Trouble Starting Coal Stove

We are new to coal burning. Have burned wood for years. Have a Bennington Home Heater wood/coal add on boiler with automatic damper. Having a hard time getting the coal fire started. Did get blue flames, added small amounts of coal at a time. Still went out. From what I have read here, it may be an air flow problem. We bought nut coal from someone that is retired and moving to Florida. Said coal was trucked in from PA. and has sat in cellar for about 5 years. My question: if coal got wet will it effect the burning of it? I do not know if the cellar was wet or not, but they did live near a river.

Wet or dry it will burn. I think it burns better when it is a little wet! A coal fire MUST get all it's air from under the fire to burn. Close off all air over the fire.

judeh wrote:Have a Bennington Home Heater wood/coal add on boiler with automatic damper. Having a hard time getting the coal fire started. Did get blue flames, added small amounts of coal at a time. Still went out.

Small amounts of coal will not burn well. You need to fill your stove up fully with coal & try it like that for a few days.

Agreed, a deep bed of coal is critical for proper burning. How deep can you make your coal bed? I started burning coal in a wood/coal hybrid like you, but it did not work out very well. My Fire Boss burns wood really well, but coal not so good. So I switched to the Warm Morning Model 400, which holds about 100 pounds of coal in a very deep bed. If you can make your coal bed at least 6-8 inches, and make sure that all of the combustion air is coming from the bottom only, you should be OK.

I too had trouble keeping my Vermont Castings coal burner going when I was first getting used to it. In fact, it sounds like you're going through exactly what I was...lots of frustration!

Anyhow- I learned (as has been suggested previously)to get a RAGING (responsibly raging, that is) fire going in the stove before loading in a good amount of coal.I might load in a few pounds on top of the fire, let it get going a few minutes, add about 5 more pounds, let it go a little longer...then once I have confirmed it's all glowing red hot I add the rest. The whole time I do this I keep the lower ash pan open a crack. This ensures a nice, high flow of air from underneath the fire. Once it's going well I'll close the lower door and let it burn normally.

I also tend to crack open the door when I refill the stove with large amounts of coal. I also find it helpful to keep a good amount of kindling and wood around for those times when you are just a little late on refilling the stove. It's frustrating to try and get fresh coal going on too small of an established bed. Add some wood and get 'er raging again before you try adding too much.

The first year was frustrating for me, but I'm now used to it's nuances...and glitches. Coal can be tricky, but worth the effort.

Good luck. I'm sure you'll learn quickly like I did.

I'm new to coal burning this year. I've read a lot of great advice on this forum (it's awesome). It's definitely the reason why my coal fire has been going great for the last couple of weeks (I've had a couple of restarts ).

As a newbie, I think I have something to add to the discussion ("old timers" might not remember what it was like when they started ): one major mind block that I had to overcome, starting out, was that you really do need to learn how coal burns. It's different.

I think most people's experience with solid fuel burning comes from burning wood. What other solid material will people encounter in their daily lives that's on fire? It's gonna be wood. In my case, I had burned lots of wood in a fireplace. I understand how wood burns. The problem was assuming that every solid fuel burns like wood. I mean, why wouldn't you assume that? It's probably all you've ever burned, if even just a little bit, like once a year in the fireplace on Christmas morning.

Most people are gonna equate "burning" with "wood burning". If something's on fire, it's behaving like a wood fire, right? That's the mind block. A coal fire is very different from a wood fire. I mean, it seems obvious when you think about it, but I think (this is my theory, anyway ) people that are new to coal don't think about it enough (I didn't).

Look at a piece of coal. Does it look like wood? No, it looks like a rock. That's pretty far from wooden. When you see pictures of an established coal fire, yeah, it looks kinda like a glowing bed of wood coals. Maybe it looks like wood charcoal burning. It's not. Try to imagine it as a pile of rocks that are on fire . That should help you to "see" how very different it is.

One type of thing burning is not the same as another type of thing burning. In fact, one type of thing burning is probably very different than another type of thing burning. There's lots of different types of burning. It's important to open your mind and understand that coal burning is very different from the type of burning that you're probably familiar with. So, when you're just starting out, you really gotta pay attention to the details of what the "old timers" are saying (air underneath only, deep bed, etc., etc.).

I've found the best way to start my coal stove is #1 cut a pine 2 x 4 into 6 or 12 inch pieces, then split into as many small pieces as possible put them on the bottom #2 Get 2 year seasoned oak split into as many pieces as possible put them on the pine, then start the fire with a propane torch.
Once its started and burning hot add more oak after 10 minutes or so it should be really hot, now #3 add corn, start tossing in a handfull of shelled corn every minute or so then add a few pieces of coal, add more corn then add a few more pieces of coal, keep doing this for two or three beers, take your time don't add to much coal, it take time. The shelled corn seems to really get the coal burning, make sure to add lots of corn with the coal until there is a few inches of red hot coals. #4 Don't let the coal fire go out until the end of the heating season unless you have another 2 hours and beer. Good luck

Was using wood fire to start the stove. This year I discovered matchlight charcoal.
1. Dump charcoal in stove (not too big of a pile).
2. Light with match.
3. Wait 1/2 hour and fill with coal.
WOOHOOO she's a burnin'

Real Charcoal...
Real Quick!