Coalpail.com Forum

The coal oil used by the coal breakers is Advantage Coal Oil. It can be purchased in 55 gallon drums only for about $10 a gallon. Since I will use about five gallons a year, for me this would be a ten year supply of coal oil tying up $500 for that ten years. That is more than I want to do. Does anyone know of anyone who would sell five gallons at a time? By the way, I don't want to use peanut oil, drain oil, kerosene, etc. but I will if there are no other options.

If this is the oil the industry uses, there must be a publicly available MSDS. It would be interesting to see what the official rated flash point of this product is.

For $500 I'd just breathe the dust.

Smitty, I hope you didn't mean that . We appreciate your comment too much on this forum for you or anyone else to be unnecessarily breathing the black talcum powder.Mike

My first assumption is that this oil is repackaged (or more likely "private label" packaged) for the coal industry from some very common source that is likely to cost far less than $500 per drum. At close to that price you can buy peanut oil by the individual gallon. I wonder what a 55 gallon drum of peanut oil goes for?

My experience with industrial supply is stuff comes in 55 gallons drums. You can get smaller quanities, but the container, shipping and handling fees are almost as much for 55 gallons. So if you pay $10 a gallon in 55 gallon quantities, expect to pay $20 to $25 a gallon in 5 gallon pails.

You would be better off going to tractor supply and buying 1 gallon bottles of mineral oil for animals at $15 a gallon.

I've been burning for 5 seasons now--bulk nut--and I'm still trying to figure how all these massive amounts of coal dust get kicked up so that people would be breathing it. Even when my delivery guy comes to fill my bins---I don't see how this happens??? could someone enlighten me--YES, I've occasionaly used a few bags & still don't get it????

stovepipemike wrote:Smitty, I hope you didn't mean that . We appreciate your comment too much on this forum for you or anyone else to be unnecessarily breathing the black talcum powder.Mike

In my opinion, nut coal seams much less dusty than the smaller sizes such as rice and buck. There is more surface are in the smaller sizes for dust to stick to. The bigger size seems to permit the fines to work their way to the bottom of the pile faster.

I installed a garden hose next to my coal bin for a few dollars worth of plumbing supplies. I wet the coal down lightly before shovelling it or dumping it out my dump chute. Otherwise there is a dust cloud in the area because sitting inside, the coal becomes bone dry.

This was cheaper to me than buying oil.

freetown fred wrote:'ve been burning for 5 seasons now--bulk nut--and I'm still trying to figure how all these massive amounts of coal dust get kicked up so that people would be breathing it. Even when my delivery guy comes to fill my bins---I don't see how this happens??? could someone enlighten me--YES, I've occasionaly used a few bags & still don't get it????

I think it is how well the coal is washed when being processed. The Reading coal I have used this year is covered with a fine layer of dust. Obviously the last rinse of water it went through was loaded with fines and when the coal dried all that dust still clings to the coal.. just like when your long johns come out gray from dirty rinse water.

The Blaschak coal is well rinsed so no dust. In bags it is still wet and even when dried it still is not dusty.

Gottcha---you wash your long johns???

freetown fred wrote:Gottcha---you wash your long johns???

At least once a year, usually in the spring.

How about someone springs for the 55 gallons and then 10 other members buy 5 gallons each at the Meet N Greet..I'm just sayin'

freetown fred wrote:Gottcha---you wash your long johns???

Only in the spring.The rest of the year I just turn them inside out once a week. Cleanliness is next to Godliness you know.

franco b wrote:
The Blaschak coal is well rinsed so no dust. In bags it is still wet and even when dried it still is not dusty.

Not sure what happened to mine, then. The 2 tons of bulk Blaschak nut I got this year (not oiled) was extremely dusty. It required very gentle shoveling. I'm going to check other sources in case the dealer I used this year doesn't offer oiling next year.

The Harmony coal that I'm burning this season is laced with fines and it is very dusty.