How Did You Get Started Burning Coal

How Did You Get Started Burning Coal?

I grew up burning coal.
19
29%
I was given a coal stove.
4
6%
I researched ways to save money heating my home.
28
42%
A friend suggested I burn coal.
8
12%
A dealer suggested burn coal.
0
No votes
I just always loved the coal mining industry.
0
No votes
I wanted to heat my home with all-American fuel.
7
11%
 
Total votes: 66

 
NoSmoke
Member
Posts: 1442
Joined: Sun. Oct. 14, 2012 7:52 pm
Location: Mid Coast Maine
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: New Yoker WC90
Baseburners & Antiques: Woods and Bishop Antique Pot Bellied Stove
Coal Size/Type: Stove/Nut/Pea Anthracite
Other Heating: Munchkin LP Boiler/Englander Pellet Stove/Perkins 4.108 Cogeneration diesel

Post by NoSmoke » Wed. Sep. 13, 2017 1:13 pm

How Did You Get Started Burning Coal?

For me, it started when a neighbor had an old Surdiac Coal Stove. He was 70 or so, lived alone in a 1950's trailer that had those aluminum windows and doors on them. Well we got a -20 below zero night and he fired that stove up, but did not know how to burn coal. he ran it wide open. Well in that small trailer the windows and doors started to sweat and the condensation ran down his only door out, but at the bottom was a draft so he was frozen in. He was literally scared it was going to burn down his trailer and yet he could not get out so he gave it to me.

I admit that it kicked my hiney for awhile, as coal burns different than wood. But I was determined it would not beat me, and then we got the Ice Storm of 1998. It was my only heat source with the power out so I had to figure it out, and I did. I was getting 14 hour burns and was really happy. Since then I kept talking to people and getting better at burning coal, and some years even cut tree length firewood, sell it and buy coal and burn that instead.

Anyway getting a free stove is how I got started...and you?


 
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davidmcbeth3
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Posts: 8505
Joined: Sun. Jun. 14, 2009 2:31 pm
Coal Size/Type: nut/pea/anthra

Post by davidmcbeth3 » Wed. Sep. 13, 2017 1:33 pm

When heating oil went to $5/gal ... that was it.

2007 or 2008.

No regrets....as Spock said

 
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Sunny Boy
Member
Posts: 25559
Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 1:40 pm
Location: Central NY
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Anthracite Industrial, domestic hot water heater
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood range 208, # 6 base heater, 2 Modern Oak 118.
Coal Size/Type: Nuts !
Other Heating: Oil &electric plenum furnace

Post by Sunny Boy » Wed. Sep. 13, 2017 1:54 pm

Raised by parents that grew up with coal, so heard a lot of stories about it. We moved to Long Island when I was 5. My father fixed his own cars so he put an old cabinet coal stove in our garage that a friend gave him. Not the safest method for a garage, but the stove was free, coal was still available and very few places to buy firewood.

My first house still had the American coal boiler but it was converted to oil heat. When the 1970's oil crunch happened, I went looking at new coal stoves. A co-worker heard I was looking and gave me a potbelly stove. Converted my basement coal bin back.

After I moved here a power outage froze my water pipes, so I went looking for a wood stove as backup heat (wood is the cheapest fuel around here). When we were in a stove store in Saratoga, the salesman mentioned an old coal range they had taken in on a trade. Melissa grew up with and learned to cook on a very similar coal range, so she insisted on buying it for me. Turns out that the coal range could do so much more, and with so much less work, that I never did bother to set up the wood stove.

Earlier this year, I gave the never-used wood stove to one of my daughters as a house warming present, ...... along with my old chainsaw. She has about 7 acres of woods with lots of cut-offs from having a logger thin out some trees.

Paul

 
coalusermd
Member
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed. Oct. 21, 2015 12:25 pm
Location: Frederick MD
Hand Fed Coal Stove: DS1600
Coal Size/Type: Nut Anthracite
Other Heating: Geothermal

Post by coalusermd » Wed. Sep. 13, 2017 2:21 pm

I had zero experience with burning coa until I built a large shop/garage 3 years ago and wanted to heat the 1200 Sq ft with 14 foor ceilings.

Everyone around me burned wood but I either had to find it haul it and cut it or buy it. I do not have woods on my property.

Second wood requires frequent reloading and a lot of space to store the wood. I did some research on my own and resisted the hlnegative feedback I got from the wood burners. Bought a used DS1600 and love it. I am now the envy of my wood burning neighbors. I load in morning and am done for 24 hours. No smell, no smoke and lots of visitors.

 
Den034071
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Posts: 907
Joined: Sat. Jun. 25, 2011 4:30 pm
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer, 3095

Post by Den034071 » Wed. Sep. 13, 2017 2:33 pm

Now a long time ago we had a coal company house no insulation .When we kids got up in AM for school , we ran down to kitchen to coal range opened oven an dressed in front of it. Fast forward got married built new house went Modern oil burner .Stupid .Second house Heat Pump much worse .Tried wood better , 30 years later Back To My Roots bought coal stove. Nothing Like Steady Coal heat. Jack

 
scalabro
Member
Posts: 4197
Joined: Wed. Oct. 03, 2012 9:53 am
Location: Western Massachusetts
Baseburners & Antiques: Crawford 40, PP Stewart No. 14, Abendroth Bros "Record 40"
Coal Size/Type: Stove / Anthracite.
Other Heating: Oil fired, forced hot air.

Post by scalabro » Wed. Sep. 13, 2017 9:26 pm

I started after I found this website.

 
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Hambden Bob
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Posts: 8535
Joined: Mon. Jan. 04, 2010 10:54 am
Location: Hambden Twp. Geauga County,Ohio
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Harman 1998 Magnum Stoker
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Blower Model Coal Chubby 1982-Serial#0097
Coal Size/Type: Rice-A-Roni ! / Nut
Other Heating: Pro-Pain Forced Air

Post by Hambden Bob » Wed. Sep. 13, 2017 9:40 pm

It All Started Innocently Enough!

I was attending the Great Geauga County Fair back in the early 90's. I had just been sneezed on by a &)@?<% Llama and was heading towards one of a various and sundry Men's Rooms' located towards the Machinery and Big Boy Toys Display Section. I walked right by the first Anthracite Coal Stove in Action that I'd ever seen! After De-Llama-Funking myself,I went back over to get the Full Story...... Thanx,Mr. Llama !~


 
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tcalo
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Posts: 2068
Joined: Tue. Dec. 13, 2011 4:57 pm
Location: Long Island, New York
Baseburners & Antiques: Crawford 40
Coal Size/Type: Nut/stove anthracite

Post by tcalo » Wed. Sep. 13, 2017 10:54 pm

There was an old Chubby in our house when we purchased it. I always wanted a fireplace, so I thought. Started burning wood in the Chubby but it struggled to hold a fire through the night. It read Coal Chubby across the loading door so I figured what the heck. Did some research and came across the Chubby website along with this site. Bought a bag of nut coal to try. Never looked back!

 
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davidmcbeth3
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Posts: 8505
Joined: Sun. Jun. 14, 2009 2:31 pm
Coal Size/Type: nut/pea/anthra

Post by davidmcbeth3 » Wed. Sep. 13, 2017 11:07 pm

tcalo wrote:There was an old Chubby in our house when we purchased it. I always wanted a fireplace, so I thought. Started burning wood in the Chubby but it struggled to hold a fire through the night. It read Coal Chubby across the loading door so I figured what the heck. Did some research and came across the Chubby website along with this site. Bought a bag of nut coal to try. Never looked back!
Dang, that one bag must have been magical coal.

 
Qtown1835
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Joined: Sat. Nov. 08, 2014 11:47 am
Location: Quakertown, PA
Stoker Coal Boiler: Keystoker '81 KA4 (online 1/16/17)
Coal Size/Type: WAS Lehigh Rice (TBD)
Other Heating: EFM SPK600

Post by Qtown1835 » Thu. Sep. 14, 2017 2:43 pm

scalabro wrote:I started after I found this website.

Same here. Thanks for the addiction... 8-)

 
Vbull
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Posts: 59
Joined: Sun. Oct. 12, 2014 7:09 am
Location: Hartford, New York
Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: Reading Juanita
Coal Size/Type: rice

Post by Vbull » Thu. Sep. 14, 2017 4:18 pm

Back in the late 70's I purchased a drafty old farmhouse in southern Vermont. It had an Oak Andes pot belly stove upstairs and hot air oil central heat. I was buying 8 cord log length loads and cutting and splitting with a maul and/or wedge. I was a young man then but realized that sucked. So bought a coal hot air furnace from Sears of all places and tied it into the existing duct work. We were so impressed by how much better coal was then wood burning when we moved from Vermont to Texas and back to Rhode Island, coal was my 1st choice for heating. We now live in upstate New York (last move until I'm planted) and coal is primary with propane backup when we go away for a few days. The neighbors (wood burners) can't get over how nice coal works for us.

 
CapeCoaler
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Location: Cape Cod, MA
Stoker Coal Boiler: want AA130
Hand Fed Coal Stove: DS Machine BS#4, Harman MKII, Hitzer 503,...
Coal Size/Type: Pea/Nut/Stove

Post by CapeCoaler » Thu. Sep. 14, 2017 10:37 pm

Parents burned wood and had free labor to buck up 12 cord per year...
Yep I was the free labor...
High school friend had more comfortable house and she did not use wood...
but willingly tended the stove in her parents house...
Her parents heated with coal...
A renter of my parents barn used coal also...
Always warm...
Asked why he did not worry about the coal getting wet in the rain...
Washes all the dust off, I'll cover it in September before the leaves fall...
Neighbor from PA heated with coal...
Raved about how easy it was, hardly any work...
Some day you'll realize it's too much work heating with wood...
finally woke up!...
when I had to heat my own house by the beach and was blowing thru "free" wood...

 
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michaelanthony
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Posts: 4550
Joined: Sat. Nov. 22, 2008 10:42 pm
Location: millinocket,me.
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Vigilant 2310, gold marc box stove
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Gold Marc Independence
Baseburners & Antiques: Home Sparkle 12
Coal Size/Type: 'nut
Other Heating: Fujitsu mini split, FHA oil furnace

Post by michaelanthony » Fri. Sep. 15, 2017 5:12 am

davidmcbeth3 wrote:When heating oil went to $5/gal ... that was it.

2007 or 2008.

No regrets....as Spock said
...same here. the strange part is in my 50 something yrs of burning oil I never accumulated oil burners! :lol:

 
NoSmoke
Member
Posts: 1442
Joined: Sun. Oct. 14, 2012 7:52 pm
Location: Mid Coast Maine
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: New Yoker WC90
Baseburners & Antiques: Woods and Bishop Antique Pot Bellied Stove
Coal Size/Type: Stove/Nut/Pea Anthracite
Other Heating: Munchkin LP Boiler/Englander Pellet Stove/Perkins 4.108 Cogeneration diesel

Post by NoSmoke » Fri. Sep. 15, 2017 8:18 am

I never burned oil, propane yes, but not oil. Still, on the only cola stove I tossed out (and subsequently have driven over with a bulldozer), I wish I hadn't had. I think it could have been rebuilt.

 
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David...
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Posts: 243
Joined: Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 9:48 am
Location: RI
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Franks 80k output
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Jotul 507B
Coal Size/Type: Nut

Post by David... » Mon. Oct. 09, 2017 1:49 pm

In the early 90's I thought it would be nice to burn wood to heat my home. I bought a wood/coal boiler and hooked it up. I bought a cord of wood to start. I had no experience burning anything by hand in stove or boiler. I think I started it up in November, when the weather was still fairly mild. I would load the boiler before bed so tight that I couldn't fit a toothpick in it. 8 hours later wake up and check the fire to find 6 glowing embers left. That was with no calls for heat over night. I realized if I was going to burn wood my new job was going to be tending the boiler. I already had a job I liked. Picked up some bagged coal and started to learn. After my first year and a few explosions I had it 99% figured out. I was a lot younger then. I had a 4 ton bin in my basement. I would borrow a dump truck and get 2 tons loose at a time and shovel into my basement bin. Got married, had kids, the coal fell by the wayside.
In 2013 I replaced my oil boiler and left my coal boiler disconnected. I never got around to having it removed. After a couple of years I really missed burning coal. No problem, I'll pick up a cheap used stove to get me a fix. The stove went in my basement and satisfied my fix, for a while. Sitting in my basement enjoying the warmth, I would look over at my disconnected coal boiler and think. I could use that to burn coal and put the heat exactly where I wanted it. The stove was disconnected and the boiler hooked back up. It's funny, the boiler is less work to tend than the stove.
This past August I picked up a Jotul 507b. It now is hooked up right next to my coal boiler. The boiler works great at heating my house and domestic hot water. The stove can make my basement 80 for those times I am chilled to the bone and can't get warm.
I really get a thrill from doing some work to keep my house and family warm. In case you couldn't tell, I love fire.

David


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