Having a hard time getting Anthracite to catch

CorrosionMan wrote: ↑

Tue. Dec. 15, 2020 2:24 pm

A question for others, having forced air combustion, are puff backs in general less likely verses naturally aspirated?

Just guessing but forced air will, I think, lessen any chance of a puffback.
But it might also just blow the gasses out the chimney without burning them.

For natural draft, plenty of air helps too, but too high velocity air can blow out the blue flame as well. Having a thermostat control on the stove will give more air at the end of a burn and then automatically close down on recovery.

Having a hopper or magazine feeds hot coal that quickly gives up its gas so tending time is shortened.

hotblast1357 wrote: ↑

Tue. Dec. 15, 2020 6:48 am

With this pic here, it looks like that combustion fan actually blows through or by the load door, and then down into the ash pan are, if that’s the case then perfect.

Exactly.

Most new anthracite burners are afraid or unaware of how important it is to cover the entire grate and build the fire up to 8 inches deep.. I understand, I was there once too, with all these guys here rallying me to "fill er up!!"

If that were my appliance, I would use a nut/stove size mix in that sucker and pile it 16-18 inches high. That's what I used to do with my hand fed furnace. I would only shake and load once a day unless extreme cold, then once every 12 hours.

Lightning wrote: ↑

Tue. Dec. 15, 2020 6:35 pm

Most new anthracite burners are afraid or unaware of how important it is to cover the entire grate and build the fire up to 8 inches deep.. I understand, I was there once too, with all these guys here rallying me to "fill er up!!"

If that were my appliance, I would use a nut/stove size mix in that sucker and pile it 16-18 inches high. That's what I used to do with my hand fed furnace. I would only shake and load once a day unless extreme cold, then once every 12 hours.

Well the max height I have at my front door plate is only about 8" the side liners are 13" back liner is about 14" so I am limited on how deep a bed I can do cause of the front cast plate being short and even with the firebox door opening. I could I guess slope it up if I wanted towards the back. Just went down and measured to be sure

mstich wrote: ↑

Tue. Dec. 15, 2020 7:12 pm

Well the max height I have at my front door plate is only about 8 inches and the back liner is about 10 inches so I am limited on how deep a bed I can do.

Right.. the height of the fire brick in my hand fed would only allow a "level" 8-9 inch deep bed.. I would mound it up 16 inches deep in the center.

Lightning wrote: ↑

Tue. Dec. 15, 2020 7:18 pm

Right.. the height of the fire brick in my hand fed would only allow a "level" 8-9 inch deep bed.. I would mound it up 16 inches deep in the center.

ah okay

Hello,do try the matchlight it works great to light kindling and coal. I just started using it and in 5 min I can start loading coal in.

Yep, charcoal or woody lump charcoal (my favorite) is the way to go!!

Maybe you need to start out by establishing a good solid bed of wood coals first. And what's this diverter plate someone mentioned. The air needs to come from underneath.

oliver power wrote: ↑

Thu. Dec. 17, 2020 9:54 pm

Maybe you need to start out by establishing a good solid bed of wood coals first. And what's this diverter plate someone mentioned. The air needs to come from underneath.

Yeah finally figured out how mine works and getting the Draft Blower air down and under grates.

Draft Blower is above the firebox door and is controlled by the thermostat. With the Blower on and the firebox door shut it blows air down through a channel in the firebox door itself, hits the ash pan area and then feeds air under the grates.

With fire door open it just blows air directly into the firebox area on top the wood or coal and no air is forced underneath. So just have to make sure firebox door is shut for this to happen.

Okay guys thank you for all the feedback helping me figure this multifuel furnace out, now for a new situation. I just started using Hard Coal with this new furnace less then a week ago cause I was burning nothing but Oil and it was doing fine, seems to use a lot of Oil though. I used your advice to get the coal to light and it worked fine.

I have the bed of hard coal 6-7 inches deep cause that's all the depth I have to work with cause of the front plate. I did make it higher in the rear as someone else suggested just today to see what happens, but it's only a inch or so from the top of the side liners so I can't go any higher really.

The full bed is burning yet this thing will not get hot enough even with the ash door fully open to activate the fan blowers to heat the house. I have tried with the ash door slide vent fully open and with it closed with draft blower going. And does not matter as it will not get hot enough to do much to get fan going for more then a a minute or so.

Only way I can get it to keep fan on longer is to toss on logs of wood over top the coal. I do not do this all the time, just when it's way to cold in here. I have set the Oil furnace to kick on if it gets to 65 degrees and I have set it to 68 also at night so we do not freeze cause I can not trust this coal side to do anything.

My Draft slide up top is fully set for a Coal fire so it's fully open. Draft Blower is on and works. I do poke holes down through the coal with my straight poker to give it air as I was told to do in several places. And I do lightly shake the 5 grates one at a time once or twice a day cause it has individual grates each with their own shaker attachment and they are not linked to shake together.

So I am at a loss. Is it possible all my heat is going right up the chimney cause installers did something wrong? Or something else cause I am baffled, or maybe not cause there is no baffle in this furnace to stop all the heat from going right up the chimney.

Any more suggestion on how to over come this situation would be appreciated and thank you in advance.

What draft is your barometer set at?

waytomany?s wrote: ↑

Mon. Feb. 15, 2021 8:51 pm

What draft is your barometer set at?

8" Pipe is on a 45 degree angle going up. Weight is on the Vertical side set on far left at 2. I have been told by Chimney cleaners and furnace installers that I have a strong draft if that helps.

I just remembered I still have the old coal furnace damper still here and went to look at it.
It is set at 6 and it's is 9" pipe and was vertical, the adjuster weight is on the Vertical side.

After seeing the old damper I changed mine to 4 and it still opens up a good bit. So not sure where to really put it, but 6 worked well on old Hard Coal furnace, but this is a Newmac Multi-Fuel Furnace Oil/Coal/Wood.

Baro set at .02 will be difficult to have an easy fire start. However that .02-.03 setting would be a good 'cruise' setting once the fire was well established.
Sometimes ppl cover baro somewhat with tin foil temporally until their fire is topped off and all a glowing. Then they will remove foil for the 'cruise' duration.

I see, thanks for info