First Time Burnin' Bitty!

I took a drive today out to Valier Coal Yard, and picked up some of their Nut size bit. Got 400 lb ($15) to try.

I just put some in the stove about 20 mins ago. It flamed up right away. I put about 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket in the stove, and turned the air up a bit. I left a portion of the remaining anthracite bed that was red - hot uncovered, to help ignite the bit. Then I shook down the coal bed, and shut the ash door. About 10 seconds later.. wooooosh!

Had a minor puffback. So I'm just letting it go and I'll check on it in about 30 mins... Man does that stuff stink up the neighborhood when it burns! Smells like I got a tire fire going, haha. I got the anthracite learning curve under control, looks like bitty is up next!

Try to lay the coal up thick on one side down to nothing on the other with red coals exposed and let some over fire air if your stove allows. Or if you have the time add about 10 lbs at a time and let it burn till most of the yellow flames quit.

carlherrnstein wrote:Try to lay the coal up thick on one side down to nothing on the other with red coals exposed and let some over fire air if your stove allows.

Yes, "banking" when adding coal will reduce the chance of puffback and smokes less. Dumping coal in the stove from a hod can be hard to get the coal where you want it when you're trying to bank the coal so you might want to use a shovel or scoop when loading smaller sized coal.
With soft coal, using bigger sized coal is easier to control, produces less smoke and generally extends the burn time so I would recommend using lump coal.

Well I went down to check on it. The whole mass of bit has turned into one gigantic clinker-like mass.....

Anyway, I missed putting pics in the original post. I thought it seemed like a nice day for a trip.


I forgot to snap pics while I was at Valier's. Anyway, here I am back in downtown Punxsutawney loaded up


Here's a shot inside the barrel


And here's one small shovel-full thrown on the fire:


I left home about 8:30AM, and got home about 8:00PM. Made nearly a full day out of it!

rockwood wrote:

carlherrnstein wrote:Try to lay the coal up thick on one side down to nothing on the other with red coals exposed and let some over fire air if your stove allows.

Yes, "banking" when adding coal will reduce the chance of puffback and smokes less. Dumping coal in the stove from a hod can be hard to get the coal where you want it when you're trying to bank the coal so you might want to use a shovel or scoop when loading smaller sized coal.
With soft coal, using bigger sized coal is easier to control, produces less smoke and generally extends the burn time so I would recommend using lump coal.

Unfortunately, I can't load this stove with a hod anyway. I have a small shovel I use for cleaning out the ashes, I used that to shovel the bit into the stove. I wanted to get lump, but the guy at the scale house would only sell me nut. Maybe because I showed up in a Prius to buy coal

The coal you have would be better suited for an underfeed stoker. You can burn that size coal in a hand fired stove but it will require more effort and time to get it figured out.

Soft coal doesn't need as much air as hard coal and it has a low fusion temp, just poke the hot mass and break it up and restrict the under fire air till the yellow flames quit. Then close off the over fire air and open the under fire air.

you need to buy the coal they call "oversize" (which is egg size). the bigger sizes will burn slower, backpuff less, and be more even and controlable. Make sure you ask for the biggest sizes you can get, if the guy at the scale-house won't sell you what you want, ask for mark and tell him what you want. also, it really doesn't matter what you tell the guy at the scalehouse, just tell him what you got when you leave, where you pick up the housecoal there's usually lump sitting there, ask the guy in the bobcat.

Valier coal will melt a little bit while burning (the larger sizes do it less) but you generally don't need to mess with it as it will break apart by itself later on. Although there are sometimes some rocks (try to pick them out before you load - they're easy to recognize) it is a pretty good coal that won't clinker, even when fired hot.

Berlin wrote:you need to buy the coal they call "oversize" (which is egg size). the bigger sizes will burn slower, backpuff less, and be more even and controlable. Make sure you ask for the biggest sizes you can get, if the guy at the scale-house won't sell you what you want, ask for mark and tell him what you want.

Thanks for the tip. I told that dude in the scale house I wanted bigger stuff and he said "You ain't getting anything bigger than that (pointing to the nut coal) without a mining permit!" I'll definitely ask for Mark next time I go out there. Is he aware of this forum, by chance?

Valier coal will melt a little bit while burning (the larger sizes do it less) but you generally don't need to mess with it as it will break apart by itself later on. Although there are sometimes some rocks (try to pick them out before you load - they're easy to recognize) it is a pretty good coal that won't clinker, even when fired hot.

I checked on it this morning, and was able to break up that mass of coal. It seemed to break down into a fine ash. Thanks for the info!

Off topic, but I find it rather amusing to see a Prius hauling coal. It could be the poster child for bi-polar Greenpeace members....

"Is he aware of this forum, by chance?"

I've mentioned it to him, but he's to busy mining coal and running the yard to care about this home heating forum; they're loading trucks and unit trains every day, residential coal sales isn't an important part of their business. They keep their prices pretty fair for the small user. They're all a bunch of crabby bastards but Mark's pretty friendly if you're not an idiot

They may have been out of "oversize" when you went down, call ahead next time - mark: 814-939-9901

Well I just reloaded, and tried banking the fire, this time side-to-side, instead of front to back. Looks like I've got a winner now!

I've also been introducing some secondary air, which on this stove was designed to feed air to the catalytic converter when burning wood. This seems to be doing a good job burning off the volatiles, and tempering the smell outside.

One concern I have though, is I noticed just how much soot this stuff makes. I have an unlined 8"x8" chimney, which goes up through the center of the house. It's in good shape, and doesn't have any leaks, and I know with anthracite, I don't have to worry about a chimney fire.

Is a chimney fire a concern when burning bit? The house is build with the floor joists right up against the chimney, so a chimney fire would likely be disastrous.

Thanks!

I don't think coal soot is flammable its just carbon. Its dry and fluffy creosote is sticky an tarry. You shouldnt have much soot buildup anytime soon, I have burned about 2 cords of wood and 3000 lbs of coal this year and brushed back in january and only one inch of soot in the pipe.

europachris wrote:Off topic, but I find it rather amusing to see a Prius hauling coal. It could be the poster child for bi-polar Greenpeace members....

It has gotten some strange looks, that's for sure, LOL.

I posted some pics over on the prius forum, and I was surprised that I didn't get any tree-hugging hate messages. Maybe there are more prius drivers than I expect that are more worried about saving some $$ green $$ at the pump, instead of greenhouse gasses, haha.

no chimney fire danger with bit coal; if you burn a very hot fire it is possible to get the soot nearest the stove to begin to glow and disintegrate, but it just doesn't have the energy content of wood-creosote, also, a slight reduction of excess air and that stops. Occasionally, on a rainy day, wait until the fire has burned to a nice bed of glowing coals (no fresh coal) and then open your ash pan for a few minutes and burn it really hot - this will clean the soot out (of course it will end up downwind so do it on a rainy day when just be washed off). To minimize soot buildup in the first place, bank like you've been doing and keep the secondary air cracked open a bit. Larger sizes, as I mentioned, will also help with reducing soot. In general, soot won't buildup much inside of your flue, but it tends to collect in the connecting pipe. This valier coal is very good with high btu, low ash, and resists producing clinkers, it also burns easily and makes starting and keeping a fire burning very easy, but even among bit coals it is particularly sooty.