Outdoor Coal Boiler

Be sure to buy channel iron and enough firebrick and you will save lot of money on coal.

I’m afraid you may disappointed with running anthracite in an outdoor boiler. The rule of thumb in our area for outdoor boilers is bituminous coal although we are much closer to the soft coal fields than yourself. With that being said, anthracite is much cheaper for you than it is for us.

What I am trying to get at is that many people have bought anthracite out of our yard when they first experimented with coal, only to turn to soft coal very soon after. They generally all say the same thing... Too much lost heat going up the pipe for the price. There are a few that still use hard coal but it is for banking the wood fire at night only.

I’m not trying to sway your opinion either way, just stating our experiences here. Location is everything and in the end you need to do what’s best for your situation.

Nighttime banking in Outdoor Boilers around here this far from the mines is done by tossing 40 pounders straight off the pallet, with bags and all right in through the front door of the ODB.
This allows one to sleep-in in the AM, rather than rushin' out to jump-start it for the day ahead.

This wouldn't work too well with a bunch of bricks stacked up in the way in there.

CoalJockey wrote: ↑

Wed. Sep. 26, 2018 5:39 pm

I’m afraid you may disappointed with running anthracite in an outdoor boiler. The rule of thumb in our area for outdoor boilers is bituminous coal although we are much closer to the soft coal fields than yourself. With that being said, anthracite is much cheaper for you than it is for us.

What I am trying to get at is that many people have bought anthracite out of our yard when they first experimented with coal, only to turn to soft coal very soon after. They generally all say the same thing... Too much lost heat going up the pipe for the price. There are a few that still use hard coal but it is for banking the wood fire at night only.

I’m not trying to sway your opinion either way, just stating our experiences here. Location is everything and in the end you need to do what’s best for your situation.

I appreciate your input!! I am new to all of this so I am still learning about all the aspects of it. Yes anthracite coal is abundant here, there is a mine close to me. I’ll have to ask around to see if any yards carry soft coal for a decent price.

McGiever wrote: ↑

Wed. Sep. 26, 2018 5:55 pm

Nighttime banking in Outdoor Boilers around here this far from the mines is done by tossing 40 pounders straight off the pallet, with bags and all right in through the front door of the ODB.
This allows one to sleep-in in the AM, rather than rushin' out to jump-start it for the day ahead.

This wouldn't work too well with a bunch of bricks stacked up in the way in there.

Great tip especially for the weekends! Would you do this even if there was wood burning in there? Is that a thing?

Most here would love to see some pics of your set up, boiler and all that stuff, as there are few if not any with that specific set up here and I am sure it is searched for often. I've considered it as well. So whatever your results are, please post away.

btarby15 wrote: ↑

Wed. Sep. 26, 2018 7:20 pm

Great tip especially for the weekends! Would you do this even if there was wood burning in there? Is that a thing?

When you speak of wood and coal burning together in the same appliance, you are speaking of bituminous coal. Wood and anthracite require radically different air paths, whereas wood and bituminous share the same air path requirements.

I have a different take on this as I had tremendous luck with burning anthracite in my old Switzer hand fed with the half the firebox filled with firebrick when I had my hand fed boiler. It always held a fire and I was able to keep a fire going when I needed to and always had plenty of good draft to start another one if I had a fire burn out and there was nothing left in the coal ash pile to start a burn.

Boiler men will tell you that you need fire brick in coal boilers wood boilers and lots of it to hold the heat in and protect the firebox as well.

Just as an example the harman folks sold metal firebox reducers that were inserted in the fire box to let owners burn wood and coal in their harman boilers the year round to make hot water so its a win, win, win!

The fire brick is going to be a huge thermal mass for you to use and that is money in the bank and hot water in the home.

Hello Larry,

My hand fired switzer had both an under fire and overfire draft so I had the best of both worlds so I was able to keep the blue ladies dancing when I burned bagged stove and nut coal around the clock when I had it on hand and I was able to bank a good fire with rice when I though to buy some to have at the home place.

Leon

btarby15 wrote: ↑

Wed. Sep. 26, 2018 7:20 pm

Great tip especially for the weekends! Would you do this even if there was wood burning in there? Is that a thing?

Yes, especially after having been burning wood and wanting some uninterrupted heat over night and also to have a extra long unattended burn period before needing to attend the OSB once again.
The idea is to have the wood embers to light off the anthracite bagged coal on top. Then in the AM the hot coals can light off the wood again for the day time burn, if that is your desire.
And obviously one would want to close off most of the over fire air a bit after the coal has caught fire.