Coalpail.com Forum

They work very well. As a matter of fact, up until a couple of years ago Burnham made a wood/coal boiler called the Woodlander that used one. Let me look around, I think I have a manual for that. Whowever made the control is still around and they made the same one on an circa 1900 SEARS coal furnace I had years ago.

I had my first fire last night and it went better than I was thinking it would

6 of matchlight charcoal
A few piecess of wood kindling
And a couple cups of wood pellets(I never sen mention of this but a buddy has a pellet stove and I figured what the heck give it a try)

It took me a couple hours of trying to be patient adding coal
Once it got going with a 6 inch deep in the middle tapering out to nothing on the edge(probably a little over a half a 5 gallon bucket)it was all glowing red.
I shut the manual damper above the stove the baro was open more than I thought it would be I 'm waiting to get the gage to set it . I closed the ash door vents and the spring thermostat vent completly.
The stove temp got up to 600 and pretty much stayed there till I went to bed around midnight.
I got up around 6 and Of course I couldnt wait to see if it made it through the night and IT DID.
There was a red glow in the middle of the pile put in 2 hands full of wood pellets and 3 piece of kindling 3/4 by 10 let it get going for 10 minutes and I'm going to steadly add more coal.
The blue flame is dancing already so I think It will stay lit.

Now the guestion is when should I shake it down I think I read on here make sure you have a good fire before shaking So that is what I'm going to do.
How many strokes of the shaker handle are we talking about 5,10 50
any help would be great as always???

Wait about 12 hours minimum after starting the fire before your first shake. Before you do, open the dampers and ash door to rev up the fire. You should not shake the fire when it is cooled, it needs to be making vigorous heat. Once its temp is up, shake the grates until you see a few live coals drop into the pan with the ash. When you see a few nice live ones your done shaking. Bank and load your coal, set your dampers and you are done, you can smile now.

I have put a few shovels full in throughout the day ,it has a nice glow to it but the fire box is probably only half full its pretty level.

The center is burning but I'm not sure about the edges I have all the air completly shut and the thermometer says the top of the stove is 400. I don't know how accurate that is but it gives me an idea about how steady it remains.
The outside temp is just 50 and the inside temp 74 which is a little hot for me but nobody is complaining yet.
Do you think I should fill it up to the top of the bricks and see how long it will burn ?
The weather is going to get warmer later in the week so it will have to go out or open all the windows

You can't run a coal unit like wood. With wood, you can catch a dying fire by throwing wood at it. With coal, that would be a disaster. The firebox should be filled completly and the heat can be regulated with the draft. There is no such thing as a small coal fire, you want a full bed of burning coal to keep the process alive. Plan your burns to be a continuous operation. If you look at this diagram...........

http://marathonheaterco.com/diagram_furnace.html

in the firebox you will see the three phases of a coal fire. And you need all three in a decent balance to keep your fire alive and viable. From the bottom. Once the fire is mature, you will have a layer of ash about an 1"-3" thick. This helps regulate the airflow to the fire and protect the grates from the extreme heat. Then you have a layer of live coal, the heart of the fire. They should be glowing well and evenly throughout the bed. Then on top, the charge, fuel to be consumed next as the amount of airflow allows. The three need a balance to some degree. Stay within it and you can't put the fire out with a 5 gallon pail of water. If it gets too far out of whack it dies all by itself.

I can see that my situation is probably not the ideal way to get the most out of the stove but it supposed to warm up pretty good this week and We will have to sleep in the garage if I fill it up.

We work days all week and the kids are at school so I'm trying figure out how to use coal.
It's the transitional time between cold and warm times of the year which is going to be tough for me.
When you say load and bank the stove what does that mean. I probably don't want to get above the fire brick by to much right?
How many hours to you think it might burn if I keep layering it in and fill it up ?

Thanks for your continued advice you guys are great

Tim

Hi Tim this time of year it is really tough to use just coal heat. If you have some wood to burn, use it each evening to take the chill off the house or use the oil/propane/NG/elec sparingly.

coaledsweat has it right, a coal fire needs to be deep, a shallow fire rarely burns well. I was surprised that you go through the night with your first load that you described as 6" deep in the center, tapering down to nothing on the edges. Usually the edges would have burn out, turned to ash, fallen into the ashpan and the combustion air would have gone around the rest of the coal, letting it go out.

It might be best to let the fire burn out and wait till it is consistantly cool enough to burn through for 24 hours. I'm letting my boiler go out because of the same reason, it is not cost effective to keep the the coal burning to maintain hot water in the boiler when the house isn't calling for heat. A little bit of propane costs less than 24 hours of coal.

Maybe just a wood fire each night will do the job??

Greg L

It may have burned out but when I said down to nothing on the sides I meant nothing burning on the sides some coal had fallen off the pile and might have blocked enough air so keep it burning.
The other thing is I don't know how it has been staying burning because I have everything choked off and it's still burned thru the night and is going somewhat right now .
If you get it lit it seems to stay burning without any or very little air is that how it works to just chug along ?

I will be letting it go out and tomorrow after work I will see how much has not burned up

mina678 wrote:It may have burned out but when I said down to nothing on the sides I meant nothing burning on the sides some coal had fallen off the pile and might have blocked enough air so keep it burning.
The other thing is I don't know how it has been staying burning because I have everything choked off and it's still burned thru the night and is going somewhat right now .
If you get it lit it seems to stay burning without any or very little air is that how it works to just chug along ?

I will be letting it go out and tomorrow after work I will see how much has not burned up

Hello Min

What kind of a barometric damper is that, what did it cost, and I am wondering If I can use the damper in place of a elbow going to the wall on top.

Chet

Looks like a Field Controls R/C.

http://www.fieldcontrols.com/draftcontrol.php#rc

I had no idea they came in that attractive black finish. I want an upgrade!

Looks like a Field Controls, the label is crooked just like mine. I was going to paint mine black, but never got around to it.

Mina, my stove burns using very little air. I run the air vent 1 to 2 turns from completely closed, as opposed to a woodstove where the vents are full open all the time.

Is that a box next to the stove for coal? With a house stenciled on it? I thought we were the only ones with stuff with houses stenciled on them.

Yes it's a fields control I can't wait until my manometer comes in maybe today.
The box with the stencils was my wood box and it may double for a coal box now I'm pretty sure me wife wants it still in the picture.I would hold alot of coal
I check out the unburnt coal this morning and there was not much there,I was thinking( here I go again)How about if I just make a spot in the middle and start coal fire tonight
The unburnt stuff will block the air from the edges forcing the air through the new stuff what do you think ?

Also when you start a fire where in the fire box would you start it front, middle, back
Depending on were you start the fire it would dictate how you fill it right?

How big a pile should I try to start ?

Tim

chet wrote:What kind of a barometric damper is that, what did it cost, and I am wondering If I can use the damper in place of a elbow going to the wall on top.

http://www.fieldcontrols.com/draftcontrol.php#diinstall

Tim, for your fire, I would plan on cleaning out the firebox, and building a full size wood fire covering the grate. Add coal on top of this. This way you will have a fire over the whole area.

A coal fire will migrate sideways into unburnt coal, but only when the fire is burning hot. [in my experience] . I think if you try building small fires in one end or the center of the firebox, you will be frustrated with fires going out, and not burning right. And shaking good coal down in the ashpan, wasting it.

I'd clean it out, and wait till the weather gets cold enough for a good coal fire, [in a few weeks from the weather-guessers latest forcast] . If you want to make a small fire, wood does that well.

I'm shutting off my stoker this morning, 67* today, and rest of week, lows around 55* for the week.

Greg L

.

Ok thats what I will do try a full box of fire with wood and see how it works.
I forgot the baro was $47.00 I think