Coalpail.com Forum

Quick question: Am I banking enough coal to last all night? Currently, it seems my coal "dies" sometime during the night, if shake, then fill it with more coal, say around 9:30pm, then around 6:00am I have nothing, no burning coal, no ambers, and then I have to start over, clean out the stove, add wood then start the coal again. If I add wood at night, basically fill it up, I have a good fire and plenty of amber/coal to start again. Mainly using wood until I get home @ 6:00pm. I have adjusted my forced air fan from full to almost closed, I had to remove my draft induction because I went to forced air, any ideas of what I am doing wrong?????

Once you have a coal fire going, you need to fill the firebox absolutely full of coal. It needs to be as deep as possible. If you are new at this, try servicing it 3 times a day, in the morning before work, when you get home and before you hit the hay until you get a good handle on whats going on. Here are some tips.

http://www.homewarmth.com/pdffiles/coalburningtips.pdf

Once you have the coal going, I would stay away from using wood.

I agree...You have to fill your stove completely with coal. I'm guessing that:

1. You didn't fill your stove (to the top of the firebrick)
Or
2. You had the fire burning so hot that it used up your coal too quickly

What kind of stove is it (ie hand fired or stoker) & how much coal does the owner's manual say it will hold?

Hi Shane, I see you are using a Clayton furnace. Follow the advice above..

But I have one question. The general assumtion we are going on from your question is that the the coal is completly burning up, nothing left but ash.. But you don't say this, are the remains at 6:00 AM nothing but ashes ? or is there unburnt coal??? Meaning the fire is going out??

Either way, you need to follow the above suggestions: fill 'er up.. Coal burns not on quantity of fuel like wood, it should be controlable with the combustion air.

Let us know... Greg L

I'm going to move this to the hand fired forum..

.

I have lots of partialy burnt coal, the fire is going out. I did not fill the stove up to the top of the fire bricks, but there was at least 25 lbs of coal in there and it looked beautiful at 10:00 pm. This morning, just more unburnt coal, about half of it. I started a wood fire on top of the unburnt coal (had to get to work), I'll shake it out after work and fill it up to the top of the fire bricks and give it a try. Is there such a thing as to much forced air?

ShaneG wrote:I have lots of partialy burnt coal, the fire is going out. I did not fill the stove up to the top of the fire bricks, but there was at least 25 lbs of coal in there and it looked beautiful at 10:00 pm. This morning, just more unburnt coal, about half of it. I started a wood fire on top of the unburnt coal (had to get to work), I'll shake it out after work and fill it up to the top of the fire bricks and give it a try. Is there such a thing as to much forced air?

Willing to bet if you fill er up your problems will be over.

Ok it's 9:35 pm, I'm almost to the top of the fire brick, I'll wait awhile and let the coal get caught up, shake it down one more time and add up to the top, It's looking great, my radiant heat is running around 160 degrees, which is inthe range that I wanted, and LsFarm, mine is not a big bertha, but it's still turning out fun to figure it out, I'll need to talk to you more on this. Only one concern, this is where I was at last night, and leaving it alone...My wife thinks it's a good thing that we also have a pellet stove, not what I wanted to hear...

ShaneG wrote:Ok it's 9:35 pm, I'm almost to the top of the fire brick, I'll wait awhile and let the coal get caught up, shake it down one more time and add up to the top, It's looking great, my radiant heat is running around 160 degrees, which is inthe range that I wanted, and LsFarm, mine is not a big bertha, but it's still turning out fun to figure it out, I'll need to talk to you more on this. Only one concern, this is where I was at last night, and leaving it alone...My wife thinks it's a good thing that we also have a pellet stove, not what I wanted to hear...

Why are you hesitant about filling your stove up? ......."I'm almost to the top of the fire brick"....
Coal fire heat is not dependant on the amount of fuel (coal in this case) that you have in your stove like wood fires, but rather the amount of air you give it. A coal fire needs a deep bed or it will not last.
Fill it all the way up.

Devil5052 wrote:Fill it all the way up.

Perhaps the best advice ever posted relating to burning anthracite. Your fire will be easier to maintain and control, you're grates will last longer (a larger fire can handle a thicker ash bed) and you will burn less coal.

I had my stove filled to full capacity at 10 PM last night. At 4:30 this morning there was only a softball sized area burning. I brought it back with some charcoal. Other times I'm still have a reasonable full fire still burning in the morning, with the draft vent set the same. It's all determined by the quality of the coal when all the other variables such as draft, amount of air available to the fire, etc. all remain the same.

Wood'nCoal wrote:I had my stove filled to full capacity at 10 PM last night. At 4:30 this morning there was only a softball sized area burning. I brought it back with some charcoal. Other times I'm still have a reasonable full fire still burning in the morning, with the draft vent set the same. It's all determined by the quality of the coal when all the other variables such as draft, amount of air available to the fire, etc. all remain the same.

How hot are your fires? (I generaly turn the fire down at night to get longer burn times) Also, did you mean that you shook your stove down & filled it up at 10:00pm last night? (if that was the case, & it was almost out by 4:30am then you are either a blacksmith (requiring white-hot fires) or there is some real problem with your draft, stove or coal.)

One of reasons I waited last night to fill it up all the way, is that I still had some wood burning in the stove left over from the morning. I did do another shake down and filled it all the way up last night, this morning I had a bed of coal, not a great deal of coal, but is was glowing, I shook it down again, it seemed like I put it out. Thinking it was not enough to start more coal with, I put on wood. I see that Devil5052 used charcoal, did not even think about charcoal. Tonight, I'm fill er up, turn up my draft alittle, and picking up a bag of charcoal.

ShaneG wrote:One of reasons I waited last night to fill it up all the way, is that I still had some wood burning in the stove left over from the morning. I did do another shake down and filled it all the way up last night, this morning I had a bed of coal, not a great deal of coal, but is was glowing, I shook it down again, it seemed like I put it out. Thinking it was not enough to start more coal with, I put on wood. I see that Devil5052 used charcoal, did not even think about charcoal. Tonight, I'm fill er up, turn up my draft alittle, and picking up a bag of charcoal.

I fill up with coal right on top of wood whenever I start the stove. Don't try to shake down unless you have a good, deep coal bed burning very well. (You undoubtdedly did put it out by shaking down a marginal fire. You smothered it)

sounds to me like you don't have enough air traveling through your coal fire if you end up with half burned coal, OR maybe your coal isn't very good and what you have in the morning are klinkers. I get about 4 or 5 inches of coal going hot before bed and before I turn in I fill it up to capacity with fresh coal. one thing I noticed is that if I have a deep bed of coal all burning and I fill up on top of it, it doesn't last nearly as long because that deep bed is already half burned up before I put fresh coal on top. I keep a deep bed going during the day but I don't fill it when I come home from work (i just add enough to keep the heat pumping) that way I can put as much fresh coal as possible in the stove before bed, and it lasts all night.

Here's what I have been doing this winter that allows me to run my stove (hand fired Harman TLC-2000) for about 24 ghours between shake downs with a nice, deep fresh bed of coals always:
I keep adding fresh coal to the fire every few hours. (I am now semi-retired & around alot more to be able to do this) I'm probably adding another full coal hod full (1 shovel full at a time) total, between shake downs, but have managed to eliminate the need for a shakedown every 12 hrs.
I probably haven't saved much coal by doing this (other than some lost in shaking down) but I have cut down the dust problem by 1/2.