Blasting through Blaschak

I’m currently burning in a efel hopper stove. It’s been going for around 3 weeks now. I first started with 6 No name canvas bag coal. It was so dusty I went to another supplier and got 6 bags of blaschak for the same price. Much nicer to deal with, almost no dust. But I thought I was going through it quicker. So I decided to take to my dealer and got 4 5 gallon buckets of jeddo coal. They said it is a harder coal. So I set the stove to the same temp (bi metallic thermostat) and same setting on the manual damper. With the blaschak I was going through about a bucket and a 1/4 a day ~50 lbs. i then switched to the jeddo, waited a day till it was all jeddo in the stove. With the jeddo after my first day of testing with all the same settings I was burning less than a bucket a day or about 30 lbs. To this point all I burned was nut coal. I decided to try pea coal since I was struggling a bit to shake things down, a ton of slicking… so I went back to the dealer and got some pea coal but all they had was blaschak and guess what… after 3 days I’m back up in usage to just over a bucket a day. No settings changed. I have only heard good this about blaschak coal, this just seems strange to me. Has anyone had any experiences like this. I’m trying to find out what burns best before I go pick up a ton or 2 for the rest of winter.

I got Blaschak from my new to me dealer. Very clean, no fines. With Blaschak it produces a lot of heat, but I found the stuff can burn through quicker than Lehigh Anthracite. I just have to stay on top of the stove, especially on cold windy nights.

I have not noticed higher consumption with Blaschak in my hand fired but I have noticed it has a lot of unburned pieces in the ashes. I never had this with other coal. It does not shake down to a powder either like other coal. Harder to find a happy medium between burning too hot and not burning hot enough. In the past , quarter turn increments of the air inlet dial would result in change but with Blaschak I need to really open it up to get a change . To be honest, I don't think it lives up to it's reputation and I have been burning coal for 38 years, Blaschak the last 3.

Does the Efel have a barometric damper installed ? Different coal seams will have different quality’s ( you may be losing some of heat up the chimney before the stove can absorb it ) are you tracking chimney and stove top temps ?

The Blaschak bagged nut that I got this year is burning hotter than the Lehigh bagged I got last year, with less snap, crackle, and pop time before I can reset the dampers. Nicely sized with very few fines, unlike the Lehigh which was loaded with all sizes especially many of the bags had a lot of fire-choking small bits and fines I had to screen out.

The Blaschak all burns with a tan ash compared with the Lehigh red ash of last year, which had a lot of unburned pieces that I picked out of the ash to run through the stoves again.

With the Blaschak burning hotter I find I can use less damper openings, so that makes it last just as long as the Lehigh.

Paul

ShawnLiNy wrote: ↑

Wed. Nov. 30, 2022 10:36 am

Does the Efel have a barometric damper installed ? Different coal seams will have different quality’s ( you may be losing some of heat up the chimney before the stove can absorb it ) are you tracking chimney and stove top temps ?

Baro and manual dampers. Stove temps are typically around 450-500 and pipe temps around 110-140 above the baro

Sunny Boy wrote: ↑

Wed. Nov. 30, 2022 10:39 am

The Blaschak bagged nut that I got this year is burning hotter than the Lehigh bagged I got last year, with less snap, crackle, and pop time before I can reset the dampers. Nicely sized with very few fines, unlike the Lehigh which was loaded with all sizes especially many of the bags had a lot of fire-choking small bits and fines I had to screen out.

The Blaschak all burns with a tan ash compared with the Lehigh red ash of last year, which had a lot of unburned pieces that I picked out of the ash to run through the stoves again.

With the Blaschak burning hotter I find I can use less damper openings, so that makes it last just as long as the Lehigh.

Paul

I’m getting relatively the same burn temps with the same settings just burns longer with the jeddo. Both ash seem to be the same color the the jeddo seems to be finer ash. The pea blaschak does very good but is still burns fast. Even compared to the jeddo nut the blaschak pea burns faster which is especially strange since pea typically burns slower with less air flowing through the bed.

Temps sound good , I’m really surprised the pea size is doing the same as nut , try running the thermostat slightly cooler with the blashak

Well, HEAP come through for us old, broke, pathetic people!!! $700.00-- my dealer only does BLASCHAK-- $9.00 per bag--I'm figurin roughly around 70 bags--that also covers delivery---be here sometime this week!!!!!I'll get my Amish neighbors over to stack it.

The Blaschak is burning so much hotter I've had to reduce the damper openings with both stoves.

Past few mornings I've slept late, but both stoves still were running hot with plenty of burn time left.

As far as I know none of the dealers around here have ever had Jeddo coal so no way to compare it.

Paul

YEP, I'm only tending once in 24 hours--only 3 medium full shakes--workin well so far even on those 20* nights...........gotta love this bi-mettalic set up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once ya find that sweet spot--wa-la your good for the season.

freetown fred wrote: ↑

Wed. Nov. 30, 2022 12:08 pm

Well, HEAP come through for us old, broke, pathetic people!!! $700.00-- my dealer only does BLASCHAK-- $9.00 per bag--I'm figurin roughly around 70 bags--that also covers delivery---be here sometime this week!!!!!I'll get my Amish neighbors over to stack it.

70 bags huh. How old and big is the house, Fred? That sounds about like what I burned last year.

freetown fred wrote: ↑

Wed. Nov. 30, 2022 12:08 pm

Well, HEAP come through for us old, broke, pathetic people!!! $700.00-- my dealer only does BLASCHAK-- $9.00 per bag--I'm figurin roughly around 70 bags--that also covers delivery---be here sometime this week!!!!!I'll get my Amish neighbors over to stack it.

That's better than the price here for bagged Blaschak. $9.99 a bag at Ace hardware 60 miles away from Blaschak.

freetown fred wrote: ↑

Wed. Nov. 30, 2022 12:23 pm

YEP, I'm only tending once in 24 hours--only 3 medium full shakes--workin well so far even on those 20* nights...........gotta love this bi-mettalic set up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once ya find that sweet spot--wa-la your good for the season.

I have to adjust it every few days for this nice pa weather changing every other day. But it’s mostly 3/4 hot… love my 1930’s uninsulated brick house with original window (don’t judge. I’m poor but at least I have a house and wife at 21). Anyways when I was running the Jedda nut I could probably go 18-24 hours but I still service morning and night. I still had 1/2 a hopper after a 12 hour service. But 12 hours with the nut or pea blaschak the hopper is empty.

lincolnmania wrote: ↑

Wed. Nov. 30, 2022 1:10 pm

That's better than the price here for bagged Blaschak. $9.99 a bag at Ace hardware 60 miles away from Blaschak.

I chose to get buckets at the suppler ~$7 for 40lbs. Plan on getting 4 garbage tigers (96 gallon) lining them up on a trailer and getting a loader bucket of coal.