Problems Burning Anthrosite After Third Delivery...

Hello all,

I've had my Vermont Castings VIGILANT II stove burning anthracite fantastic since October of last year (approx 5 months, purchased in August). Ever since my last delivery, all from the same company, I'm struggling to keep it burning. The draft control is pretty much permanently open along with the damper and I can just keep it petering along. The three things that came to mind where:

Draft changes in house. - But nothing at all has changed and has been in the 20's outside with no wind
This delivery of coal is wetter and "crumblier" then the other deliveries - possibly blanketing and preventing draft??
The stove is clogged and is suffocating
Oh,and maybe a bad seal - Think its too new though.

So, last night I shut down the unit and let it cool off. I then completely cleaned out all the clean out ports as well as the rest of the unit very thoroughly.
After, I picked thought and got a bucket of only dry good pieces of coal and restarted.
I got the same issue.
I'm convinced it’s the coal but I don't know enough about coal to be sure.

Looking for any suggestions or help. Its making me nuts.

thanks in advance!

Doug

Do you have a Blaschak dealer nearby? That's a very reliable name in coal. You could buy four or five bags and burn that for a couple of days. If that burns well, then your suspicions about bad coal are confirmed.

Did you look in the stove pipe to see if your pipe is congested with fly ash? I've seen a couple of folks that seemed to have similar problems, and the pipe diameter was decreased by the amount of fly ash... which negatively affects your draft. Do you have a manometer to measure your draft?

Check to see if your chimney clean out door is closed.
Flip the baro open and stick you hand in to see if the
chimney is pulling. If it is and the clean out is closed,
the coal could be the problem. Try a wood fire for a
few hours. If you open the ash door and the fire roars out
of control, then draft is not your problem.

TSB

duggie75 wrote:I've had my Vermont Castings VIGILANT II stove burning anthracite fantastic since October of last year (approx 5 months, purchased in August). Ever since my last delivery,

Since you had your stove running fine up until the last coal delivery & nothing else has really changed, I would suspect the coal itself. check with your dealer, tell him what has happened & ask what coal he delivered to you last. I had a problem with a ton of coal last winter that turned out to be Reading nut coal. (identified as such by the dealer) Never had any problems with Blaschak.
That's It- Stick With Blaschak!

Edit: One thing that is changing is the temps are getting warmer so maybe that was part of your problem...Cold weather. Just a thought??

Duggie75:

I found that my Jotul 507 is very sensitive to barometric changes. I found that just before a new weather front is to move through depending if it is a low or high pressure system the Jotul will struggle to burn. It acts like it is being smothered. I did the same checks you did with your unit. I then noticed the barometer had changed. I went outside and looked at my neighbors smoke from their wood stove. It seemed to really linger like a glass ceiling had been placed over our houses; the air was heavy. I talked to neighbors and they all had the same complaint; they couldn't get their stoves to burn. This coincided with the barometric change we had been experiencing for the past week. The very next day I noticed the barometer had changed and the Jotul was burning fine. I made no changes to another type of coal or anything of that nature. Now when I notice the Jotul struggling I look at the weather to see how long before the next pressure change and I open up my draft to maintain my heat and as the pressure changes back I throttle back the air to the orginal setting. I'm not saying this is your problem, however, I'm just saying this is something I found with my unit. It might be that the Jotul is just a sensitive unit. Just something to think about.

the snowman

I own a Vigilant and this winter has been very frustating to say the least. I think your problem is with the coal. I've burned coal for thirty plus years and the most recent ton of coal (south Tomaqua) is terrible. Very high ash which chokes the Vigilant. The Vigilant needs good draft under the bed to burn properly and bad coal makes this nearly impossible unless you poke and stir the hell out of it and baby the fire back. I tried 5 bags from Centralia last week and it was much better. The dealer told me he has had other complaints about his last load from Tomaqua.

I gtoo think it may be the coal & the cold weather too. I know I've been running my stove hotter than normal & the ash is chunkier than normal & much more of it.

I too have noticed huge variations with Blashak coal this year in my Vigilante II. I bought 4 tons of pea and 2 tons of nut in August. Here is what I do now when that occurs ;

Do a partial shake down to clear some ash and get air moving.

Spread a shovel or two of NUT Blashak.The Nut gets things heated up and moving , especially in the morning after single digits and below 0.

Once thats going, finish shaking down and empty ash pan.

Load half bucket of pea, and open little side vent about 1/4 inch to make sure air gets to the bed.

Voila - about half hour later drop in the rest of the bucket and when it catches, make sure the surface gets up to temp ( 500 degrees per instructions) and close the little side vent and damper.

I have been getting 12-14 hr burns this way, and I usually am gone for 10 hours at a time. if you need Nut, let me know.

Doug
Tell us approximately where you are. That way, we can gage the weather's effect, if any, on your problem(s). Since everyone has mentioned important steps to follow to remedy your burn, I can think a few stove specific checks. Maybe you already know these after a year but here goes anyway:

Do you have the little secondary air inlet closed on the stove's right side? Keep the little "frying pan" over the hole when burning coal. Open, you loose under fire draft.

All thee clean out covers must be properly secured. I had one open after the dealer installed my stove, sucking draft away from under the fire and couldn't get a burn going until I secured it. Also, the restrictor plate over the inside of the air inlet must be reomved to burn antharcite.

Air leaking in above the fire: Check the griddle gasket an make sure no fines are wedging it slightly open - that would cause you to loose draft. Check the front door gaskets too. Mine came loose after a year of use and had to be recommended.

Do you check your stove pipe temperature regularly? If so, compare it to your previous temps when running the prior loads of coal. If you need to run with the air at max, one of two things could be happening: the heat is going up the pipe and not staying in the stove so the pipe temp will be elevated or it's as you suspect and fines are preventing the air from drafting thru and supporting the fire. Keeping a record of stove pipe temperatures vs. griddle/stove top temps is important to assessing the preformance of the stove.

Try this. Get the fire going as good as you can get it to at least 1/2 loaded with burnable coal(meaning minimal ash, glow visible in the ash pan). Open the ash door - don't leave the stove - to turbo the fire for a minute or so then close it. Open the griddle and run the poker/slicer down from the top until you feel it pass between two grates. When you feel it pass into the ash pan's space, give it a few twists an try to open up a channel for air to flow up thru the load. Do this along an imaginary grid so you make six channels evenly spaced in the fire bed. Close the griddle and watch the fire and maybe, if needed, try opening the ash pan door for a bit. This should get a fresh charge of coal going. If not, it's as other suggest - get a few bags of coal from another supplier and give it a whirl.

Let us know how you progress....

Try some Meadowbrook coal. It burns like kerosene. I haven't
lost a fire in years since switching over. Some don't like it
because they say it's refuse coal. So what it burns great.

TSB

Hi all!

Thanks for all of the great suggestions. So far it seems like a combination of two problems. The front door lock needed some adjustment to close tightly enough on the gaskets and the "crumbly" coal was seeming to suffocate the air flow over the coal. So, with the front sealed better and me picking out the large solid pieced of coal its burning great so far. I'll keep you posted. Again, thanks for taking the time to help me!

Doug