of sorts.....

whistlenut wrote:Like Homogenized Milk, many breakers buy from many strippers, however like homogenized milk, it is a product for the masses. We are the masses in this case. I heard that there is another supply is coming on line for them specifically.

I don't know how many members were 'whole milk drinkers' when they were young, more than Freetown Fred and me, that's for sure, but today it is hard to find a coal product specifically from one source, and as demand ramps up, probably the 'homogenization of coal' will be a reality we all have to live with. Between the raw milk and all that lead paint ingested....sniffing the nitro methane every weekend.....well that is an excuse of sorts.....

White. is the new owner of bagging and breaker he owned surface mines before he bought the two he sold he coal to
others now I am sue he will supply his own breaker and bagging plant with his own product as well as the others that always went there so I guess you can call it a new supply if you want to call it that I love to know where you get your info from. being That I Probably forgot more people in the business then you had every known being I lived in the area all my life

....true, but I look at in from the outsider point of view, and sometimes see things from a different perspective. I'll bet there is one way I'll always 'One-Up' you however, I've been burning since 1972 without the ability to know all the players that you were able to grow up with. We all have a need to rely on friends, so that is what I have appreciated about you, Jay. Networking is what the 'pointy heads' call it, those of us with calloused hands and lots of scars, sore backs, etc, call it the Friends in PA Club, no matter how old the 'players' are. I've had a few TT loads over the years......... I read a little, observe a little, and experience a lot. Perhaps all that lead paint we ate as kids is now having some effect....Fred how are you symptoms doing these days?????? (Just Kidding, I liked penny candy, the hell with paint chips!)
Thanks for the info you have shared. I like History, especially PA history.
If we ever think we are smart enough to stop the learning process, it is time to ask Freetown Fred if there is a quiet place in the corner of the farm, where we can lie down and go to sleep.....in preparation for the 'long term dirt nap.' I'm a long way from that request, thank you very much. I've got to come back down and have some time to talk. So much to know, so little time.....don't you hate it when work is always in the way??????? 56 right now, still raining, mushrooms growing between my toes, lawn will end up as a 'first cutting' but at 3 teeth and 4.5, the buck is lasting a long time. 20lbs a day, 260's are using about 30 a day right now, life is warm, if not comfortable!! You should feel very lucky because coal is double what we pay here, and at that rate is STILL a bargain! Thank you to PA miners, coal industry workers, and everyone in the supply chain!

whistlenut wrote:....true, but I look at in from the outsider point of view, and sometimes see things from a different perspective. I'll bet there is one way I'll always 'One-Up' you however, I've been burning since 1972 without the ability to know all the players that you were able to grow up with. We all have a need to rely on friends, so that is what I have appreciated about you, Jay. Networking is what the 'pointy heads' call it, those of us with calloused hands and lots of scars, sore backs, etc, call it the Friends in PA Club, no matter how old the 'players' are. I've had a few TT loads over the years......... I read a little, observe a little, and experience a lot. Perhaps all that lead paint we ate as kids is now having some effect....Fred how are you symptoms doing these days?????? (Just Kidding, I liked penny candy, the hell with paint chips!)
Thanks for the info you have shared. I like History, especially PA history.
If we ever think we are smart enough to stop the learning process, it is time to ask Freetown Fred if there is a quiet place in the corner of the farm, where we can lie down and go to sleep.....in preparation for the 'long term dirt nap.' I'm a long way from that request, thank you very much. I've got to come back down and have some time to talk. So much to know, so little time.....don't you hate it when work is always in the way??????? 56 right now, still raining, mushrooms growing between my toes, lawn will end up as a 'first cutting' but at 3 teeth and 4.5, the buck is lasting a long time. 20lbs a day, 260's are using about 30 a day right now, life is warm, if not comfortable!! You should feel very lucky because coal is double what we pay here, and at that rate is STILL a bargain! Thank you to PA miners, coal industry workers, and anyone in the supply chain!

Running 1 hr 30 minutes in 24 hr period 9 lbs a day 3 teeth 6lbs a hr 72 minutes is the timer out of the 1.5 hr stoker run a 24 hr day 6.72lbs on timer alone 18 minutes a day to heat water 2.25lbs a day heating water
By the end of this month the feed rate will be set back to 2 teeth feed rate 4 lbs a hr I still have T-stat on in case of cold nights & morning once that is done then will go to 2 teeth feed will also drop timer back to 2.5 minutes every hr will save more coal

I called Kimmel's today, took a couple of calls, but once the guy called back he was friendly and offered to search his records and find a closer retailer. He stated that Kimmel Coal rice is Ash 10-11% BTU 13,500 13.5k He said his price to pick up was around $200 a ton. I'm paying $280 with tax in southern, western ny, Machias at J and L