Soft Coal Burner

Bituminous coal isn't hard to get east of the mississippi. Using it in hand-fired stoves/furnaces/boilers is very very common in the ohio river valley from youngstown oh, central pa, west virginia down to memphis. you don't see a lot of people coming on this site from those areas because it's something people only do in areas where it's popular and they get their advice from their fathers/friends/family, not the internet; it's a different demographic than people in northeastern urban/suburban areas switching to coal for the first time - esp. a coal that's inherently hard to burn and requires some teaching like anthracite.

If a Manufacturer would invest the time and effort to design and build a GOOD coal stoker for bituminous there would be a sizable market for it. As of yet I haven't seen anything close. you have efm, who has "kind of" made attempts at this (apparently they're using guys for testing that haven't a clue - not a good sign); you have the old prills etc. that are finicky and do not allow for ease of feed/air adjustment or easy cleaning; you have wil-burt which, overall built decent little units, but still there are numerous issues that make them a bit of a pain to operate- stuff that would have cost wil-burt little difference in mfg cost to fix; then you have the coalman etc. outdoor stokers for 10,000+ and way more BTU's than most people need or can afford. Pretty much every attempt various businesses have made at opening a market for their bit burning products has more or less failed due to either not understanding the potential customer, or designing a product that's not as good and thought-through as it should be. It's sad really.

Stoker-Man: you won't get a very good or acurate idea at all of what burning bit coal in your appliance will be like if you're burning coal fines- that will just be a mess, don't waste your time. If you are interested in trying bit coal, wait until you find some decent non-coking lump coal and give it a try.

stoker-man wrote:I would try the soft coal in my hand fired boiler but don't have access to any.

Member Duengeon master (Rich) can get some of Ohio's finest. I let him know you are looking.

I've been burning wood for the past 33 years. Coal is expensive/wood is free. That's the main reason I don't burn coal. Maybe when I get older, I'll switch to coal.

I'd be very interested in trying some non-coking coal, just for my own learning experience.

The reason the soft coal is being tested in Wyoming is because there is supposedly a big market out there for it and our dealer asked to do it. Joe in Shenandoah tested it with good results. efm is reluctant to invest time in units that won't sell. It takes a lot of time to bring out a new unit and we don't have any engineering to spare right now with the development of the condensing oil boiler. Once I get done with my latest project, I'll have some free time to try something new.

I got my one bucket of sand coal and tried it out last night in the WCB handfired.

I put some in around 4 PM along with some wood. I must have put too much coal in because it almost smothered the wood. Once the wood fired up, I figured the coal wouldn't work and closed the door. A few hours later I went back out to add wood and the sand coal was red hot and hard as a rock; one giant lump. I poked through it to let some air in from the bottom and put the rest of the bucket on top at 10 PM, about 40 pounds in all.

This morning, it was so warm in the house that I didn't need a blanket. The outside temperature is 13 degrees and the upstairs was about 75 degrees. I took a look at the boiler and that giant lump of red coal was still there and the circulator was running all night. It is turning into ash with no clinker.

So, I would say that my experiment with one bucket was a success and that I'll get a 12-15 hour burn out of it.

stoker-man wrote:Just as I suspected. All far away.

A dealer near Phillipsburg, PA is sending me a few buckets tomorrow. They call it sand coal because it's so fine. I'll throw some on top of my wood fire and see what happens. He uses an oil oil burner blower to force air under the fire and it works great.

Well you suspected wrong again you need to learn to read more into the links I posted & listen more .
Kimmels Bags & sells Bit coal call them .
Also Blaschak can get Bit coal call them .
Penn Keystone coal sell Bit coal call them

Kimmel's Coal and Packaging, Wiconisco, PA; (717) 453-7151, fax (717) 435-8295; Contact Tim Miller for price/shipping and spec sheet. Coal is mined in McDowell Co., WV and bagged/shipped nationally by Kimmel's. 50# poly bags on pallets. Recommended as excellent coal to ABA by several blacksmiths in Colorado and Montana
http://www.kimmelcoal.com/

http://www.blaschakcoal.com/
**Broken Link(s) Removed**http://www.penncoal.com/wst_page2.html
Penn Keystone Coal Co., RD 1, Box 557, Claysburg, PA 16625
Phone (814) 244-3140; Web: http://www.penncoal.com

Formerly CAMBRIA COAL SALES

Yes, I read the links.

What is the inside diameter for your auger pipe on the subitumnus burner, or the trade size of the pipe you used?

The pipe size was increased and I believe it was 3". I don't remember if it was stainless or aluminum. It must be working well because it's been in use all winter without problem.

A guy near me burns soft coal, what a stinky cloudy mess it makes within 500' of his shop. It would make anybody agree to ban coal. Western PA's finest at $50 a ton but man it's strong.

My soft coal stoker dosn't stink or make a cloud of smoke, steady fuel air ratio, and a hot fire, results in clean burn.

Hand fed fires with soft coal is grim, but kept me warm for the previous two winters.

I'm burning is a will-burt stoker look alike.

Can you come up with another in or near Fairbanks?

"what a stinky cloudy mess it makes within 500' of his shop. It would make anybody agree to ban coal"

well, that depends on whether or not you like the smell now doesn't it? How much of a cloud would it make if he was burning wood in a big smouldering steel box with a fan blowing on it like so many shops have around here? All that is somewhat irrelevent to this discussion as bit coal in a stoker is virtually smoke and smell free.

Berlin wrote:How much of a cloud would it make if he was burning wood

More.

Soft coal will smoke when first loaded but after that it burns for hours with little/no smoke whereas a wood fire would have to be stoked two maybe three times producing smoke each time and if the fire were left to smolder it would smoke the entire time. I believe many types of wood stoves, especially poorly designed outdoor boilers and older stoves actually produce more visible smoke than soft coal when burn times are compared.
I'll give an example, my job requires me to drive through small towns where homes (always the same ones) with woodburner's are making plumes of smoke every time I drive by. Now if they were burning soft coal in a hand fed stove it wouldn't be possible to see smoke every time because it only smokes a brief time compared to the length of the burn. These aren't OWB's either, these would be regular space heater stoves.
If these same homes were using properly maintained coal stokers I would wreck the truck trying to look for smoke

Sting asked if I could find more stokers.

The one I'm using came from Eastern Washington, Anchor Stoker, 25lb per hour max.

The other two I have came from a wrecking yard in Fairbanks AK, about fifteen years ago and only one is complete, Anchor Stoker, 35lb per hour max.

I'm clinging to the colection for spare parts, I'm short some Tuyres, and very concerned about how they become damaged, all my units have been stored outside for many years and all documentation is gone.

Stokers are rare as hens teeth in Fairbanks, and I need to drive 150 miles one way just to start looking for them.

I would love to find one of the Prill units with the rotating ring.

I wish EFM would get rolling with thier rotating ring burner, the Coalman unit is nice, but the EFM has the elevating auger that would make automation of ash removal much easier, and the sloped auger would facilitate a nice bin.

My boiler is probably fifty years old and was under a pile of leaves when I found it, stoker was long gone, a new ASME rated boiler would be really apriciated, again the EFM unit could solve my concerns.

It is a rub!

Getting things up the Al-Can

Especially old junk

Like Greg wrote to me as we chatted about this in pm "Too bad we can't find him ( my son ) a stokermatic to ship up there"