Advice for First Time Burning
The wife and I bought a house this spring that came with a HotBlast furnace in the basement, which is ducted in throughout the house. I have easy free access to wood, and currently have roughly 8.5-9 cords seasoned and under shed roof. I have many years of experience with burning wood and have experimented a little with this furnace as it is my first time heating with one, and have found that even in the few mild temp nights(mid to low 40s) that we have fired it off that it really eats through the wood in comparison to the Warm Morning wood stove that I was used to ! My main concern as of now is trying to conserve my wood supply as my work schedule keeps me away from home often and with remodeling the new home I have limited time to cut and split new wood and where I am located in wv, winters are brutal. Upon a family friend's recommendation , I bought 10 bags of Blaschak nut size to try and mix in to cut back on wood, I didnt want to commit to a ton at moment which runs $255 at dealer I bought from. I attempted to have one fire with it on a night recently that dipped down to 39 and didnt have the greatest experience with it which after reading on here and talking to some friends I attribute to my inexperience with coal. However I am located roughly 10 miles from access to bit coal and went in half with a buddy on a ton of stove size. He claims he mixes it in with his wood in his clayton furnace and it really stretches out his burn times and conserves his wood in the colder months. Last night it dipped down cool enough to fire off to take the chill out and I mixed in 4 shovels full in between two beech splits. I couldnt believe how fast this stuff took off in comparison to the anthracite ! Need less to say I was impressed and will be getting ahold of another load, im looking for any tips and advice as far as how often I should shake down and poke the coal in the event I do a solid coal fire with a good bed. Also have heard mixed stories of mixing wood and coal together being hard on the stove pipe , I have a double walled duravent 8" which runs into a masonry chimney. Also have the anthracite laying on a skid which needs to be burned, any advice would be appreciated as far as properly getting the best burn out of it.
- SWPaDon
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- Location: Southwest Pa.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Clayton 1600M
- Coal Size/Type: Bituminous
- Other Heating: Oil furnace
Welcome to the forum.
Bit coal will burn fine in your stove without using any wood (other than for starting the fire). Bit is similar to wood in it's burn characteristics as it needs over the fire air to burn off the volatiles.
Anthracite coal needs almost all of the air to come under the coals to burn correctly, with which you may need to make modifications to your stove for it to burn correctly. To learn more about burning Anthracite in your type of furnace you can read this thread: Clayton / Hot Blast Mods and Tending for Anthracite
Hope this helps, Don
Bit coal will burn fine in your stove without using any wood (other than for starting the fire). Bit is similar to wood in it's burn characteristics as it needs over the fire air to burn off the volatiles.
Anthracite coal needs almost all of the air to come under the coals to burn correctly, with which you may need to make modifications to your stove for it to burn correctly. To learn more about burning Anthracite in your type of furnace you can read this thread: Clayton / Hot Blast Mods and Tending for Anthracite
Hope this helps, Don
Thank you, I do like the anthracite in that it has no mess with the bags., the price is the only downside. I would really like to learn how to dial in to be able to burn it though so my options are open to both coal sources. This furnace has a manual spin damper on the ash door for primary air and a draft inducer between the load door and ash door with the manual pipe damper. I have found this bit burns basically the same as the wood as far my Draft settings, im just clueless as far as when I need to shake it down or poke it , the advice im getting from everyone around home is " just throw a few shovels full on top the wood".
- SWPaDon
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- Joined: Sun. Nov. 24, 2013 12:05 pm
- Location: Southwest Pa.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Clayton 1600M
- Coal Size/Type: Bituminous
- Other Heating: Oil furnace
I'm using the Clayton 1600 furnace (a close cousing to yours), and I use Bit coal exclusively (and have been for years) without a draft inducer.
When to shake depends on how much coal you use. I shake mine several times a day when burning hard. Right now, I'm shaking once a day. It's something you will learn quickly.
With that said, what model of Hotblast are you using?
When to shake depends on how much coal you use. I shake mine several times a day when burning hard. Right now, I'm shaking once a day. It's something you will learn quickly.
With that said, what model of Hotblast are you using?
Its a 1600 I believe, not exactly sure as it was there when we bought the house, its identical to the furnace in the picture other than it says HotBlast on the door and does not have a spin damper on the load door.
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- SWPaDon
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- Joined: Sun. Nov. 24, 2013 12:05 pm
- Location: Southwest Pa.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Clayton 1600M
- Coal Size/Type: Bituminous
- Other Heating: Oil furnace
Does yours have a slide damper or anything on the load door? Do your grates look like these and do you have one or two grates?
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My load door is just a solid cast door, no dampers of any sort on it. The grates that are in it are more open than the grate pictured, the nut size anthracite I bought seems a bit small and jammed in them the one fire I burned with it.
- SWPaDon
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- Joined: Sun. Nov. 24, 2013 12:05 pm
- Location: Southwest Pa.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Clayton 1600M
- Coal Size/Type: Bituminous
- Other Heating: Oil furnace
If you read the thread I posted above, you saw where Lightning put insulation behind the plates at each end of the firebox, in order to burn Anthracite coal successfully.
With Bituminous coal you don't want to close those off as Bit needs the over the fire air those will supply. You can keep mixing Bit coal with your wood, or just use the Bit coal by itself.
A couple of tips on shaking..... don't remove all the ashes, just shake until a few hot coals fall into the ashpan. A little ash left on the grates will protect them from the heat. And, this is important............ keep the ashpan empty, as a full pan will block the airflow needed to cool the grates and they will warp on you. Also, I use a long poker, with a 90 degree bend on the end, to help clear the ashes from the front, rear and sides of the firebox. Failure to do this will cause your fire to get smaller and smaller, with less and less heat being produced.
With Bituminous coal you don't want to close those off as Bit needs the over the fire air those will supply. You can keep mixing Bit coal with your wood, or just use the Bit coal by itself.
A couple of tips on shaking..... don't remove all the ashes, just shake until a few hot coals fall into the ashpan. A little ash left on the grates will protect them from the heat. And, this is important............ keep the ashpan empty, as a full pan will block the airflow needed to cool the grates and they will warp on you. Also, I use a long poker, with a 90 degree bend on the end, to help clear the ashes from the front, rear and sides of the firebox. Failure to do this will cause your fire to get smaller and smaller, with less and less heat being produced.
Thank you , my next question is about the stove pipe. I have read about moisture burning off the wood mixing with gases off the coal when burning together and forming a sulfuric acid like compound which is hell on the pipe. Should I be concerned over this shortening the life of pipe ? I haven't heard of anyone I know who is mixing the both mention anything of the sort, just curious if anyone on here has ran into any issues. This coal ( from central wv) which I'm assuming is Pittsburgh bit based on what I've read on here ?
- SWPaDon
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- Joined: Sun. Nov. 24, 2013 12:05 pm
- Location: Southwest Pa.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Clayton 1600M
- Coal Size/Type: Bituminous
- Other Heating: Oil furnace
I've heard of the acid with Anthracite, but I don't recall it being mentioned with Bit coal.
All metal pipes will eventually deteriorate. The stainless single wall liner that was installed in my chimney ( sometime before I bought it), is just now deteriorating and I've been here 17 years. You will get soot from your coal, so you will need to clean your flue at least once a year, preferably twice (the January thaw is usuallly a good time) a year, and any horizontal runs will need cleaned more often probably.
All metal pipes will eventually deteriorate. The stainless single wall liner that was installed in my chimney ( sometime before I bought it), is just now deteriorating and I've been here 17 years. You will get soot from your coal, so you will need to clean your flue at least once a year, preferably twice (the January thaw is usuallly a good time) a year, and any horizontal runs will need cleaned more often probably.
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The culprit is the sulfur in the coal and most bit has even more than anthracite. Even with dry coal the hydrogen in it has water as a product of combustion (wood too). Keeping the stack temperature at 250 degrees F. will minimize it.SWPaDon wrote:I've heard of the acid with Anthracite, but I don't recall it being mentioned with Bit coal.
- SWPaDon
- Member
- Posts: 9857
- Joined: Sun. Nov. 24, 2013 12:05 pm
- Location: Southwest Pa.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Clayton 1600M
- Coal Size/Type: Bituminous
- Other Heating: Oil furnace
A couple years ago (after Stardust tee'd me off), I got a ton of coal from the coal yard about 2 miles south of them. The sulpher in that coal was unreal. Every lump had wide yellow streak going thru the center of it. The coal was smoky, with low heat value, and hard to burn.franco b wrote:The culprit is the sulfur in the coal and most bit has even more than anthracite. Even with dry coal the hydrogen in it has water as a product of combustion (wood too). Keeping the stack temperature at 250 degrees F. will minimize it.SWPaDon wrote:I've heard of the acid with Anthracite, but I don't recall it being mentioned with Bit coal.
Well , ive experimented a bit more since starting this post and have gotten another load of what seems to be a better burning more controllable coal. Ive done a good deal of research on here and it has really helped me to get a better understanding since being new to burning coal. Although luckily it hasnt been too overly cold what I have been doing is getting a good bed of wood coals, push them towards the back of the furnace and load the fresh coal towards the front only covering a few of the hot coals. The coal I have burns great this way and after 2-3 hours of breaking up the crust I can push it back throw more fresh in. What I am looking for advice on is my secondary air. I let my forced draft fan run for about 30 mins after loading fresh coal then shut it off and ease back on the secondary air. It seems to be burning cleaner by doing this by lack of thick smoke and less soot. I was kicking around the idea of installing a spin damper on my load door for my secondary in hopes of cleaning things up even more or would this be a wasted effort ?