How to Light a Hand Fired Coal Stove

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Sat. Oct. 15, 2016 3:43 pm

Indeed they do SDJ. I been goin since mid Sept & will continue till when-ever! 8-) :clap: toothy

 
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Roland
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Location: Kent Island, Maryland
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Shenandoah R-65 Coal Heater
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Coal Size/Type: Nut
Other Heating: Multifuel

Post by Roland » Sat. Oct. 15, 2016 7:18 pm

Hello Everyone,

I appreciate all the responses I received - added you all as friends, hope no one minds... I will have to get a pallet of coal to even get past half the winter here on Kent Island, Maryland. So I guess I'll wait till it gets in the 40's or even freezing till I do my firemen bit in my workshop, (that is, if the wife permits it) :surrender: till then it looks like I'll just be burning up my old wood and yard waste. I will keep everyone posted when I first put the coals to it - and keep her going.

I don't know if it is recommended or not, but I have attached a view to my mancave - workshop. I like it out there, it is like a trip back in time to me - which is much better than living in the present climate politically speaking, in my estimation.. :!:
Back corner shop.jpg

My workshop.

.JPG | 77KB | Back corner shop.jpg

 
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freetown fred
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Location: Freetown,NY 13803
Hand Fed Coal Stove: HITZER 50-93
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Post by freetown fred » Sat. Oct. 15, 2016 8:33 pm

Yep, keep us posted my friend. Shop looks kinda comfy. :)

 
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warminmn
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Location: Land of 11,842 lakes
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Chubby Junior, Efel Nestor Martin, Riteway 37
Coal Size/Type: nut and stove anthracite, lignite
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Post by warminmn » Sat. Oct. 15, 2016 9:12 pm

I have a Shenendoh stove, a wood only version. I wore it out. It was probably used 15 years all together. I overheated it a lot and burned high BTU things in it I better not mention :lol: It rarely gets used now, but its in poor shape now. I could throw green wet wood in it and it would still burn. If you have trouble with coal for any reason it will still burn wood well.


 
titleist1
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Post by titleist1 » Sun. Oct. 16, 2016 7:29 am

Hi Roland....Nice looking shop and stove set up there. Nice to have another eastern shore MD'er here!! :)

 
top top
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Post by top top » Thu. Mar. 30, 2017 10:03 am

Thought I would add my two cents worth, at least I hope it's that valuable. I'm fairly new to coal so I have not lit a lot of fires, but I have been experimenting with different methods after reading on this board. It seems every method basically involves starting a wood or charcoal fire, then slowly add layers of anthracite until the stove is full. I was looking for a way to light it without having to slowly add coal for a couple hours. First my setup.

http://www.alaskastove.com/coal-stoves/kodiak/

I do not have a barometric damper, only a manual pipe damper. I have a short stainless steel chimney going straight up through the roof. Notice the ash door has sliders for the draft plus a small slider to insert the shaker handle. I open the MPD, completely close the draft and only use the little slider for my torch. That keeps all smoke and odors going up the flue and not drafting back into the room.

I begin by clearing out the ash and clinkers, then bank any leftover coal to the back to expose the grates. I lay my kindling directly on the grates, then completely fill the stove and hopper with coal. When I'm ready to light it I put 2 or 3 ounces oil in a small SS bowl, put that inside the ash pan, close the ash door, insert my propane soldering torch through the small slider and burn the oil. It takes about three minutes to burn the oil, wait a few seconds for the smoke to clear, then open the ash door until the coal is burning well. I think this would work without the oil, but it would take longer. The burning oil throws a lot of BTU in a short time, preheating the coal and establishing a good draft. The entire process takes about an hour, from lighting the torch to having a hot stove, an established coal fire, and closing up the stove and setting the draft until the next day. I will post some pics and describe what's happening for each.
Quick Light Coal Stove (2).JPG
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I cleared the ash and clinkers, banked the old coal. There was not much coal left because I let it burn out naturally. I have also intentionally put the fire out early, leaving a lot of coal in the stove. Then I had to actually shovel some coal out to expose the grates. Next I put three matchlight charcoal briquettes directly on the grates.
Quick Light Coal Stove (3).JPG
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I put four pieces of wood on top of the charcoal. This time three of them are 1x2 strips about 6 inches long, the fourth is a 2x4 six inches long and then split. They are placed so as to reserve some air space around the charcoal after the coal is added.
Quick Light Coal Stove (6).JPG
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I dumped in a full bucket of coal, leveled it out and dumped in a second bucket, which this time did not quite fill the hopper.
Quick Light Coal Stove (7).JPG
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A small SS bowl with about a half inch of oil placed into the ash pan. I use stainless steel because of the heat. The little bowl will be glowing bright red by the time the oil is gone. If it were made of tin or carbon steel it might melt down. The SS bowl only cost about a dollar, don't remember if it came from Big Lots or the local Dollar store.
Quick Light Coal Stove (12).JPG
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Using a propane torch through the slot to burn the oil. I keep the torch going until the oil is consumed and wear welding gloves.
That bright light you see is the oil with the propane flame on it.
Quick Light Coal Stove (27).JPG
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The pic is not too clear, I took it with the door closed and the glass is reflecting. About 40 minutes after lighting the torch I have blue flames on top. I gave it a few more minutes for the flames to stabilize, then closed the MPD. If I close the MPD too early the flames will go out and I'll get a puffback.
Quick Light Coal Stove (34).JPG
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Exactly one hour after lighting the torch I can close up and set the draft controls for whatever level of heat I want. I opened the glass door to take this pic, so it looks a little different due to excess over fire air.

And that's it. I like this because I can completely fill the stove without lighting it. Then if I'm not home my wife can easily light it without moving buckets of coal or adding a little coal every few minutes. She only needs to use the propane torch and monitor the progress. And of course adjust the damper and draft controls.

Hopefully someone finds this useful.
Last edited by top top on Thu. Mar. 30, 2017 9:21 pm, edited 4 times in total.

 
top top
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Post by top top » Thu. Mar. 30, 2017 10:11 am

Well for some reason the pics won't load. I'll try this another time.

 
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2001Sierra
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Post by 2001Sierra » Thu. Mar. 30, 2017 2:12 pm

I don't know if it is recommended or not, but I have attached a view to my mancave - workshop. I like it out there, it is like a trip back in time to me - which is much better than living in the present climate politically speaking, in my estimation.. :!:

If it wasn't for the Amazon box it would look like a trip back in time, did you get a new "Flux Capacitor" in the Amazon box :D


 
AllanD
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Post by AllanD » Sun. Feb. 10, 2019 7:51 pm

Hi, New here so this is my first post, but I've been living with a hand-fired Harmon for about a decade (since 2007), Sorry I don't know the model but what I do to light it Starting from an empty cleaned out (COLD) stove is to lay a bed of fresh coal 4" deep in the firebox, cover that with about an inch of wood pellets, then dampen the pellets with Kerosene, then cover them with another 4" of coal then another 2" of pellets similarly dampened with kerosene then light the kerosene with a propane torch and close the top door, at this point I don't close the top door tight or the stove acts like a starting "Pulse Jet engine" (It sounds like someone tuning a tuba) meaning I close the door but don't push the handle down to make a tight seal.

This whole process takes about 750Ml of Kerosene

I place a Teakettle on top of the stove and use the time it takes to come to a boil as a "timer" for when to close both doors TIGHT and set the air inlet to my normal burn setting (1-1/2 turns open from fully closed)

When I was still dealing with a PoS "FrancoBelge" (Crack monster) stove that was here when I moved in It was recommended that I use denatured alcohol but I had problems with it, the expense (Denatured Alcohol is $7-$10 a gallon Kerosene is available locally in bulk at ~$3.50 gallon), the tendency for big booms It is alarming when the "boom" blows the pipe off the stove) and if the alcohol is not absolutely water free the wood pellets basically fall apart

 
AllanD
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: HAND FIRED HARMON
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Other Heating: Oil fired hotwater baseboard

Post by AllanD » Tue. Dec. 31, 2019 2:34 am

One of the important things to remember about "volitiles" is that they are almost entirely absent in good Pennsylvania Anthracite!

 
Hounds51
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Post by Hounds51 » Sun. Nov. 22, 2020 3:20 pm

ONEDOLLAR wrote:
Mon. Feb. 09, 2015 1:02 am
Might also try 15 mins or so prior to shaking down add some coal. Let that ignite then shake down. Hope this helps. :D
I also might suggest that you open the ash door at the same time, that way you are drawing up before your shakedown. I do this every morning before shaking down. I empty my ash bucket every other day in the shoulder season.

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