Baker's Choice

I am new at burning coal and using a Baker's Choice stove. From what I can find out about burning coal, I understand it is best to draft from below. On the Baker's Choice there are only two upper dampers and a plate inside the ash clean out that says you should not operate with the door open. How do you or would you burn coal in the multi-fuel stove? I did burn it for the first time tonight and it burned well with the ash clean out door open. Would this be okay or would it be better to make a damper that I could adjust better than the door?

I would have to see the pictures of the stove to better answer but yes you need air from below only. Also you need shaker grates. The reason you were able to burn it at all is that you had the ash door open. Most coal stoves and or cookstoves like my Glenwood have the primary air damper as part of the ash door. That's what controls the air from below. If you have to keep it (ash door) open to keep it going then it's not a coal burning stove without first making modifications. It sounds like you have the wood setup and maybe need a coal conversion kit?

This is a link with a diagram of the stove. Although this site does not refer to it as a wood/coal stove other sites do. Also if you look at the pdf link on this site it does say that it is for burning coal.**Broken Link(s) Removed**. It does have a shaker grate but lacks the lower draft. Even wood burns better with the lower door open. I am seriously thinking of adding a lower draft by making a circular draft like a pie chart kind of style. What ever I do I need to make it myself since I am not in the US. Or how would you recommend adding a lower draft?

drill and tap the door for a 7/16 bolt to be threaded thru from inside toward the outside so as to have the thread section protrude outside the ash door.
then take a 2" or larger threaded iron pipe cap and drill and tap its center.
around the protruding "stud" drill a series of holes for the air to enter the stove.

you can thread the cap on the stud and screw it down tight against the door and allow NO air in , or you can unscrew it a wee bit at a time till you have regulated the correct amount of incoming air so as to attain the right draft!!

its simple....

themongolian wrote:This is a link with a diagram of the stove. Although this site does not refer to it as a wood/coal stove other sites do. Also if you look at the pdf link on this site it does say that it is for burning coal. **Broken Link(s) Removed**. It does have a shaker grate but lacks the lower draft. Even wood burns better with the lower door open. I am seriously thinking of adding a lower draft by making a circular draft like a pie chart kind of style. What ever I do I need to make it myself since I am not in the US. Or how would you recommend adding a lower draft?

What kind of coal do you have access too? I was assuming anthracite. If it's bituminous coal, that's very similar to wood. It still sounds like a lower draft mod would help. Also, what's you chimney setup? Sounds like you don't have great draft if you need that door open with wood. Poconoeagle's suggestion is the easiest way to start.

Welcome to the forum Themongolian

Thanks for the advice. I like the idea for a draft. I will see if I can find a tap and die set. We have anthracite coal here in Mongolia.
The Baker's choice is a cook stove with an oven. I have been closing the damper to force all the smoke around the oven to get more heat out of my fuel. It sounds like maybe I need to play with the damper and learn how to get a better draft and still keep in most of my heat.
Also the stove is made to have a 7 inch diameter chimney. Where the chimney attaches to the stove the opening is an oval shape. When I got a chimney made here the guy used 6 inch pipe with an adapter to the oval opening. The chimney goes straight up from the stove about 20 feet. The top of the chimney is just by the peak and about a foot higher than the roof peak. Is the reduced chimney size causing a problem?

Possibly you'll need to get the chimney a little higher than the peak of your roof from where it is now. Mine are a good 4-5 feet higher than the peak. Great that you have anthracite! The "oven" control is a good thing for retaining the heat. That's just how my Glenwood works but when initially starting up and establishing a good fire, it's in direct mode. When I know I have a well established fire, then I pull the oven lever, throttle back the damper and pipe damper. Best of luck and let us know how it works.

I have the bakers Choice as well (about a week know) and have been having the same issues. Wood burns fine but coal needs the ash pan door open to operate. When you read the instructions with the stove it does mentions leaving the ash pan (assuming they mean door) open 1 1/2" for a normal burn. This is found under starting your 1st fire section. But on the door it says to keep it closed. I will let you know If I find out anymore on this issue. Sent e-mails out to people that sell it.

I will be interested to hear what you learn from venders selling Bakers' choice. I have not added a lower damper yet. I am still playing with it to see what I want to do. It seems perfectly safe to burn it with the ash clean out open since we have tile on the floor if any embers would fall out. But our stove is in a high traffic area and seems to get bumped shut some times, unless it is the draft that sucks it shut some times.

Actually I have not been burning to much coal. It has been warm here (30-50F) so I only need a small fire in the morning and to cook in the evening. A wood fire is better for cooking and baking and is enough for heating. I have burned coal a few times but got tired of it since I always have to let it go out because we are to hot and then to keep restarting it got old. Once we have cold days not getting out of the teens and especially when it is below 0 for days we will surely burn a lot of coal and the bed of coal will never die down. Also I am interested to see if the stove lives up to it claim to heat 2000 sq/ft. We have about 1500 sq/ft but here in Mongolia we usually have 2-3 months that stay below 0 F and have some -40. Some friends moved back to the States and gave us the stove which was only used a handful of times.

Let me know if you have any new info or ways to burn coal better and I will pass on my findings too.

O.K. I'll bite, are you located between Russia and China?

yes, you got it. The capitol of Mongolia is Ulaanbaatar which is known as the worlds coldest capitol and I also saw a few weeks ago it is also the 2nd most polluted. Thanks to 1,000,000 people living in the districts around the city burning coal in little very inefficient stoves. Recently some really good clean burning coal was found in the west. But it is 1000 miles by dirt road from the city. I doubt it will ever make there to help correct the problem.
Coal is the main fuel here, since there are very few trees in most of the country. Unlike PA where I grew up. The Russians set the cities up to have central heat stations which burn coal and send hot water to all the apartment buildings. These are real smoke belchers. I am sure some new technology could solve a lot of this problem.

themongolian wrote:I am new at burning coal and using a Baker's Choice stove. ?

I have read a lot about these and concluded that they only worked with wood - But if you figure it out please post back with pictures.

Nice pictures Mongolian,

I hope the damper situation works out for you since it's that cold there! The problem I see with the ash door open is there is no control of the fire? We that use coal stoves always joke about the time we left that door open to freshen up the fire and forgot coming back to cherry red stove and over fire, a dangerous condition for sure. Before I converted my Glenwood cookstove to coal, I tried to burn it with the wood grates in it and it would only burn with the ash door open also. It was because the firebox had ways for the air to bypass around the coal bed rather than ONLY being able to go up through it. Once I changed to the proper grates and made a refractory liner from a clay material that was tight around the grates, then stove has performed beautifully and can idle down with the slide type primary damper open just a slit. That is the key to anthracite. The air must only come from below and have no other path to take but up through that deep coal bed. Hope it works out for you.

Checked with dealer who said that the two control knobs on left side control the air intake for the stove. I sent them a reply because all the people I know who burn coal say the same thing the air needs to come in from below. And as you know you can open those draft knob up the whole way and they don't do much if anything with coal. The grates in the stove are refractory brick just like a coal stove so thats not the problem. I did ask what size coal to burn in the stove and they checked with manufacturer they say 1/2" size so Nut coal sounds like a winner. Some sites that sell the stove are http://www.countrymaidstoves.com http://www.stovesandmore.com http://www.antiquestoves.com
Also Instructions that come with stove **Broken Link(s) Removed**

I will keep you posted