Coalpail.com Forum

Looks like there is one adjustment that would need to be made.....

Took this from the thread at hearth.com... https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/ ... 32376/P22/

"In reality almost all pellet stoves should never see coal used in them, your stove is a knock off of the Harman 44 mag coal stove and the difference is the amount of air allowed through the grate, coal needs more. If you burned pellets in the 44 mag the amount of air would blow the pellets off the grate."

I have visions of myself running around the house trying to pickup pellets that blew around in the "wind" hahaha.

The take away message here folks...If it ain't a UNDER-FED pellet stove, DON'T try this!

This just happened to be a coincidence that the Harman 44 Mag. shared some early technologies w/ Harman's pellet stoves...or maybe the other way around.
Harman then promptly made a better adaptation strictly for coal...the Harman ST8-VF8, and even that was soon replaced w/ the Harman Magnum Stoker.

Please don't go telling people "You saw that it is okay to burn coal in their pellet stoves" There is a lot more to the story than that!

beatle78 wrote: I have visions of myself running around the house trying to pickup pellets that blew around in the "wind" hahaha.

I have visions of you trying to put out the fire in the hopper.

There is alot more to the story. I will not share it in a public forum nor will I recommend that anyone try it. Corn is for liquor,pellets are for horse bedding and coal is for keeping warm. Do not try to burn any one of them in an appliance not specifically designed for each individual one. Sorry thats my story and I'm stickin to it.

Bill

Richard S. wrote:I have visions of you trying to put out the fire in the hopper.

Well it will be warm!

I often thought that using lignite coal ground up and mixed with corn and run through a peller mill to make pellets might work.
The lignit is about the same BTU as hardwood pellets per pound.
Dont know if it would make pellets or not but might be worth expermenting.
That might work for the rest of the pellet stoves.

See here

I had a rice burning paddle fed hopper and inclined flat grate in my last coal stove. The nameplate said rice coal only.

I had a little home garden and grew some field corn. As an experiment I added corn to the rice coal. I measured by volume to 10% corn to rice and it burned just fine. Then I went to 25% and it still burned fine. I went to 40% corn to rice coal and it still burned good. I had no problem with it coking up on the grate. I was told that it wouldn't burn any corn and would instead do one of two things.
1. coke up the grate
2. burn back into the hopper and burn the house down

Neither happened or even came close. I never tried wood pellets because I figured the paddle would break them up and then I have flammable dust at the base of the hopper building up.

I would be hesitant about burning rice coal in a pellet stove due to the construction of the burn cup. Coal stoves that I have seen have heavy duty cast iron burn surfaces or refractory lined due to the intense heat generated by the coal bed. Most corn or pellet stoves have burn cups made of carbon steel. I'm no metallurgist but it would seem to me that the hotter burning rice coal would really shorten the life span of a burn cup made of carbon steel.

Now if you could fabricate a burn cup from cast iron......

Rev. Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa.

WOW WOW WOW.... I went over to hearth.com and read that thread about mixing rice coal and wood pellets through a pellet stove. I have never seen such vitriolic attacks in a long time!!!

One person actually said that burning coal in your home puts your children and spouse in danger. They went further to state that even properly operated coal stoves kill 20 people a year. They furthered this nonsense by saying that if you burn coal and anything happens that you should be charged with manslaughter or at least 3rd degree MURDER.

Amazing... I need more coffee.

Rev Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa.

blrman07 wrote:One person actually said that burning coal in your home puts your children and spouse in danger. They went further to state that even properly operated coal stoves kill 20 people a year. They furthered this nonsense by saying that if you burn coal and anything happens that you should be charged with manslaughter or at least 3rd degree MURDER.

Amazing... I need more coffee.

meh.....look at the bright side Larry.....people reading that and believing it won't convert to coal and it will be less likely that we will have the same panic they currently have trying to source fuel! They are actually doing us a service!

blrman07 wrote: One person actually said that burning coal in your home puts your children and spouse in danger. They went further to state that even properly operated coal stoves kill 20 people a year. They furthered this nonsense by saying that if you burn coal and anything happens that you should be charged with manslaughter or at least 3rd degree MURDER.

Generally speaking Larry the people at Hearth.com have their heads on straight. I frequently correspond with Craig who started it, he even appeared on one episode of coalcast.

Coalcast Ep12: "Craig Issod From Hearth.Com" - February 4th, 2010

I'm wondering if anybody ever tryed to burn pellets in a combustioneer mod 77 ??? Haveing trouble finding coal around southern Indiana

beatle78 wrote: ↑

Mon. Mar. 07, 2011 12:27 pm

Reviving an old thread here.

shapps1313,

How did you make out burning rice in the P61? I just ripped apart my dad's 44 magnum to replace the auger. When I picked up the new auger it was the exact same one they use on the pellet stoves. I was wondering the opposite. Can we burn pellets in his 44 magnum stove if we wanted to?

Why would we want to do this? Well, if we ever had a coal delivery problem here in RI, it's an alternative for us.

The answer is yes! I've been burning a mix of anthracite and pellets since 2002 in my 44 Magnum. Check out research by the University of Wisconsin, showing that up to 30% pellets in anthracite actually burns better and cleaner than straight anthracite.
I have found that the difference between the old style P-61 pellet stove and the 44 Magnum is a 4 RPM motor vs a 2 RPM feed motor. I have both and just swap them out when I wish to burn pellets.

Many pellet stoves have a steel burn pot. Not sure that would last long burning coal. Among other things warping and decaying.

I have a harman accentra and have often thought about trying it when it’s on its last leg and out in the driveway.

Ok, so now burn cakes of coal fines in pellet stoves