Colebrookdale Severn Won't Burn

Senario; Start stove with wood and get it good and hot (500 to 700 F). Add some nut anthracite, and go do something. Come back, nut cole going good, add stove coal, go do something (10 minutes). Come back, stove coal going good, add more at intervals over the next half hour, shake it a little and leave damper wide. Everything seems good, but two maybe three hours later fire's out and coal is unburned. Been like this for over a month. What gives? No one complains about this stove, yet it's not working for me. Ready to sell this thing! I want to burn coal, but This model won't work. BTW had a Jotul before this on the same chimney and it always ran too fast. Now the severn won't run at all. Any suggestions?
Thanks

How much coal are you adding in total? You need to have the coal AT LEAST 6 inches deep for it to burn properly. Also, make sure the air is coming up through the coal bed, not over or around it.

-Rob

make sure you have good draft too.

After you get it going with nut size coal, try adding more nut. Don't switch over to stove coal at all. See if that works for you. Also you shouldn't have to shake down so soon after starting your fire. Good luck. Keep us posted.

I read where you've had a coal stove before but I recommend that you re-read the thread "how to light a coal stove." It could be you are just overlooking something. Grizzly is correct, do not add any stove coal until you can successfully burn the nut. You need to have a coal bed at least 6 to 8 inches deep, that's about 50 to 60 lbs of coal in an average stove so layer by layer fill it to the top of the fire brick or fire pot and make sure the previous layer is going strong with lots of blue ladies dancing before adding the next layer.

Once it's going leave it alone - coal doesn't like to be messed with. As the fire burns the coal bed will drop 3 or 4 inches as the fire moves upward to the available fuel; that's probably ten or 12 hours from the time you last added coal, then you shake and add more coal to the top of the fire bricks. Resist the urge to do anything to the stove in between tending unless you see it's going out. If you see it's going out, open your ashpan door - don't leave the room - to recharge the coal bed. Do you have any thermometers on the body of your stove? If not you may want to get one, it can tell you a lot about how your stove is burning. It will let you know if the fire is going out before you can realize it on your own. It's a great tool.

As long as you have a good, strong coal bed and air moving through the coal the fire should not go out. What is your air input valve set at? As you found with the Jotul that is what controls your heat production. Experiment with the air input valve until you find the sweet spot that will keep your fire burning as you want it. If none of this works, let us know and some one will be able to offer other solutions for you to try. Don't give up! Good luck, Lisa