New to Coal, Some Direction Needed...??

I'm new to coal and my learning curve is much flatter than I wish it to be. I've been reading through posts trying to get a handle and feel for burning coal but my re-education has been slow. I have had some minor successes and have been able to start the anthracite chestnut coal I'm using quite easily. My problem is trying to keep it burning longer than 6 or 7 hours.
I have a Golden Flame stove and part of my failures might be that I'm trying to use it beyond it's design parameters. I am fairly certain than a big part of this equation is my inexperience with coal.
I've tried different damper/ash door settings and have had little improvement. I really don't think my issues are draft related but I could be wrong.
After starting, I can get the stove quite hot and might be getting it too hot and burning it out too soon. My efforts to shake/rake and add new never really resuscitate the burn.
Any suggestions or direction would be greatly appreciated....

All Good Medicine,
Crow

A manometer to check the draft and some stove thermometers would be a good place to start. Do you load the coal up to the top of the fire bricks (if any) when reloading?

What is the fuel capacity of the stove and can we possibly see some pictures of it? Pictures are a big help.

The firebricks are in a position where if I did load it to the top, there would only be an inch of free space on the door (if that makes sense and assuming that I'd load it level). I've read that one should do what you're suggesting, but maybe this is a design limitation of the stove I have....
I'll have to check into a manometer.....

Welcome Crow,do you have any pics. of your stove.Does it have shaker grates,is your stove and doors air tight,how deep are is your fire bed(the deeper the better).Coal needs to have all it's air from underneath the fire(primary air),so open the bottom air draft door and this door will control your burn(heat output and duration) to top load door is your secondary air and only needs to be open a slight crack.You will be able to control the fire by opening the primary air more or less for heat and fill the fire box all the way with coal to the bottom of the load door.What type of damper do you have on the stove barometric damper(baro),manual pipe damper(mpd) or just open pipe.How high is your chimney,is it above the top of your roof and is there any trees in the close proxsimity blocking drafting ability.I'm sure others will also ask questions also about your specific stove. DO YOU HAVE CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTORS????

While shaking down you will want to see small embers of coal in the ash pan along with the ash itself,and while shaking if you start to fell the grate jambing you might have unburnt coal jambing them,so stop there and wait till the next reload(8 to 12 hrs.) and the unburnt coal will burn itself out from the grates.

I'm not sure of the capacity but it might take a little less than 1/2 a 5 gal. bucket of coal.

Yes, I have CO detectors and more info & pics forth coming.....

Are there gaskets around the doors? Do they seal tightly? I noticed the air vents on the ash door appear open all the way,...is that how you normally have them set. It seems like the stove should take more than 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket. I could be wrong.

In the pic. with the door open,the left side looks burn't out while the right side is not.I think on the right side you may have ash blocking the air from comming thru.You will need to scrape/poke from underneath the grates to clear the ash.You will want to see a glow from under the grates the entire width of the grates and along the edges of the firebox,and you don't stir or mix the coal on above the grates,just level off and then fill the box up to the load door and you can even mound it higher in the center of the firebox.

Does your stove have shaker grates,I didn't see the handle,unless there in the ash pan door.

From what I see, me thinks you missing some coal burning parts cowboy.

There is no way your going to get a deep enough bed of coal in there to function properly. Mounding it up... You risk having hot coal fall out the door. Do you have anything that looks like a grate that fits the full width of the front door?

Wanna Bee wrote:From what I see, me thinks you missing some coal burning parts cowboy.

There is no way your going to get a deep enough bed of coal in there to function properly. Mounding it up... You risk having hot coal fall out the door. Do you have anything that looks like a grate that fits the full width of the front door?

Good call and that might be a large part of my problem.... Guess I'm missing a door grate. Anything else?

The chimney is close to 10 ft. tall. It's located on the protected side of the roof (read- prevailing winds come from the opposite side).
There are gaskets and they seal pretty well. When it's fired up and I close off the ash door vent I can hear the air rush in the vents.
Yes, it has a shaker grate. When I am going to shake it down, I'll open up the ash door & vents to get it really going and when it does I'll shake it down. Never had much success with this and it usually dies a slow death.
It has a manual damper located on the vertical pipe above the stove. I'll keep this wide open and regulate the ash door vents.
The depth of the bed ( grate to bottom of firebricks is app. 4".

I just found an ad for that stove. It appears to be hopper fed. Do you have a hopper?

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19 ... 01,5647079

Is a door grate something that can be fabbed up? I work in a metal fabrication shop....