Coalpail.com Forum

Hi guys. I got the idea of moving my Vogelzang potbelly stove from my porch to the basement. I was itching to experiment, burn some Pittsburgh lump bituminous steam coal, while simmering a pot of water on it for added humidity to the house. I forgot how well this stove burns bituminous coal. She really can pump out the Btu's. I opened the basement door and the rising heat, being sucked into the main return, with the furnace fan on circulating the whole house air, has actually put my Claytons on idle.

I'm interested to find out how much efficiency I'm going to get with all three of these stoves firing. The hand fired Clayton furnace, the stoker fired Clayton furnace with only one stoker firing, and the Vogelzang potbelly stove, with the pot of water simmering for humidity.

The only question that I have for you guys is, do you think that I should install a manual damper on the Vogelzang potbelly stove for added control? Currently I don't have one installed before the barometric draft regulator. I have all of the air inlets choked down, all of the way, and she is burning hot, over 500 degrees, the stovepipe is at 350 degrees, burning clean, and giving me more than 10 hour burns so far. Any suggestions? The draft setting is around .03 inches of water.Vogelzang Potbelly Stove with Pot of WaterFiring Pittsburgh Lump Bituminous CoalNice Full Bin of Pittsburgh Lump Bituminous Steam Coal

Yes, that potbelly should have a manual damper in it.

I would use a manual damper before the Baro. on any stove that is not perfectly air tight.
(Question): I've been becoming more interested in burning Bitt. Seeing that it is doing well in the potbelly, do you thing it will do well in my new Coal Chubby?

Pete69, I don't think that Bituminous coal will burn that good in a Coal Chubby. Not to say that it won't burn, but it is truly designed for drafting Anthracite coal. I'm thinking that there isn't enough over the fire secondary air to burn off the volatile gases. I thought I remembered reading that the Coal Chubby's are specifically designed to burn only Anthracite. I could be wrong. I don't know if you've seen Larry Trainer's video, on how to fire your Coal Chubby. Here is the link. http://vimeo.com/3060371

Then again, maybe it will burn Bituminous coal very well because of the secondary air flap on the sides of the Coal Chubby. If you do it, let me know how it works out.

I'll have to ask Larry, the designer of the Coal Chubby stove, if his stove will burn Bituminous coal well and get back to you.

Well guys, I was doing so good burning Bituminous coal in my Vogelzang potbelly stove, but this morning when I went to shake down the ashes, I had a mishap. The entire grate fell into the ash pan. Now I have to let it go out and start all over.Look how nice the fire has maintained since my last post yesterday.The ash a nice powder.Then the entire grate assembly fell into the ash pan. Darn it!

Any suggestion on what I did wrong? I'll let it go out and see what happened. I thought that I was a pretty fair coal burner.

Pete69, I talked to Larry Trainer, the designer of the Coal Chubby Stove, and this is his statement regarding using Bituminous coal in a Coal Chubby.

"The Chubby is designed for anthracite and bit is probably not a good choice for bit until the day we make some modifications to it to make it support burning bit, which could happen someday. The Chubby was never tested with bit. Because there is such a large variation in the volatility and types of bit I can’t make a blanket statement on burning it."

Here is the link to Larry's Coal Chubby website. http://www.google.com/url?url=http://chubbystove. ... OdeJxl192g Notice in about the sixth paragraph down, it says "Our Chubby Stoves do not burn bituminous coal, the coal used in power plants to make electricity. The Coal Stove Chubby burns clean hard soot less American Anthracite coal used for residential home heating. Anthracite is cleaner than wood, will not cause chimney fires, is ok to burn if wet, and will give you twice the heat per pound as wood. A Chubby Stove is not like your grandparents old central coal heating system. Consider an American made anthracite parlor stove. Supplemental heating with anthracite costs about $325.00 per year."

Boy, I have to tell you that Larry's customer service department is number one. I emailed him this question after I read your question, Pete69, and when I checked my email this morning, I already had an answer. WOW!!!

Maybe more of us NEPA members should start emailing Larry to get him in the manufactures part of the forum. Just an idea?

Thanks for the fast reply Larry!

Well, I cleaned out the stove and found out that I must have been too aggressive with the shaking because it didn't seem to be doing anything. When I took a closer look, I noticed that only the center section on the grate was moving. It looks like the circular grate should move back and forth with the movement of the center section, but for some reason it doesn't on my stove. This grate system isn't anything like the wonderful new style Coal Chubby shaker design. It kind of sucks, but it burns bit very well. The only thing is that I'm having difficulty continuing the burn because it won't shake properly. Any suggestions?

That doesn't look like a very aggressive shaker. looks like you will just need to figure how hard you can shake it without dropping it. Or you could trade it in on a big brother for your Chubby Jr. I will be looking into getting the shaker upgrade for the Chubby. I am also toying with the idea of turning the small oval view window, on the load door, into a slide, over the fire air inlet. I cant wait to run this stove. Just picked it up last week for $150 in good shape.

That is an interesting idea and may just provide the correct amount of over the fire air to burn bit coal very well. Take some pictures. I'm excited to see your Coal Chubby in operation too.

Doug:

I have that same stove. Just hooked it up last night. How do you shake ashes ? I found that slot in the right but there was no shaker handle with my unit. I bought it used from some guy who tld me that he gave me everything that came with it.

Is there a shaker handle that Im missing ?

I really need to shake ashes soon

Doug - here is pic of the piece you need. It comes standard with the stove - so whoever you bought it from - did not give it to you.
It is an oval shaped pipe segment that changes to 6" circular. It has the key damper built in.
Can you show me a pic of what I need to shake my ashes ?

As for efficiency - I keep mine damped all shut and still it seems to burn fuel pretty fast. I don't think they can really be damped down to a low idle.

Well, I've been just pulling out the center section enough with my poker, then using the hook end to go back and forth.It doesn't seem to do anything but dump the fire. I haven't figured out any better way to shake and keep the fire yet.

As for the oval to round adapter, I questioned why I didn't get one with the stove when I bought it new, years back before I knew about the forum. I even called Vogelzang and U.S.Stove to see if I could get that adapter and they both said it isn't made anymore. It isn't shown in any of the replacement parts sections either, but U.S.Stove still shows it on their sales pictures.

And it's made in China. If I could shake it down, it wouldn't be a bad stove. It actually burns bit coal very well and puts out a ton of heat. Now we have to figure out how to keep the fire going on one match stick.

Nothing like the high quality of workmanship and superior design of my "Made in the U.S.A" Coal Chubby Stove.

Thanks for the info. At least now I know that there is no factory shaker handle.

BTW - Is that chubby Jr small enough for 15 x 17 room ?

Yes, that is the size room that I have it in. I'm fresh out of nut and buckwheat anthracite, so I haven't burnt it at all this season. Besides, I wanted to line my fireplace chimney before I fired the Jr. Chubby up. For now, I just have been putting a candle in it for the look of the fire. Larry told me that the Jr. Chubby is a great one room heater, with shorter burn times than the large Chubby. I really planned on using my Jr. Chubby more for a recreational fire in my family room, that is where we all would sit around the fire, make popcorn and hot coco on top of the Jr. Chubby, because that room really doesn't need the extra heat. But if I have a power outage, we will be nice and toasty there. If you don't mind a shorter sequence of adding coal and shaking the ashes, the Jr. Chubby will fit the bill. If you want super long burn times and awesome heat output, then by all means put a large Chubby in.

Feel free to contact Larry Trainer, the designer and manufacture of the Coal Chubby Stove. Here is his email. [email protected] He really is a great guy and will get back to you right away.

I may be mistaking but I always thought that the shaker design on the Vogelzang was meant to be simply pulled in and out several times, and not shaken back and forth.