Stove Coal: High in Fines???

 
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Post by NoSmoke » Thu. Dec. 07, 2017 3:17 pm

I am assuming that because Stove Coal is the biggest size, it does not get screened as well as the other types of coal and thus has a higher amount of "fines" in it?

I don't want to say the name of the current product I am getting if that is industry standard as I do not want to slur their name needlessly, but man does it have fines. I screened out a 40 pound bag and probably got 7 pounds of fines...what amounts to rice coal in it.

I have been screening it prior to putting it in my stove as I was having problems getting long continuous burns out of it. It will be interesting to see if screening it first will help. Just curious if it was a bad batch, the mine it is coming from, or just stove coal in general.


 
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Post by scalabro » Thu. Dec. 07, 2017 3:27 pm

My LA stove size has a lot of “sand” sized particles in it, but I save it for when the wind is ripping 😜

The stove will chew it up no problem.

 
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Post by Lightning » Thu. Dec. 07, 2017 3:49 pm

Coal is generally brittle stuff. If it's been handled roughly during transport it's gonna have fines and small pieces. I don't think it's the fault of the breakers. Seems like they would want to at least put in the bag what you expect to get, what happens in the meantime is hard to say.

I use screened out fines and small pieces in early fall and late spring to blanket the fire. This keeps for fuel bed healthy during low slow burns.

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Thu. Dec. 07, 2017 4:25 pm

7 lbs. out of 40??? I'd be talkin to the supplier NS!! Using my BLASCHAK stove size I might get a cup of fines. Can't imagine enough rough handling to get ya 7. Course I don't do bagged

 
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Post by michaelanthony » Thu. Dec. 07, 2017 7:28 pm

freetown fred wrote:
Thu. Dec. 07, 2017 4:25 pm
7 lbs. out of 40??? I'd be talkin to the supplier NS!! Using my BLASCHAK stove size I might get a cup of fines. Can't imagine enough rough handling to get ya 7. Course I don't do bagged
...same here, I might get a cup of fines from a 50 lb bag

 
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Post by NoSmoke » Fri. Dec. 08, 2017 6:33 am

Same here that is why I asked.

With Blashak Coal I got very little fines, but it was Nut Sized Coal and not this kind, Reading Stove Coal. Both are in 40 pound plastic bags.

This post kind of goes a long with "Steering the Fire" post because I was having a lot of problems with dark areas of the fire. Oh sure, it burned fine when I dumped the shoveful of fines/stove coal on the fire, but ultimately the fire would plug up with ash in quick order.

Now after a few days of screening my stove coal over 1/2 inch hardware cloth, I get 5-7 pounds of fines, but the resulting cleaner stove coal burns so much better, so much longer because it is not plugging up my stove with ash.

I will see if I can get a picture of what I am dealing with.

 
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Post by michaelanthony » Fri. Dec. 08, 2017 6:43 am

I base my burn times by shoveling the large, medium, small, and fine pieces in together. If I screened my coal my burn times would decrease. If I had trouble with my coal smothering my fire I would demand replacement from my supplier. If you need to screen, you need to scream!


 
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Post by NoSmoke » Sat. Dec. 09, 2017 9:44 am

I am looking at 15% fines.

I screened 100 pounds (2-1/2 bags) of Stove Coal into a bucket, dumped the fines into a bag and weighed it and got 15 pounds of 'fines". That was over 1/2 inch hardware cloth so it is "1/2 inch minus", but pretty small stuff really.

I thought it was excessive, and would say 15% is.

 
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Post by KingCoal » Sat. Dec. 09, 2017 10:08 am

yeow, how much of this stuff do you have in bags ?

one of the guys i used to buy from screened bulk coal on site. bobcat scoop of coal onto the screen shoot, fines fall out, clean coal goes up the conveyor into your container ( i was using 4x4x4 boxes made of pallets and lined with luan ).

he used the fines in his stoker boiler basically free and i was happy with clean coal since he was still one of the cheapest to buy from in my area.

i have to agree with the others, your supplier needs to get you taken care of.

 
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Post by michaelanthony » Sat. Dec. 09, 2017 3:08 pm

NoSmoke wrote:
Sat. Dec. 09, 2017 9:44 am
I am looking at 15% fines.

I screened 100 pounds (2-1/2 bags) of Stove Coal into a bucket, dumped the fines into a bag and weighed it and got 15 pounds of 'fines". That was over 1/2 inch hardware cloth so it is "1/2 inch minus", but pretty small stuff really.

I thought it was excessive, and would say 15% is.
...imagine if you couldn't burn 15% of the wood you split or the pellets you bought, it would be on the 6:00 news.

 
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Post by freetown fred » Sat. Dec. 09, 2017 3:20 pm

All this screenin & way to many fines you're all whining about--the only iron clad solution I can come up with is--get a real stove! Problems solved. .>)

 
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Post by scalabro » Sat. Dec. 09, 2017 3:50 pm

freetown fred wrote:
Sat. Dec. 09, 2017 3:20 pm
All this screenin & way to many fines you're all whining about--the only iron clad solution I can come up with is--get a real stove! Problems solved. .>)
I agree Fred, a Crawford Baseburner with eat up anything. I thought you liked steel boxes though :lol:

 
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Post by Richard S. » Sat. Dec. 09, 2017 4:25 pm

The second it comes out of the breaker you are making "dirt". It falls off the end of the chute onto the pile and makes little bitty pieces. The nice clean stuff rolls off the edge. I used to give the loader guy a fine bottle of whiskey every year, I just let him know when I was coming in for nut and he'd leave part of the edge of the pile for me. :D

The more it gets moved the worse it's going to get but the amount you have sounds to be excessive.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Sat. Dec. 09, 2017 4:31 pm

KingCoal wrote:
Sat. Dec. 09, 2017 10:08 am
one of the guys i used to buy from screened bulk coal on site. bobcat scoop of coal onto the screen shoot, fines fall out, clean coal goes up the conveyor into your container ( i was using 4x4x4 boxes made of pallets and lined with luan ).
A lot of the breakers have pockets for loading, it goes across a screen with water jets.... They can only run them when it's warm enough.

 
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Post by tcalo » Sat. Dec. 09, 2017 4:44 pm

I burn nut coal and had an issue with fines at the end of last season. I was screening my coal to get all the fines out. I saved a handful and showed my supplier. They gave me a run down of their operation and schooled me on the process from mine to home. They showed me their setup and explained to me the larger the coal pieces the more fines you'll get. The larger pieces have more mass and slam into each other harder causing them to break apart during handling. The smaller coal doesn't have enough mass to cause this issue. Just the nature of the beast. I'm not expert, but it made sense to me. They showed me their outdoor storage bins and sure enough there were fines in the stove and nut piles. The smaller size coal piles were quite clean.


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