Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace

50bigdog wrote:I'm attempting to burn anthracite coal in my woodchuck4000...getting the nice red coals ande blue flames but the furnace isn't putting out the btu's. its cold as hell here and the temp in the house last night was 56 until I came home from work and switched over to gas. can anyone help me out with whats going wrong? have been operating this furnace for a year and up until a week ago was burning wood successfully, just a lot more maintenance than I want right now. I've heard that coal is the way to go but I'm having trouble believing it.

welcome to the forum bub. hmm, does the fire go out? let us know what your set up is, paint us a picture. whats the dampers set at? you have a barometric damper? what is everything set at? and the biggest thing im thinkin right now, are you loading the coal high and deep? make sure each load you throw on as much coal as you can. right up to the top of the fire brick. my hotblast says 70 pounds but their are days (like this frigid day) I will put in at least 100

50 bigdog
Check your messages here on the forum, I left you one.
My Woodchuck 2900 is out on loan, I found it very much like the Clayton 1600 I have. It sounds like you have too much draft.
Call me any time and lets get you BTU'd
Charles

Got to love that 1600 just chugging away in the barn keeping the chill off!

I am new to this coal burning and felt proud after burning for 3 days no problems, it snowed here in MD on Saturday and the stove went out. I fussed with it all afternoon got it burning but barely. The same thing again this morning. Here is what ive got Clayton 1600 , 35 foot masonry Terra cota lined chimney , barometric damper forced draft(im not using this) I have blocked off the front shaker with a fire brick it was onll burning up front. Im burning nut anthracite from reading. Wanted to get some more today as I only bought 10 bags to try out. Any help would be great!!!!!

Hi IRONMAN and welcome to the forum.

Here is a post that may help you. Slow Blue Dancing With Red Dressed Ladies in a Clayton

Let us know how it works out, keep us posted.

Hi Ironman,

This is my first year also and I'm hooked. I also was very successful only loosing the fire once on the 3rd day. Since then it's been smooth sailing due to this forum. I'm on my 2nd ton of nut and am planning my coal bin for next year. A couple things that I learned from this forum that make a big difference, the more coal the better, I fill it up to the top of the fire bricks then I mound it up as high as I can in the middle. To control the temp use the air control. Remember coal reacts VERY slow to changes unlike wood which is almost instantaneous.

Some things I have done that make a HUGE difference

Every other day I run my ash eater through the coal bed instead of shaking it down. This eliminates the ash buildup at the front and back of the firebox and eliminates the need to manually shake it down.

I also installed a draft inducer that I picked up on ebay and this is like supercharging your Clayton. It makes it so easy to revive the fire, load more coal and just cuts down the time it takes to tend the fire. As far as I'm concerned it's a must have for all Clayton owners and worth every penny. Here's a link http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_21928_21928

George

hi ironman also glad to have you here. I also have the clayton and just started to burn anthricite. I found that to get it going good I have to shake the grates hard( alot I mean) once I see fire coming in the ash pan I stop and ad coal. I fill it up to the bricksbut leave some red coals showing. then I leave the bottom door open for about twenty minutes to half an hour then when you have your dancing ladies you can close it up and adjust your bottom draft to get the heat you want. thats what works for me

Hey George, post a picture of your ash eater. I'd like to see what you are referring to. That sounds like a neat idea that I may want to give a try.

I second the ash eater picture - I googled it but couldn't find anything about it. Is that the real name for it? I have blisters from shaking mine down...

I will 3rd that request..
My US Stove Ashley model generates a tone of ash..

Hey Guys

The ash eater is something I came up with to try and automate the shaking and raking of the coals to get all the ask out. All it is is a couple pieces of steel I welded up and drive it with my cordless drill. The shaft is a piece of 1/2" steel and the business end is a 2" long piece of 5/8" steel with the ends rounded.

To use it all I do is put the drill in low set the clutch to just enough to drive it (around 18 on my drill) start it spinning and push it down into the coal bed. I start at the front and slowly push it to the back. I do this 3 or 4 times and I'm done, takes all of a minute to do and I don't have to get down on my knees to shake it down. The first time you do it you will be amazed at how much ash you get.

Here ya go I hope the pics work.

Looks like the pics didn't work. Anyone know how to get pics uploaded ?

George

Still can't get the pictures uploaded

Has anyone ever tried to burn wood pellets in their Clayton ? The reason I ask is I have 8 ton that I had for my Harman pellet stove. I also have an Auto Draft so I can run it on low to keep the draft up. I realize I'll have to make up something to keep the pellets from falling through the grates. My plan is to burn the pellets in the fall and spring and coal in the dead of winter.

Thanks
George

Believe it or not, I have tried to burn wood pellets in my Clayton. Well, it did burn, but it produced a lot of gases that were very very sensitive to ignition when the feed door was open. I would be very careful if you do load the firebox with bags of pellets. I would use a good wood fire with a lot of charcoal embers before I would load any pellets up in the firebox and use the combustion blower wide open to help with the much needed air. They did burn hot, but burnt faster than split wood. I'd say you could burn pellets mixed with split wood, but don't expect the same results as split wood and they tended to fall through into the ash pan unburnt if the charcoal ember bed wasn't deep enough to prevent it from happening. See if you could sell the wood pellets, because it is a really costly way to get heat for the trouble of burning wood pellets in your Clayton.