Rookie here!!! Need some help guys/gals

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sat. Dec. 28, 2019 12:24 pm

The stainless steel liner *may* have not been needed. Since it is already installed we will focus on getting your first coal fire started.


The most common mistake people make when starting a coal fire is not covering the grates with coal. The air needs to come up through the coal in order for it to burn. If you only have part of the grate covered, the air will bypass the fire. Once you have a nice layer of burning coals from your wood fire, you can start adding coal. Generally speaking you should be able to add a scoop every 10 minutes or so until you have a few inches of burning coal. At this point you can start adding more coal at a time, but never add more coal than what is already burning. Once the firebox is nearly full and there is orange coals & blue flames visible, set the primary air to the normal setting and if there is an over-fire air vent, set that to be slightly open. In a few hours you can shake the grates and top off the firebox with coal. At this point you should be able to shake the grates & top off the coal every 12 hours or so.

Also - you are correct that the 55 degree outside temperature is not helping you. Even if you get the coal fire started it will probably cook you out of the house before you get the fire settled down. I would wait for a cool morning.


 
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Post by McGiever » Sat. Dec. 28, 2019 2:06 pm

I am not a fan of telling anybody it is okay to squirt fire starter inside a stove/boiler or whatever...may work okay for a stone coal start up...but when user becomes complacent and frustrated and squirt fire starter into the stove with a unknown hot ember or the like, which can even be unseen under the grate, can get a sudden surprise when fire flashes out the door and even sometimes follows the liquid stream back to the plastic hand held bottle. It happens and sometimes there can even be a delay with time enough to have ones face in close proximity to the open stove door...just never start this practice and you will come out ahead.

I recommend always keeping starter fluid bottle at opposite side of the room and letting fluid soak-in a time as per instructions. Do this in small pail and avoid any excess fluid not being absorbed. A little goes a long ways...
There are now "low odor" fluids so not to be so offensive in room.

Starting Gels may be a safer alternative to all other starting fluids...

 
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Post by franco b » Sat. Dec. 28, 2019 4:14 pm

What Lightning said. And what McGiever said

In addition, your air flap with a cold stove should be open an inch or so, maybe more. Fine tune the burning rate once the stove heats up and the flap closes.

Do not burn wet coal which will rot your liner.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sat. Dec. 28, 2019 6:00 pm

McGiever wrote:
Sat. Dec. 28, 2019 2:06 pm
I am not a fan of telling anybody it is okay to squirt fire starter inside a stove/boiler or whatever...
This is true, it should only be done with a first fire and cold stove. Safest would be to put down a layer of newspaper and cardboard, then layer of lump charcoal.. never use a flammable liquid trying to rescue a fire that is dieing. It can and will explode. Safety first.

 
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Post by LouNY » Sat. Dec. 28, 2019 6:25 pm

I have had good luck with match light charcoal i dump in a good layer at least 2-3 briquets thick, light it off when its all just glowing coals I shovel on a 2-3 inch layer of coal when it's all got nice blue flame dancing, repeat the coal, repeat again till full.
Then shutdown the air to a normal burn amount, close the ash door and enjoy the heat.
So the same as the previous posters except I use matchlight charcoal.

 
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Post by Blackhawk804 » Sun. Dec. 29, 2019 9:20 am

Lightning, Thank you for your information!!!! Have a great New Year.

 
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Post by Blackhawk804 » Sun. Dec. 29, 2019 9:31 am

I am new to this forum and just saw a bunch of the other posts from the others. I greatly appreciate the information from everyone and the genuine level of professionalism coming from everyone (even those that do things a bit different) Speaks highly of the forum. To all a Happy New Year!!!! To all those that like coal, check out our Kentucky boy, Jimmy Rose singing his song "Coal Keeps the Lights On".

KY Friends of Coal


 
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Post by Dogpilegal » Sun. Dec. 29, 2019 10:26 pm

I have been reading this thread with interest as I just switched from a wood stove in Virginia to a coal stove in Maine and finding a much more difficult beast to heat with! Sorry to jump in, but like I said, I'm having similar problems with getting a good heat going. Tonight, after my fourth attempt over the past few days, I got a great heat going. From Youtube, I learned to layer paper, kindling and hardwood logs with the nut coal on top of all that. It all worked tonight and I had a great fire going long enough to have a pile of glowing coals for about 5 hours. I added coal pretty frequently since I wasn't confident that I'd used enough to begin with. But, as I adjusted the air flow to cut the temperature, the pile of hot coals began to disappear and no matter what I did, I couldn't revive it. I tried more wood, but of course it was on top of the coal at this point. I tried shaking the ashes out to improve air flow, all air intakes were wide open, I added more coal......it just all eventually died. So I guess my question is.....how do you keep it going and, especially once you see it's dying, how do you revive it? At this point, I have to clean everything out and start over again. Once again, apologize for jumping into your thread, but I felt we may be at the same place in this curve.

 
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Post by Lightning » Sun. Dec. 29, 2019 10:43 pm

Welcome aboard :) what stove are you using?

 
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Post by 2001Sierra » Sun. Dec. 29, 2019 11:16 pm

Dogpilegal, We have all been there with handfeds. Coal is a fussy cus many of us has learned to dance with. Chasing a dying fire is something we all have chased, and lost. Keep the faith and the questions coming.

 
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Post by fig » Thu. Jan. 02, 2020 12:18 pm

I just spent an hour loading my Hotblast with Anthracite from bituminous coals. It’s my second time burning anth.

I’m burning Tsc coal. It took right off but I had some pretty hot bit coals. I just dumped in a shovel full and repeated every 10 minutes until I had 80lbs on top of those bit coals. It was touch and go for a while. I had to keep throwing the brakes on with the MPD and opening and shutting the ash door. It was a roller coaster. It’s slowly dropping at the moment. I have no idea where it will land. Hopefully not completely out.

I’m hydrating now. It gets pretty hot standing in front of a *600 stove for an hour or so.

Take all the advice you can from these guys. They are the pros.

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Post by captcaper » Fri. Jan. 03, 2020 5:30 am

I start my lump charcoal (brand name is Cowboy) with just a propane type common torch. Tried charcoal but it stunk. Just a few seconds on the Cowboy and with stove on it takes off. Both ash and top doors shut.
I also have a SS chimney from the basement thru the outer wall and to top of roof line 35 ft total. Been running my Coal stove for 15 yrs now from Oct 1 to May 1st. 24/7 . Still in great shape. Bought it at Lowes installed my self.

 
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Post by CoalisCoolxWarm » Fri. Jan. 03, 2020 6:51 am

Another hardwood charcoal user here (Cowboy is one brand).

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Fri. Jan. 03, 2020 10:31 am

The biggest problem I see with newbies is not filling the coal appliance fully. This is a must no matter how much heat you require, forget everything you learned with wood.

 
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Post by CoalKracker » Fri. Jan. 03, 2020 10:55 am

coaledsweat wrote:
Fri. Jan. 03, 2020 10:31 am
The biggest problem I see with newbies is not filling the coal appliance fully. This is a must no matter how much heat you require, forget everything you learned with wood.
I have to fully agree with you on that! Its all about the airflow. I keep my handfed topped off whether i want a large fire to dump out tons of heat or if im going to just be idling it for a few days.


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