Coalpail.com Forum

History;
People are starting to ask more about coal with #1 oil up over 4$ and coal at 65$ per ton, 40 miles away, at 7500btu/pound, chestnut size about 1 1/2".
Traditional stokers for this coal start at 5k and need another 10K for a boiler, then we need to put hydronics in the house, even if it is just a heat exchanger in the air duct.
Hand fed with this coal is a smoky proposition, and we already have one hand outdoor boiler smugging up the valley. The warm morning stoves look good but still will smudge and with close neighbors this could be a problem, we need a cleaner introduction to burning coal, my underfeed Will Burt style stoker is clean burning.
We have access to small coal about 3/8" and under, real close to rice with a signifigant percentage of fines.
I realize these stokers are all listed as anthricite only, but some sell in Wyoming, and my underfed stoker looks alot like the Harman feeder, and the "modern" rotating grate is alot like the sloped grate feeders.
The relativly low cost stokers that use rice and barley sized coal seem appealing.

Percived problem;
Coal with fines hold to much water, and gum up the feeder with coal paste.
Sub bituminous coal will clinker and pull the fire off the grate, only about half my combustion product is clinker.

Solution;
Find one of these relativly low cost used stokers that will work with this coal, install it in a shop or garage for a test run with the coal available, fines and all.

Question;
Which of these stokers is most likely to tolerate the most fines?
Feel freee to vote, twice, as there may be more than one answer.
Coments about how moisture and subituminous coal will effect these stokers are also welcome.
I realize to achive rated BTU input thest units will need to be fed at maximum speed or stroke.

While they are not as much as the stokers/boiler combo prices you were quoting, EFM's comand a fair price. The 700, 900, and 1300 boilers would really shine with there rotating pot and auger system. There isn't that much sub bituminous down here to try them out on so it would be a crap shoot. I would say that between them and the larger rotating pot Van Wert series of stokers, you would have the best luck. With the rotating pot, it would be nothing to install a knife edge to trim the clinkers off the side. The EFM machines burn 30-45 lbs of material at a 80% efficiency rate. The Van Werts burn more. Older conversion stokers would work well for your applications also.

I agree that the EFM boilers are great, and worth the money.
These rotating ring stokers are mostly large and comand top dollar, for good products, but helping somone find a used or new unit, then helping them mate it to a used or new boiler, then adding a hydronic system to the house is a tall order, and problaby makes more heat than is needed and consumes alot of precious shop space.
I'm shooting for simple yet stoker.
If we can get some stoker stoves working reliably around town we can move to better systems.

I don't believe you will be able to use a keystoker or Harman or Leisure line flat bed stoker with Bit or Sub-bit coal.,

only an underfeed stoker like an EFM will tolerate this type of coal.

An old prill or other rotating pot underfed stoker is best, like the bigger EFM's.

Greg L

You should contact Matt D. He just posted a slew of underfeed rotating pot stoker units. They can be adapted to furnaces or boilers.