Brand quality

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tcalo
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Post by tcalo » Tue. Jan. 17, 2023 9:00 am

I’ve been burning Blaschak for years, it’s what my dealer stocks. Last year they gave me Lehigh. Both are good quality coals. I started this season with Blaschak and just got to the pallet of Lehigh. I’ve noticed quite a difference between the two brands. Lehigh burns slightly hotter at the same settings and clinkers better, which allows easier cleaning of the grate area with the draw center pulled. Different ash too. Just an observation!!

 
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Sunny Boy
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Post by Sunny Boy » Tue. Jan. 17, 2023 11:45 am

I had pallets of Lehigh last year and used up the last 20 bags beginning of this year. Burned ok and clinkered like you mentioned but loaded with fines and small bits. Every bag I had to screen that out or it would choke the firebeds. Rather than waste so much of all that had to be screened out I started making batches of "coal cakes" to add to the stoves (covered in another thread).

This year my supplier went with Blaschek. Used three pallets so far and it's all been very good, consistent sizing with hardly any fines. What little amount of fines some bags have is not enough to affect the firebed so I have not had to screen any of it.

Paul

 
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tcalo
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Post by tcalo » Tue. Jan. 17, 2023 12:19 pm

I agree Paul. The Lehigh is filled with fines. Blaschak is very clean and consistent.

 
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nepacoal
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Post by nepacoal » Tue. Jan. 17, 2023 1:15 pm

Lehigh had some serious issues with their breaker a few years ago and was selling the worst coal I've ever seen. So much dust and barley sized pieces in my load of buckwheat that I had to crank up the combustion air just to get through it. I had a really clean load the following year and another mediocre load last year. Their inconsistency is a major let down. Especially when they used to have one of the best products around. There is much better coal to be had right now than Lehigh but they are one of the few coal companies that ship bagged, that most people outside of coal country don't have any other choice. I'd suggest buying any other coal besides Lehigh until they get their act together and also when they stop price gouging on American sales.


 
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tcalo
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Post by tcalo » Tue. Jan. 17, 2023 4:04 pm

One coal supplier in my area, so I’m pretty much stuck. Luckily they are selling bagged Blaschak now!

 
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Post by davidmcbeth3 » Tue. Jan. 17, 2023 5:38 pm

tcalo wrote:
Tue. Jan. 17, 2023 4:04 pm
One coal supplier in my area, so I’m pretty much stuck. Luckily they are selling bagged Blaschak now!
I have a couple suppliers but all of them only have Santa coal. Non-Santa coal retails are out of stock currently.

I like the bags, easy to handle. So its not the worst thing

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Tue. Jan. 17, 2023 6:38 pm

I think Lehigh has the lowest volatile content. It seemed to have the least amount of colorful flames, which isn't necessarily a bad thing of course. Heat output and ash vs coal percentage was top notch. It seemed to be less prone to puffbacks.

Compared to something like Kimmel's which was just the opposite. Big beautiful colorful flames and could send you to the corner of the room shaking in the fetal position with a puffback lol. I loved the Kimmel's for it's chemistry, but the Lehigh was a tad superior :D

 
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Post by Lightning » Tue. Jan. 17, 2023 6:48 pm

If I were to have a coal stove in my living room with an awesome fire view, I'd choose the Kimmel's 🙂


 
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Post by zachary193 » Wed. Jan. 18, 2023 2:41 am

1st pallet of blaschak didn’t ash well was not very shiny . 2nd ton of reading nut , had a lot of fines and a lot of wood. Hard to shake . Had rocks in it jammed grates up . 2nd pallet of blaschack I got looks like black glass and burns and ashes very well. Hopefully the other pallet of Santa is similar . I don’t think much of reading it had an Orangeish flame. Too many fines I was shoveling it out of my dump trailer into buckets and still got a great amount of fines

 
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Post by davidmcbeth3 » Wed. Jan. 18, 2023 3:08 am

My old man never complained about the quality of coal. Pretty sure he got all the good stuff, leaving us to have the bottom of the barrel.

 
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Post by coalfan » Wed. Jan. 18, 2023 12:36 pm

ben burning kimmels and reading the kimmels has ben very good lastnite it was all bkue ladys and a bit bigger than the reading i have got nothing but powder for ash and the reading has about as good so far the chubby has liked them all i have ran a bag of lehigh thru it and it burned good to have yet to run any santa thru it yet,

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