Chimney Sweeping

I like to burn just about anything I can get my hands on. from anthracite to cannel to bituminous. If anyone can get some lignite, please pm me. It's the hobby side of burning coal. My staple is anthracite that I can get from anywhere. This year I will be burning white ash pea of unknown origin because I got it free!!! I have burned coal for five going on my sixth year. I was getting worried about my 6" stainless steel chimney getting clogged. So I broke down and spent some money to buy a chimney brush and enough rods to do the job. much to my surprise, the chimney was virtually clean. except for a little rust. (I thought it was stainless steel) I got only about 5-10 lbs. of fine dark brown ash, understandable due to the mixtures of coal. My Question is does Anthracite burn off bituminous soot? Ohio #4 egg coal makes a LOT of soot but still the chimney was relatively clean.

We used to burn bituminous coal at our camp and had lots of soot, about 8 years ago we switched to anthracite and have not had to sweep the stainless steel chimney since.

I'm not sure about anthracite burning off the bituminous soot, but i do know that durning a hot vigorous fire w/ any fuel, the bituminous soot simply blows out or after the hot fire falls down into the bottom of the stack or the stove, bituminous soot will buildup more easily in a smaller chimney such as 6" but on the virtical surfaces will sooner or later blow out or fall down before it builds up too much. btw, where are you getting ohio #4 egg coal? thompson bros? how do you like it? also that "rust" on your stainless chimney means the protective oxide barrier on your stainless didn't hold up this year and your chimney is not long for this world.

Yes the coal is from Thompson Bros. I find that it burns well. It does not swell and turn into a big solid lump that requires a piece of #3 rebar to break up the way other bit does while the basement is filling up with smoke. I think that may also be the size of the pieces I am using but it doesn't seem to swell up that much. My chimney was purchased at Lowes. It is made by a Canadian company. It has a lifetime warranty. I hope they will honor it. Most of the rust is where the cap twisted into the stack.