Quality of Coal? Weso Stove Troubles

Some may remember that I am trying to get a WESO stove up and running again. I talked to the original importer today. He claims this particular model of stove didn't work well in the U.S. because coal here is about 8-12% ash content while European coal is 1-2% ash content. He says this causes the stove to plug up quickly and choke the fire out.

This explaination matches my father's experience. I don't know anything about relative ash content so I put it to the experts. Does this make sense and is there anything I can do about it? I'd like to use the stove but I'd rather not pull my hair out too.

The importer is giving you a line of crap and is making excuses for a stove that is designed poorly for burning anthracite coal. I'd even suggest a poor design overall as many of the european stoves such as the Franco Belge work wonderfully with anthracite. Please point him here if you talk to him in the future so he can get an education.

Where's coalstoves and his pictures when you need him?

Assuming good quality coal it will mostly burn up to a fine powder in a hand fired stove designed to burn anthracite. Period.

I went back and reviewed the posts at the previous thread
Post by jpete - Maybe Not a New Question Still I Need Direction>
and it just does not look like the grate is proper for Anthracite burning. It look too small, the coal bed should rest on grates as wide as the sides of the firebox. I don't think this stove could burn Anthracite well. Also, how does the shaker mechanism work? You really need a vigorous shaking mechanism, I can't see that in the photos.

Those grates are about the size a Franco Belge has however the design is quite different. The coal self feeds onto the grates from an internal hopper. The "shaker" grates themselves are round and sit inside of square grates. When you shake them you're actually turning the round part back and forth which easily breaks any ash up.

That stove doesn't appear to have any way of properly shaking them, I only see that big handle on the front. what's that do? Move what looks like the lower grate?

If the top grate doesn't move I'd suggest that's a very poor design for burning any type of coal under any circumstances.

Richard S. wrote:Those grates are about the size a Franco Belge has however the design is quite different. The coal self feeds onto the grates from an internal hopper. The "shaker" grates themselves are round and sit inside of square grates. When you shake them you're actually turning the round part back and forth which easily breaks any ash up.

Thanks for the explanation, Richard.
That would explain the sloped sides of the firebox. I noticed the round grates under the surface.

Richard S. wrote:That stove doesn't appear to have any way of properly shaking them, I only see that big handle on the front. what's that do? Move what looks like the lower grate?

That "handle" is a a vent to add air higher up in the fire box. Honestly, I'm not 100% sure how the shacker works. The handle is in the back and moves side to side. I'll have to see what the action is.

Wood'nCoal wrote: That would explain the sloped sides of the firebox. I noticed the round grates under the surface.

Sorry I guess I wasn't clear. I was referring to the Franco Belge Grates. The coal sits right on top of the round grate in a Franco Belge. the squre grtes are just surrounding the round grates and are stationary. In other words if you took the Weso Grate, then cut out a round section in the middle that could be turned back and forth you'd have a Franco Belge Grate.

Here's a quick example using the Weso Grate:

jpete wrote: The handle is in the back and moves side to side.

Well by the looks of it, you have a stationary top grate. That's never going to work for anthracite coal. You need a way to break the ash up and get some movement on the coal. I've seen it mentioned that some of the European coal is processed into blocks. I'm going to take a wild guess that's what that stove was designed to burn.

Richard S. wrote: Well by the looks of it, you have a stationary top grate. That's never going to work for anthracite coal. You need a way to break the ash up and get some movement on the coal. I've seen it mentioned that some of the European coal is processed into blocks. I'm going to take a wild guess that's what that stove was designed to burn.

It's had to tell from the pictures, there were, according to the guy I spoke to, lots of redesigns. The one in the picture might be slightly different than mine. I know mine has a shaker handle on it, I just don't know exactly how it operates. If I get a chance, I'll get over to my father's house and take some pictures of it.

If it has a double layer grate like Richard shows, then it would have to burn only coal that burns to a fine powdery ash... I would try Pea size Blaschak as my first try... But those grates look too restrictive.. Not sure what the designer was thinking...

Greg L

.

Here's a picture of the shaker grate all the way over to one side. It "twists" the other way too. Basically, it pivots on that "X" you can see below the grate.

**Broken Image Link(s) Removed**

That's better than stationary but it's still not great, not much movement there. Only thing I can suggest is giving it harder shakes. e.g bang it around a bit assuming its sturdy enough for that but I wouldn't go overboard.

I just put the new seals on the doors so I think I'll fire it up and try it. Worst I can do is waste a bucket of coal.

How did the bucket of coal do.
I read this stove is only 5k btu, Is it really that small.

I haven't gotten to fire it up just yet. I don't know how many BTU's it puts out, the data plate on the back says 8000 watts, IIRC. Anyone know the conversion?