Coalpail.com Forum

I guess it's about 8" deep. If the same bed was unused nut, the fire would be lazy.

I bought about 500# of pea to try. My one grate is slightly warped and I couldn't close it. Alot of coal fell through the open grate until it finally sealed up with clinker.

Pea burns great! It burns all the way down to a good ash with little unburned. Once the grates close, I don't think I will have any problem with it. I'll buy 500# in the Fall to try it again. I was surprized the other day when I put 4 shovels in around 9pm, that it was still burning at 3pm the next day. I added more and there was enough of a bed that the new coal took off well.

Looking at the date of my last post, I've been sifting and reusing my coal ash for 5 years now.

There is so much unburned coal in the WCB that I sift and reuse the ashes 2 more times. The 3rd time goes into the wood stove where it holds the fire for hours.

i probably get 10% unburned coal with my efm 350. was about the same with the reading stove and the alaska stove and the efm af-150 at the old shop.
Nice that you can run it thru again with a hand fed!

Nice to hear from you!

It seems that amount of unburned coal tends to be the standard results with most stokers, had it with the Alaska flatbed stoker and with the EFM. The coal mix does contain some harder to burn material, some call it "bone". Stokers limit the time coal is exposed to air flow. The amount of unburnt coal varies, right now I have coal that is producing very little "bone".
Just my unscientific opinion

Doesn't it sound like the WCB is a bad design? We all know anthracite likes a deep bed, with vertical sides, and grates completely across the bottom. The WCB doesn't have these features, correct?
My Tarm burns the coal completely, with practically zero unburned coal, with the exception when I let the fire go out. And even then I only have a couple pounds of partially burned coal.