Rice coal in a baseburner

My local Tractor Supply has a ton of bagged rice coal that he is willing to sell to me for $1 a bag. He has had it two years he says and has moved none of it. I have been burning nut coal in my stove as that is what I had read was best for it. I can't find anything anywhere about whether rice coal can be used in a hand fed stove. I'm concerned that the grates won't hold it. I've thought about mixing it but am not sure. I would like to take advantage of the deal, but not if it won't work. I'm real new to coal so would appreciate any and all input. Thanks for the help.

I have used it in my Florence when I was out of nut. Now I sprinkle a couple scoops in with the nut to use it up. Burns just fine. At that price I would buy everything they have.

jaf1223 wrote: ↑

Tue. Jan. 15, 2019 3:06 pm

My local Tractor Supply has a ton of bagged rice coal that he is willing to sell to me for $1 a bag. He has had it two years he says and has moved none of it. I have been burning nut coal in my stove as that is what I had read was best for it. I can't find anything anywhere about whether rice coal can be used in a hand fed stove. I'm concerned that the grates won't hold it. I've thought about mixing it but am not sure. I would like to take advantage of the deal, but not if it won't work. I'm real new to coal so would appreciate any and all input. Thanks for the help.

Not by itself, it'll likely choke the fire bed too much. But as Paned said, mixed in with the nut coal it should be ok, especially if you have a strong drafting chimney system during really cold weather. It's a very good way to slow a too-hot fire. Or, a layer of it over a nut firebed will slow, and extend the fire in warmer weather and reduce overheating the house if you don't want to shutdown and have to restart when it turns cold again.

Try shovel for shovel and see what proportion of nut to rice works best. It doesn't go bad so even if it takes you years to use it up, I'd grab every bag he has. At a dollar a bag you won't lose.

Paul

I highly doubt you will have very much success burning rice size coal exclusively in any type of batch fed stove. The pieces fit too closely together for combustion air to come up thru without it being forced, like in a stoker. Other than that it will fall thru the grates.

Although, you can use a blanket of rice size on top of nut size to slow down the burn and keep the fuel bed healthy.

That is a very good price if you can find a way to use it

I have a ton of pea coal and I couldn’t use in anything else but this #8.
back around New Years we had some 50* days and just by mixing the pea into it I could get the barrel temp below 200* however it was kinda sluggish to come back but I was also mixing it 60-40 nut to pea, my stove certainly won’t and can’t run straight pea let alone rice

Give it a try.
Only fill fire pot half full. Maybe only add 10-15 at a time.
Foil over baro . MPD wide open. Open primary air 50-80 % wide open till it is burning good. If you have -.01 on the mano keep going. Then start closing the primaries.

There is a couple members here burning straight pea in antiques.

I'm running straight pea in a little globe stove with no troubles.

EDIT. Not for newbies to try.

My Cousin was able to successfully burn rice in a Franco Belge, wasn't getting a whole lot heat but it was burning. the big issue there was shaking it since the grates were so much larger. He wouldn't start using the rice until after he had established fire with larger pieces. I've also had customers with hand fed stoves that would get like 3 or 4 tons of nut and a ton of rice. They would use the rice to dampen the fire off overnight.

I burn straight pea in my Home Stove Works #25 Base Burner in the shoulder months when oat's average above 30* f.

On days when the oat's are in the mid 40's or above, I'll mix it with rice.

Also, If we plan to be away for two or three days, I just close down the mpd & primary, and fill the magazine half way up with straight rice coal.
The heat output is reduced by the second day, but it saves me from relighting in it when we return home.

Paulie

I will add a note of caution to this.

If your stove/chimney system has marginal draft strength, going with smaller sizes of coal can make that worse.

Using smaller sizes of coal than what the stove normally uses should be done carefully and check it over several hours, at least, to make sure the firebed will continue to burn and not go out.

Best and safest way to test is to have a manometer hooked up to the stove pipe above the MPD to show if the system is slowly losing draft because of too much air flow resistance through the firebed.

Paul

Thanks for all of the input. I think that I will probably go and buy what he has and try and mix it or add it to the nut coal fire. My stove is in a weekend cabin that we use and I took two bags out last weekend to try. Smothered the fire first thing and spent a cold night that night. So I will ease into the mix. Thanks again for all the input.