Quality of This Coal ?

 
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cntbill
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Post by cntbill » Thu. Oct. 20, 2016 1:58 am

I have available to me about 6-8 tons of this coal and was wondering if someone could give me their general thoughts of the quality of this coal. Not ever using bit I was curious to see how it burnt so I made a little fire in fireplace with wood then put on a few pieces to see what would happen. Well it caught fire easily and sort of bubbled and the odor was like burning tires. Went outside to look at the smoke but being it was after midnight I couldn't see anything. I have no idea what mine it came from, all I know is the guy told me somewhere by the southern PA border. The main reason of asking is I plan on burning this coal and was wondering what I might expect... Thanks
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Burning in the fireplace

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Fused together

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Let it go out as I wasn't expecting to burn very good in the fireplace
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I split the fused block

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Bucket 1

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Quite a bit of fines as well.
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Bucket 2

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Post by SWPaDon » Thu. Oct. 20, 2016 9:34 am

You can expect heat, ash , smoke and soot from the coal.
The stove you use it in will decide the exprience you have with it. You will need a stove that has the ability to provide lots of 'over the fire air' ( when needed) to burn properly.

Without knowing where the coal came from, no one can give you a lot of information on it.

 
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Post by lsayre » Thu. Oct. 20, 2016 10:11 am

Forum member 'Berlin' is the bit coal expert here. But without details regarding where it came from it will be tough to predict anything, as SWPaDon has stated.

I have no experience, but from following Berlin's posts over the years I have gleaned that for bit the best (most controllable/predictable) results in a hand fed stove often come from burning roughly softball to football size chunks. Yours appears to be much smaller than this ideal size range. I defer to Berlin.

 
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Post by cntbill » Thu. Oct. 20, 2016 10:21 am

Thanks for the reply
SWPaDon wrote:The stove you use it in will decide the exprience you have with it. You will need a stove that has the ability to provide lots of 'over the fire air' ( when needed) to burn properly.
The stove I intend to use for this is a older EFM WCB, it has the optional over fire fan which from my understanding is for wood, which I think might work well for bit. The fan blows into a "Air Chamber" which has one opening just above the firebrick, my thinking here is to add fire/burning tubes to the Air Chamber like on seen some do here. Adding the tubes to this stove would be relatively simple as the Air Chamber is removable and the right hight. The other thing is the stove has a long fire bed to aid in moving the hot coals from the front to the back when reloading.
SWPaDon wrote:Without knowing where the coal came from, no one can give you a lot of information on it.
Yea kind of figure that, the reason for the photos thought might help.

 
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cntbill
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Post by cntbill » Thu. Oct. 20, 2016 10:26 am

lsayre wrote:I have no experience, but from following Berlin's posts over the years I have gleaned that for bit the best (most controllable/predictable) results in a hand fed stove often come from burning roughly softball to football size chunks. Yours appears to be much smaller than this ideal size range. I defer to Berlin.
Thanks Larry,

Yes I was wondering about that as well as I've notice it seems from what I've read most use large chunks

 
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Post by SWPaDon » Thu. Oct. 20, 2016 10:29 am

Is the stove you are talking about like this one?

The efm WCB-24 hand fired wood/coal boiler

 
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Post by cntbill » Thu. Oct. 20, 2016 10:52 am

SWPaDon wrote:Is the stove you are talking about like this one?

The efm WCB-24 hand fired wood/coal boiler
Yes the but the older one.
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EFM WCB off the truck

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Still on the truck

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Post by SWPaDon » Thu. Oct. 20, 2016 10:59 am

I'm not sure how the 'forced air blower' will work with the bit coal. as far as the 'over fire air' that is needed to enable the smoke and volatiles to burn off. I'll have to let someone that has used it in that configuration chime in.

I do know that if you have and use that Florence #75, it should work beautiful with that bituminous coal.

 
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Post by cntbill » Thu. Oct. 20, 2016 11:14 am

Hmmm I guess I better update my profile... Yes the Florence would have been the ideal stove but it went to another member that needed the fire rings and other parts. Beginning to wonder if maybe I should search for another Florence or one similar. :?

 
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Post by cntbill » Fri. Oct. 21, 2016 12:13 pm

SWPaDon wrote:I do know that if you have and use that Florence #75, it should work beautiful with that bituminous coal.
Other then the Florence what other types of stoves will this smaller size, nut, would be suggested? I don't have the EFM in the basement yet (which is going to be a trick in its self), so would I be better to find another stove ? Or maybe find someone that can use this smaller coal ?

 
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Post by Berlin » Fri. Oct. 21, 2016 7:31 pm

It looks like a high btu, low/mid vol bituminous coal. the issue you may have with it in that size is the tendency of your particular coal to agglomerate; looks like it's a high coke button coal. You may have to hit it with the poker halfway through the burn. I'd give it a shot, it's decent coal except for the size and coking tendency. Unfortunately with rare exception eastern and Appalachain coals will not have all the characteristics one wants for hand firing: you get high volatile coal with mid/low coke button or low/mid volatile coal with high coke button.

 
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Post by cntbill » Fri. Oct. 21, 2016 8:11 pm

Berlin wrote:It looks like a high btu, low/mid vol bituminous coal. the issue you may have with it in that size is the tendency of your particular coal to agglomerate; looks like it's a high coke button coal. You may have to hit it with the poker halfway through the burn. I'd give it a shot, it's decent coal except for the size and coking tendency. Unfortunately with rare exception eastern and Appalachain coals will not have all the characteristics one wants for hand firing: you get high volatile coal with mid/low coke button or low/mid volatile coal with high coke button.
Thanks for the reply ! "agglomerate" had to look that one up...lol, I've been reading a lot on forum trying to get a better idea / understanding of bit coal. Since you say " give it a shot" that's good enough for me. :D

The thing is I got like over 6 tons of this and have about 2 more to go. Other than having to hit it with the poker do you think this will be ok in the EFM WCB ? I know it will be quite a experience for me but really would like to save some heating expense by using this coal... hmmm maybe another Topic on the EFM, but then which part of the Forum, Using Bit, Hand Fired, or E-F-M ? :notsure:

 
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Post by cntbill » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 4:42 pm

I decided not to go the EFM boiler route as the time and money involved before heating season was upon us. Instead I went with an Warm Morning 400 and it seems to burn good with this coal, but I am having difficulties breaking up the mass, but maybe I am waiting to long? This stuff becomes like rock hard, so maybe I should try to break it up sooner?

 
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Post by Lightning » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 5:08 pm

When I burned bit coal I noticed it went thru a phase. The big mass was at first like concrete and near impossible to bust up, but then a little while later it would become very brittle and break up much easier.

 
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Post by corey » Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 6:26 pm

cntbill wrote:I decided not to go the EFM boiler route as the time and money involved before heating season was upon us. Instead I went with an Warm Morning 400 and it seems to burn good with this coal, but I am having difficulties breaking up the mass, but maybe I am waiting to long? This stuff becomes like rock hard, so maybe I should try to break it up sooner?
Lightning is right it gets easier to break it later on in burn.


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