Coalpail.com Forum

Hello everyone, Could some of you guys explain how you Bank your coal and what does it do for your stove? Not super clear on this subject...

Thanks, Billy

BillyR1970 wrote:Hello everyone, Could some of you guys explain how you Bank your coal and what does it do for your stove? Not super clear on this subject...

Just substitute the word "Mound" for "Bank"

Let's you get more coal in the stove & allows you to make some areas deeper than others. (keep a flame going in the shallow areas to burn of volatils)

Any else have other ideas?

From my Energy King 480EK manual

Banking
Banking allows a person to recharge in such a
manner as to retain a hot coal bed throughout
the night. Approximately one hour before
retiring for the night, push the coals to the rear
of the firebox with the coal tapered down in the
front. Add a new layer of coal. Always leave
some hot coals exposed in the front. This
allows more coal to be added to the firebox.

and as devil said it burns of the volatils, that could later cause an explosion (buff back).

Im still not sure I understand... lol any pics of this?

Think of a mound of dirt. Now a mound of coal. A coal bank.
Shovel it in and fill to the top. It's likely to bank itself.

Ok, so you want to push the hot coal to the back of stove like a ramp? Then fill the the stove level again.

Just to add more confusion to the soup...

I do not push hot coals to the back of the stove and I have more new coal in the back on the stove after loading than in the front because my fire brick is higher in the back than the front. It probably depends a little on the personality and design of the stove you have.

For me, the bed of coals gets leveled out when shaking down, I leave the hot glowing coals in the front exposed as I load/bank the new coal. I can get about 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket loaded, again, more to the rear than the front. The glowing coals in the front burn off volatiles. As part of my morning and evening process I leave the ash pan door open for about 5 minutes to liven up the fire after loading. Someone here had a good suggestion to carry a kitchen timer to remind you to close it.

Yes, appliances have their own personalities, mine prefers I rake the bank to the door and load the fresh stuff in the back.

I push my old coal to both sides and fill in the middle.Some of the old timers that I talked to said banking means to put some ash on top but I could never see the value in that.
DON

BIG BEAM wrote:I push my old coal to both sides and fill in the middle

I think we each have our own techniques, which often varies depending on the state of the fire.

I'll sometimes:

1. Load both side & leave the middle barely touched
2. Load the back & leave the front
3. Load one side heavily & barely touch the other

Whatever works to leave a small section uncovered.

BIG BEAM wrote:Some of the old timers that I talked to said banking means to put some ash on top but I could never see the value in that.

I think that would be damping/damping down? The ashes slow the fire.

Or you can just turn the air down.With my hotblast once I get the ash out, there is no way in hell I'm putting them back in.
DON

Oh I just thought of this.Most older stoves weren't air tight hence the ash thing.

Not anthracite, and not a stove, but my idea of banking came from my experience firing a steam locomotive (tourist railroad in SE PA). At the end of the day's runs, which required about 5 tons of soft coal in all, "banking" involved piling ~400 lbs just inside the firebox door. The rest of the fire would burn out overnight, dropping steam pressure by about 50% , but the fresh coal in the bank would burn and, as it did, would congeal to form one huge cherry red, or orange, ember. Next morning, you shake the grates, dropping the ash into the ashpan, leaving the grates bare, and rolling the ember around a little but not breaking it up. Then shovel new coal to cover the grates. Then, you use a ~9 foot "rake" to bust up the mama ember from the bank and disperse the embers throughout the firebox, add more coal, and turn on the "blower" to suck air up through the grates to feed the fire.

The tendency of the soft coal to melt into itself in a bank and form a single, solid ember allowed for complete removal of the ashes with no loss of fire. That feature, plus my affection for the smell of soft coal burning, are probably the only things about soft coal I like better than hard coal.

Good memories.

BIG BEAM wrote:I push my old coal to both sides and fill in the middle.Some of the old timers that I talked to said banking means to put some ash on top but I could never see the value in that.
DON

The old stoves weren't air tight much. I had a pot belly that burnt well but ya couldn't slow it down. With ash on the top it would slow the burn. Cheap man's pea coal I guess.

Wouldn't it depend on the way the stove burns as to banking? or do most stove's burn from the front first were air first enters.