Coalpail.com Forum

Well it is official I went and picked up a new Harman TLC2000. Got the stove all installed this weekend. Between reading pages here and watching lots of youtube videos I'm confident I can do this.
I bought 5 bags of nut coal from tractor supply which got me going. I was expecting a fairly uniform bag of coal -it had a mix of everything from dusty rice chips to baseball size chunks. This weekend ill take a ride and get a ton from Cornwall Coal.

Congrats and welcome to the forum. Be sure to fill the stove all the way up to the top of the fire bricks each time you tend it. Coal likes a deep bed to burn properly.

Good news Spacecadet! Keep in mind with a properly running coal stove your exhaust may not get hot enough to turn on the "Magic Heat" reclaimer you have on your stack. There is an auto setting and a continuous setting. I speak from experience, when I was new to coal I tried one and thought it was broken. They can cause creosote on a wood stove because it cools the stack...and my coal stove needed to be over fired in order to keep it running. just my 2 cents, best of luck

nepacoal wrote: ↑

Tue. Feb. 20, 2018 4:47 am

Be sure to fill the stove all the way up to the top of the fire bricks each time you tend it. Coal likes a deep bed to burn properly.

Agreed. If you don't fill it all the way up it they get finicky. Looks like that stove will easy hold 80-100#. Good luck

The heat reclaimers work well when running the stove on the higher end, north of 400 degrees, but if the stove is efficient enough to still extract that much heat out before the flue it just won’t come on. But I’d be suprised to find a standard stove that when running at 400-650 degrees with a pipe temp less than 200.

Nice looking stove!

hotblast1357 wrote: ↑

Tue. Feb. 20, 2018 10:37 am

The heat reclaimers work well when running the stove on the higher end, north of 400 degrees, but if the stove is efficient enough to still extract that much heat out before the flue it just won’t come on. But I’d be suprised to find a standard stove that when running at 400-650 degrees with a pipe temp less than 200.

My Vigilant 2310 will run 450 - 550 and the pipe 2 feet above the stove is 160. Stove 600 - 750 and the flue pipe will see 200 - 250. When my Vigilant was in my living room the flue pipe was horizontal for 2 feet coming out of the stove and the temps were a little lower.

This weekend ill take a ride and get a ton from Cornwall Coal.

Welcome to the local coal burners. There are not many of us. Cornwall is fine but avoid the Bulville coal dealer (if he is still in business) ... the worst of the worst.

Spacecadet wrote: ↑

Tue. Feb. 20, 2018 3:14 am

Well it is official I went and picked up a new Harman TLC2000.

That's a very nice stove. I looked up the spec cuz I never heard of that model. Turns out you can burn wood in it as well ,and cook inside or on top of the stove, and also use it like an open fireplace with the optional fireplace screen, similar to my Harman TL-300 wood stove which I really like. ID check with your Harman dealer to see if they recommend that Magic heat or not. Its definitely no,on the wood stove. The website claims you can get a 60 hour burn with coal in that TLC, which is amazing.

Thanks its actually a old new unit - The guy I bought it from bought it new in 2005 and never used it. Bought it for his old house, moved and it sat in his new house's garage. I'm thinking about getting the cooking grill insert for it -_ it would be cool to bbq inside during the winter.
I like Cornwall Coal. The guy there took the time in between customers and explained alot to me.

Magic heat kicks on at 190 and off at 150, With air slide at @ 35% it kicks on and off every 10-20 min. At 20% it doesn't come on at all - pipe is @ 150 by the gauge. I figure when it really cold out and the slide open more it may run more often. If it doesn't work well enough or causes draft issues, ill remove it. Easy enough... With the old wood stove I would get on the roof and run the brush through it once a month. I'd pull down the inside pipes and clean out the magic heat.

By God, I think you've got it S. You'll do well! Have a good heating season & remember--the only stupid questions are the one's we don't ask! Let us know how that Cornwall coal looks.

For those using a Magic Heat re-claimer & burning wood,the manufacturer advises that you burn some paper or cardboard several times each week to help burn off any creosote or deposits that the scraper plate has left behind.If burning low & slow fire... creosote WILL collect on these tubes & you may not be able to move the scraper plate at all. When i had my Schrader wood stove with the Magic Heat.i had the scraper plate stick many times. A few pieces of crumpled paper thrown into the fire took care of the issue. The burning paper will float up into the tube area & set the creosote on fire,the tubes get quite red,but it will be ok if you have the fan running.5 yrs of using my Schrader stove & Magic Heat combination & i never had to clean my chimney. The Magic Heat is the stack cool down spot & also creosote collector.

Also it helps to leave the scraper in the out position, to be able to push it in when starting the cleaning, and so that the knob doesn’t melt off from the high heat from wood burning.

hotblast1357 wrote: ↑

Wed. Feb. 21, 2018 10:34 am

Also it helps to leave the scraper in the out position, to be able to push it in when starting the cleaning, and so that the knob doesn’t melt off from the high heat from wood burning.

I forgot that important part,i had to replace the knob once because it had been too hot too many times from being too close to too much heat.

windyhill4.2 wrote: ↑

Wed. Feb. 21, 2018 11:47 am

I forgot that important part,i had to replace the knob once because it had been too hot too many times from being too close to too much heat.

Hahaha! I forgot how many times I walked into the f'...damn handle!