Updraft Problem and Other Questions About Franco Belge Stove

By the way gentlemen,

I saw that someone mentioned that I should have my FB hopper set at the highest notch for pea coal. The guy I bought it from said that he always kept it at the lowest notch so that he could fit that max amount of coal in....did I misunderstand him?? So which notch do I keep it set at??

The lower notches are for smaller coal such as buck or rice. The highest notch is for pea and setting the hopper on top of the supports is for nut.

The idea is to get as deep as possible a bed of burning coal. Setting the hopper too low will give too shallow a bed with shortened burn times and less heat output. This is very important as the firebox on these stoves is not very deep to begin with. This is also what the maker recommends also.

You should have a flat poker to clear the ash from the grate and a tool to open the door and shake the grates and to lift the ash pan. Something else you can make up that is very handy is a sheet metal cover to cover the door opening when starting a fire and also to cover the opening when you want to let the door glass cool down to clean it which you will want to do every week or so.

Measure the door opening and cut a piece of 26 gauge steel 1/2 inch wider and 3/4 inch taller than the opening. Bend a 1/2 inch right angle on the top to hook onto the flange at the top of the door opening. Cut a 1 1/4 inch strip to fasten onto the door cover and fashion it to accommodate the ash pan lifting hook. This is to lift it on and off.

I have the scraper tool, the tools to handle the shakers and the hopper lid when they're hot, and also the piece of sheet metal to cover the opening when cleaning the window. I really got a great deal when I bought this stove (at least I think I did). I got the stove, the tools, the coal bucket and shovel, a metal trash can for the ashes, and a 1/4 ton of coal. Not bad for $650.00 if you ask me.

The questions will keep coming as I think of things:

I read somewhere that anthracite coal is harder to start than others. Is there any truth to this? Are there different grades of coal? The reason I'm asking is because I was biting the bit to play with my stove, so this evening I did some experimenting. I used one of those "fire brick" cakes that's made of wax and other wood particles. I thought I'd try this first before the charcoal method. I lit it and waited for it to get burning well, and then I pull a little shovel full of coal on top of it. I had a continuous flame, but the coal pieces never caught fire. The flames just burned around them. I saw some blue at times, but once the brick burned up, I still had unburned coal pieces laying in the grate. So what does this mean? Did I not have a hot enough flame?? I guess I'll just need to do the charcoal thing....

You should have a fire covering the width of the grate. The one brick only covered the middle and air could bypass the coal. If you broke up that brick and spread it out it might have worked. Also once the coal is burning stop using the metal cover so all the air will rise up through the grate.

When shaking down use both the slicing poker and the shaking grates. Be sure to move the shaker handles to the right when finished to cover the three holes for the poker otherwise the air will not be controlled.

Yes anthracite can vary quite a bit. With experience you will start it easily.

Many thanks to all of you for your advice and answer to my questions. I appreciate it.

Have a great week!

FB is correct. When starting a fire the entire grate has to be covered so air can only go up through the area where the fire is at. Air will go around the fire and not get the temps up to the ignition point of Anthracite. Anthracite is finicky to lite and will go out if you don't do it the way IT wants. If you want to have a small fire then you can put ash on each side of the grate leaving the middle open. Build your fire with newspaper and lump charcoal in the center. When the charcoal is burning good then add small amounts of coal to that. If your only going to be burning charcoal then it doesn't really matter. If your going to add coal, the entire grate has to be covered with coal or wood ash so air can only go through the grate where you want to go.

The key is that the air must have only one way to go up through the grate and that is where the fire is at. The air going up where the fire is at superheats the burning gasses, raising the temp where Anthracite will ignite and burn. Following are some ignition points of different types of fuel. Data is from http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/fuels-ignition- ... d_171.html

the numbers are in Farenheit
Wood (generic) 572
Charcoal 660
Pine Wood - dry glow point 800
Bituminous coal - glow point 850
Propane 878
Oak Wood - dry 900
Semi bituminous coal - glow point 980
Anthracite - glow point 1112

Once burning, Anthracite with the correct amount of air going through it in the correct manner (bottom up) can reach average temps in a controlled stove environment of between 1500 to 2000 degrees F. As you can see the ignition point of wood and charcoal is much lower than Anthracite so how does it ignite Anthracite? The air going through the burning bed of coals superheats the gasses from the burning fuel raising the temperature so the Anthractie will reach ignition temperature. It is commonly called the blowtorch effect.

Blow on a wood fire and what happens? It gets hotter. Get the air going from the bottom up only through the flames and your going to have on heck of a hot wood fire. Hot enough to ignite Anthracite.

With a lot of other types of fuels you can finesess it and have a number of different methods to start the fire. Like with a wood stove. You have lots of choices. With Anthracite, the number of choices is extremely limited on how your going to lite it and burn it. Since Anthractie was discovered there have been almost no "Ahaaaa" moments on how to lite and burn Anthractie. You have to do it it's way.

Larry

Good post, very informative.

You guys are extremely knowledgeable! I am grateful for all the information. With all the variables, it's a miracle that the coal ever gets ignited at all! I can see why it's such a bear to get it started. I guess that's why people wait until the heating season is well in progress before firing up because of all the work to get it going. I'm not sure if I'm that patient right now.

I'm probably going to go with the matchlight charcoal method to get the coal going. My only reservation is all the warnings that I've received about the stink it will make in my house. My wife will be thrilled! I suppose I just need to keep that upper door closed as much as possible. Someone mentioned opening windows while getting it going.

Here are some more questions:
1. One of you said that I might want to break up the charcoal into smaller pieces. Is this a good idea or not necessary? Also, can I just put the coal all around the charcoal pieces and then light it, or do I absolutely need to get the charcoals glowing first before adding any coal? I just figured that it would save time and effort to put the coal right in before I light the whole thing.

2. Was I correct that one of you recommended that I load the hopper before I even light the stove? Something about that it would keep the smoke and stuff from coming up to the top of the stove? I personally think it's a great idea, but I've read different methods which involve waiting until you have established a good bed of glowing coals.

I'm biting at the bit to fire this thing up. This weekend it's supposed to get down in the 30's in the evening and no higher than maybe 54 during the day. I'm debating as to whether I want to get it going with the risk that the following week's temps will be back up in the upper 50's to low 60's.

Good day to you all!

You can't load the hopper when starting because it will feed far too much coal at one time.

Try to establish some draft first. As was suggested use a hair dryer blowing into the draft control.

If your charcoal fire is in the middle surround it with coal. Add coal on top of the charcoal after it is good and red. A little at a time, keep adding coal. With a good fire continue adding coal through the top. Once you are sure your fire is well established you can fill the hopper and adjust the thermostat in small increments with lots of time between until you get an idea of how it controls the fire.