Yukon Big Jack - can't seem to get coal to work

This is the first time we've tried coal and this year that is going to be my primary heat. Up until now we've been burning 15 cord of fire wood a season. We've been trying for 2 weeks to get a coal fire to stabalize in the furnance without success. I've read a few things on here about deep coal beds, but can't keep a fire going long enough to get a bed deeper than 4" before it goes out. And the 1 time we actually had a stable fire the induction blower fan turned off when it hit 72 F and the fire went out. I have finally burned up all the wood left over from last year trying to start the coal. I have the secondary Air on the furnace door closed, added fire bricks into the fire chamber so that all the coal sits above the grates. Have the ash door open, turned up the temperature on the thermostat so the induction fan won't turn off. even blocked the barametric damper wide open to increase flow up the chimney. But the fire still goes out when cleaning out the ash or stoking. I know once I figure this out it will work better than wood, but this point I'm getting very flusterated by the whole process. Any and all advice would be appreciated and thanks in advance.

Yukon Big Jack
Same stove ? Is yours a gasification stove.

Here's a link to the manual. Doesnt say much specifally. How are you lighting the fire? Personally I'd use a bag of match light charcaol wait till it gets good and hot and shovel coal over that until ignited. Keep going every five minutes until you have a bed a few inches thick and a good draft. Then add the rest until it's full. Then turn on the forced draft to get it going. Good luck! Seems like it's primarily designed as a wood burner. https://www.woodnotoil.com/manual/JackLineManual_ ... _UL_BW.pdf

don't know what a gasification stove is, this is supposed to be a dual perpose Wood/coal burning forced air furnace. Works wonderful with wood, just not having any luck with coal.

Khan1969 wrote: ↑

Tue. Nov. 09, 2021 11:56 am

don't know what a gasification stove is, this is supposed to be a dual perpose Wood/coal burning forced air furnace. Works wonderful with wood, just not having any luck with coal.

Call the manufacturer and ask for advice. Also reread the manual. Coal requires a very deep bed.

Khan...
Welcome to coalpail.........where are you located(state)...and what kind of coal are you using(anthracite or bit....)? Anthracite takes 'patience'(bit...I've never burnt), but, there are plenty of people here to help. Top right(Search), type in Yukon.....lots of info!
Cheers

Why on earth did you block the baro open. It kills your draft! I would close it and seal it off with foil until you get a handle on it. Forget everything about wood fires now, totally different animals.

Need pictures, especially of the blower and fire box.

How were added firebrick placed? Do they block air from coming up through the grate? Air must come up through the grate. Blower placement should be on the ash door, not above the grate.

Looking at the manual I would expect burning coal to be not possible without directing that air from the blower downward to blow below the grate. Look for some provision to do that.

The manual states that 80 percent of air must come from below the grate. How that is possible with the blower above the grate I do not know, unless there is a passage I am not aware of.

D-frost wrote: ↑

Tue. Nov. 09, 2021 1:07 pm

Khan...
Welcome to coalpail.........where are you located(state)...and what kind of coal are you using(anthracite or bit....)? Anthracite takes 'patience'(bit...I've never burnt), but, there are plenty of people here to help. Top right(Search), type in Yukon.....lots of info!
Cheers

I'm in western MN on the SD border and I'm trying to burn Anthacite.

Thanks for the welcome, hope to learn how to solve my problems.

coaledsweat wrote: ↑

Tue. Nov. 09, 2021 1:10 pm

Why on earth did you block the baro open. It kills your draft! I would close it and seal it off with foil until you get a handle on it. Forget everything about wood fires now, totally different animals.

Thanks for the tip, the reason I opened it is because I had read on another thread to open it.

Khan...
A Yukon rep named Keith was a great help in getting my Yukon Eagle to burn coal. He knows his product. Speak with him if he is still with the company.(this is when it was Alpha-American in Palisade, Mn. before the EPA clobbered them).
With anthracite, like franco stated, the primary air has to come up from below the grate. In my case with the Eagle, Keith "suggested" drilling the ash door and fabricating a 'primary air' input for the anthracite.(Similar to the damper you have on the load door). It worked. Without the shaker grate, find ,or fab a long handle poker with a 90* bend about 3 or 4 inch to slice the ash from under the grate.
The Yukon is a great furnace.......mine is 15 years old.
Cheers

Here are the pictures of what I have, I closed the damper as suggested will add foil later.

Sorry can't figure out why the pictures turned sideways.

D-frost wrote: ↑

Tue. Nov. 09, 2021 4:08 pm

Khan...
A Yukon rep named Keith was a great help in getting my Yukon Eagle to burn coal. He knows his product. Speak with him if he is still with the company.(this is when it was Alpha-American in Palisade, Mn. before the EPA clobbered them).
With anthracite, like franco stated, the primary air has to come up from below the grate. In my case with the Eagle, Keith "suggested" drilling the ash door and fabricating a 'primary air' input for the anthracite.(Similar to the damper you have on the load door). It worked. Without the shaker grate, find ,or fab a long handle poker with a 90* bend about 3 or 4 inch to slice the ash from under the grate.
The Yukon is a great furnace.......mine is 15 years old.
Cheers

They're still in Palisade, MN as far as I know. My wife ordered new fire bricks from them last year and we've also had to get a new coal grate from them. I didn't know the EPA had clobbered them. I really like their product, we got ours in 2015 and have burned about 90 cords of wood through it. But I'm not spring chicken anymore and cutting, splitting and stacking 15 cord every year just doesn't work anymore between work and time constraints we're going to go to coal.

Did you drill through the door or along side the door? I already have a long handled poker that fits between the grates that I have been using for the wood ash and it seems to do well with the coal from above. I was already debating if I needed to find a way to reneck a fan on the ash door to move air up through the coal. this might answer that queastion. either that or leave the ash door open all the time.

are you still using the Induction motor on the fire chamber?

I read the manual. I don't agree with how they instruct to "stoke" the fire with the banking method for anthracite. I also don't see the benefit of the added fire bricks. I'd take them out. They are taking up space that could be occupied by coal, this will shorten your burn times and need more frequent tending when you need a lot of heat demand.

As mentioned propping the baro open will kill the draft on the stove. A baro damper is an instrument that limits the draft to a specific negative pressure. The basic purpose of that is so you don't "over fire" the stove. Other benefits include steady consistent heat output.

It appears in the pictures from what I could tell is that the fire is deep in the back but possibly very shallow in the front. This would allow combustion air coming up thru the grates to bypass your burning pile of coal. Anthracite needs to be spread an equal thickness covering the entire grate. This is very important to have a successful fire.

My favorite method to starting a coal fire is to use lump charcoal, the black wood like charcoal. It burns very hot and aggressively once it's lit good. Use a 3 inch layer, let it get rippin then add shallow layers of coal, let each layer get burning good before adding the next. Spread each layer evenly, no banking. Thru the process let the ash door be open and keep the load door closed. This will force combustion air up thru the grates, which is what you need to have happen.

You need to find out by inspecting the induction blower, where exactly that air is going. It's possible that it gets diverted by a plate or passage to go under the grates. Let us know what you find.

You CAN NOT leave the ash door open once you have a healthy fire established. You will over fire the stove.

Ok, so closing off the barometric damper seems to helped a little bit, hopefully I can actually start to fill the fire box. But will the fire die everytime the induction blower motor turns off or do i need to set it so high it will never turn off?