First Time Burnin' Bitty!

Here's a shot of the bitty doing it's dirty work!

I thought I would try some Bit coal too so I got me a few bags yesterday. I thru 2 shovels worth on top of a Ant fire and it started burning right away. I had the ash pan door open. It got hot fast! I tried to control it by limiting over fire air and that sucker puffed so hard it lifted the load door about 3 inches and filled my basement with tire reeking smoke. I was ready to say to hell with this it melted into a huge solid crispy mass that I later broke up into smaller chunks.

After the volitiles burned off, it was stable like an Ant fire and produced a steady heat with the air feeds turned down so I tried a couple more shovels. This time I didn't open the ash pan door and I was able to keep it under control. I kept alot of over the fire air going in to burn volitiles off. Seems to take a couple hours for the yellow flames to quit, is that normal? After that I set the over and under air feeds down low and again it maintained a steady heat output for about 8 hours while I slept. Then this morning I put Ant coal on cause I don't have 2 hours for volitiles to burn off.

I think I'll try some banking technique with the Bit later today and tomorrow.

Burning Bit is a different animal, I just want to learn how to burn it..
Any advise from the Bit burners out there for this newbie??

The first thing is make sure that you have a good coal, you want large sizes and you don't want coal that will "melt" or fuse badly when thrown on a fire. If you're using bagged bit, you're probably using "blacksmith" coal which tends to melt into a chunk and have a high coke button, for home heating this is NOT what you want. The larger sizes of good bit coal will often spend most of their time burning with a yellow flame. That isn't a problem, the size of coal and the coal itself will determine how fast it off-gasses and how much smoke/soot will be produced. If you burn good bit coal there's no need to babysit it for a few hours, you load it and go.

When loading a new batch, rake the coals or push them to create a valley then load the fresh coal in the valley (more important with smaller size coals). adjust the overfire air open a bit and let it go for the duration. No need to open the ashpan, just make sure lots of red coals are showing, as I've said, especially with the smaller sizes/poorer quality bit coal. you want less underfire draft and more overfire draft with bit, but NOT too much overfire draft. it depends on the equiptment and the coal, but cracked open just enough to give a slow burn of the volitiles is what you want.

Blacksmith coal! I wish the dummy that sold it to me woulda told me, Geez.. Anybody want some blacksmith coal? I'm probably not gonna use it.

Berlin, thanks for the great advise I would definitely be willing to try some good Bit coal. Where would I find some near Olean NY? Anybody know?

This is a fine thread! Hope I'm not hi-jacking.

I'm just starting out in Bitty, from cords of wood. I live a mile from anyone plus being in the Illinois oil fields, the smell of un-burnt gasses are common! Got a source 70 miles away($80 a ton).

From what I read here, bigger chunks is better. I have 2 stoves both hand fired. Lopi is the main one, wood for 15+ years. Just added 4 cords more for this next winter. Oak, ash, cherry is easy to get here. I want to try coal, in my potbelly, is bigger bitty coal better?

My favorite size coal is what my supplier calls egg, It is the size of a egg to the size of a softball and fines. Lump IMO is a pain to deal with its all sizes mixed its hard to handle.

carlherrnstein wrote:My favorite size coal is what my supplier calls egg, It is the size of a egg to the size of a softball and fines. Lump IMO is a pain to deal with its all sizes mixed its hard to handle.

When You are getting bit, You don't want ANY of the fines!! If you have some, It is best to put some in a paper bag and roll it up like a big joint then place it on the fire. It will keep the fines together for a while in your fire. Bit fines will choke your fire.

I get my coal in late summer, there aren't a bunch of fines maybe 10% is less than 1 inch.

oppirs wrote:This is a fine thread! Hope I'm not hi-jacking.

I'm just starting out in Bitty, from cords of wood. I live a mile from anyone plus being in the Illinois oil fields, the smell of un-burnt gasses are common! Got a source 70 miles away($80 a ton).

From what I read here, bigger chunks is better. I have 2 stoves both hand fired. Lopi is the main one, wood for 15+ years. Just added 4 cords more for this next winter. Oak, ash, cherry is easy to get here. I want to try coal, in my potbelly, is bigger bitty coal better?

Bigger is better. Also, be sure you're using an 8" flue, most illinios bit coal has a very high volitile content and will produce more soot in the stack than other coals, an 8" flue handles this significantly better than a 6".

Thx Berlin. Pipe up to flue is 6" after that 10" Chimney add volume Still an old square chim. The 6' flue run is 7' feet

House is 100 y.o.

A Prius really Shouldn't you be burning corn You have chosen to try burning the nastiest coal, to offset the Prius advantage Anthracite is the only way to go, or you might get beat up hauling Bit. Maybe you should only travel in the cover of darkness.

2001Sierra wrote:A Prius really Shouldn't you be burning corn You have chosen to try burning the nastiest coal, to offset the Prius advantage Anthracite is the only way to go, or you might get beat up hauling Bit. Maybe you should only travel in the cover of darkness.

Well, I haven't tried burning Lignite or Peat yet! I will have to post those pics on the Prius forum as well and ruffle some feathers there, HAHA!

Berlin wrote:...an 8" flue handles this significantly better than a 6".

My chimney is 8.5 x 8.5 unlined brick. I am using a 6" stove pipe. Aside from having to clean some soot out of the 6" pipe from time to time, is there any problem with the 6" pipe otherwise?

A 6" connecting pipe collects soot at a rate significantly faster than 8" and, depending on how large your appliance firebox is (especially true with hand-fired furnaces/boilers) the larger connecting pipe (8") even on an appliance with a 6" collar substantially reduces smoke coming back through the loading door when reloading - esp. since bit wants to flair up when thrown on a hot bed of coals.