Successfully Burning Anthracite Coal in a Clayton Furnace

Johnstar, does your ashpan and loading door seal airtight? how about the combution air control? is it sealing?? You have to have the fire chamber sealable so you can shut off all the air to the fire... if you shut off the air supply, then the fire will die down, and eventually go out.

You can use a cigar, cigarette, stick of incense, or a candle to search for air leaks around the doors.

Greg L.

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johnstar, First off, make sure you had installed a barometric draft regulator in the stove pipe. If you don't have a draft gauge to measure the setting for the correct water colum, or got the chimney guy to do it. Build a wood fire get it hot and adjust the weight on the barometric draft regulator so it does not over fire. After that is set, now you can build your coal fire slowly over the wood charcoal. Adding a little more anthracite at at time, always leaving some red coals showing each time, until the coal is up to the top of the bricks. But, not over the bricks. This whole time you are building the coal fire, you don't use the draft combustion kit hooked up to the thermostat and make sure the draft fan slide is closed. When burning anthacite in the clayton the ash door spinner is all you have to control the heat to your house. The draft kit is only for a wood fire. This was disappointing because I thought there wouldn't be any control of the fire. But no. All you have to do is count the number of spins out from closed on the ash door to match the heat you need for the tempature outside. Finding that out may take some time, a few days, weeks, months, depending on the outside tempature. But once you know that, it doesn't change. You just have to be patient and spin out slow. Remember, you're burning coal not wood. During all that playtime, you may try different settings on the fan limit for the circulation cold air blower to the house, in combination with the three speed blower switch. Patience and short choppy shakes twice a day only until you see the red coal in the ash. That is the key to your CLAYTON. I hope this helps you. DOUG

Currently I am building up the fire, throwing on a few shovel fulls every 15 minutes with the draft kit turned on, only because it's a bit windy here today. I am trying to build a smaller fire than I have in the past and hoping for a more even heat throughout the house later.

Johnstar,, a shallow fire will not work with anthracite.. a fire shallower than 4" or so will not burn correctly..

The heat output from a coal fire is determined by the area of the fire.. your fire is roughly 20" wide by about 36" long, and if filled to the top of the fire brick, about 8" deep.. the exact dimensions are not important.. The duration of burn is determined by the depth of the coal bed.. and of course the air supplied to the fire determines the rate of burn as well.

If you want less heat output you have to reduce the area of your fire.. or control the air to the fire better.. A few forum members use steel plates to block off part of the grate [so you don't loose air to the fire] and firebrick to build a shorter firebox back wall.. the result is a smaller but still deep fire..

I think you should check those door gaskets and any other uncontroled source for combustion air..

Greg L

I checked the seals around the doors with a candle, It all checked out fine. The fire I now have going consumes about 3/4 of the chamber and has my house at 73 degrees, a little warm but a lot better than 78. I will pick up some fire brick and cut a piece of 1/4" steel to block off the front 1/4 so I can build a deeper yet shorter fire. For now I think this will cure my high heat problem. I really think this is going to work well. Thanks for the input and getting me going in the right direction.

John

i keep seeing people refer to a baro. is that the pice you add with a flap that swings in or out, or is that the plate that goes inside the flue pipe. I didn't put that on [yet]. what happens if you don't have that?

To my understanding, The barometric damper helps provide draft to ensure your fire continually gets air flow through the burn chamber and carry away the smoke. Before I started my first fire I had installed one because of all the talk on this forum about how much they help.
I am relatively new to this coal burning and NORTHCANDLEWOOD has helped me out greatly. he would be the one I recommend you spend time talking to.

By The Way, I believe the 1800 model is a lot like my 1600. If the flap you were refering to is in the burn chamber, it is there to help prevent smoke from rolling out the coal door when opened. The Barometric damper is the part that is mounted (utilizing a tee) in the stove pipe before going to the outside.

here is a picture of mine

Here's another pic, notice that I mounted a receptacle on the side. I did this because I found a few people talking about that if you run the rec. wires through the unit the jacketing eventually melts and shorts out. So to prevent this I ran an M.C. cable along the side and mounted the receptacle on the side.

Hello 1howardo, a barometric damper is a draft limiting device,, if you read in the 'venting, chimneys etc' forum there are several topics on the subject..It doesn't provide or increase draft, rather it limits the draft to a maximum setting.. This provides a steady draw on the fire so you can set your combustion air controls more accurately.

Without a draft limiting device, the draft can get excessive during windy or cold weather,, often doubling the amount of draft pulling air through the stove/furnace/boiler.. this extra draft or vacuum will pull a lot of heat up the chimney, at the same time pulling too much air through the fire, causing the fire to burn too fast.. Anthracite coal likes a slow steady burn..

Greg L.

i just don't get it. I had a period of a week or so where the furnace kept going through the night and I thought I had it beat. but the last two nights it goes out. yesterday it was going great, good coals and actually producing heat . so I went to work and two hours later it was stone cold. it did the same thing to me tonight. I had a good fire going, after it had gone out, went to bed, got up at 12:30, shook it and added some coal and wood pieces and by 5:00 it stone cold. a couple of days ago I bought a damper and installed it because I think a lot of my heat was going up the chimmney. its really had no effect. I guess I just have to quit my job and sleep next to the furnace. or cut it up for scrap.

1howardo
Call me! I had PM'd you with my number or PM me with yours! I have a land use meeting @ 6:30 - 9pm anytime before or after is fine and I'm around and able to talk during the day.
Charles

Has anyone come up with a good way of controllong the blower on the 1600 model? I am having a tough time trying to keep my house at a reasonable temperature. If I continue using the draft kit which gets the fire going hotter and then turns on the Duct blower I believe the fire may get to low in order to be able to heat the house. I have tried all sorts of settings on the limit switch and found that there is too much of a tempeature difference throughout a 24 hour period to set it at one setting all the time. I was thinking of adding another Thermostat to control just the blower. Anyone have a better idea?

johnstar wrote:Has anyone come up with a good way of controllong the blower on the 1600 model? I am having a tough time trying to keep my house at a reasonable temperature. If I continue using the draft kit which gets the fire going hotter and then turns on the Duct blower I believe the fire may get to low in order to be able to heat the house. I have tried all sorts of settings on the limit switch and found that there is too much of a tempeature difference throughout a 24 hour period to set it at one setting all the time. I was thinking of adding another Thermostat to control just the blower. Anyone have a better idea?

John
Lets take one at a time!
Are you tring to control to much heat from the unit?
What settings do you have the blower set at?
Have you tried to see how low you can go and idle the unit without it going out on you?
You will be suprised at how low you can go!
What setting is the blower at? It is 3 speed?

Charles