Coal Hoppers Outside

I just installed a grain auger to feed my coal into the stove in my basement. The auger is 11 feet long and I used a 3/4 hp motor. My current hopper outside is a plastic barrel and holds about 12 bags. If this works fine, I will increase the size of the barrel for greater capacity. No more carrying bags into the house, especially when wet.

My question is will the coal freeze and how to protect it from freezing. Has anyone made an outside hopper and found a way to protect it from freezing. I live in NH and it gets cold. John

I just installed a grain auger to move my coal directly into the basement with a flip of the switch. The hopper is just outside and is a plastic 40 gal drum. My concern is freezing. Any ideas. John

Keep the coal dry. Seriously, let it dry out during the warm sunny days, and keep it covered during the rainy days. Damp coal should be ok, but really wet, like right out of the breaker will force it to freeze in clumps once the Temp plummets.

john.haithcock wrote:I just installed a grain auger to move my coal directly into the basement with a flip of the switch. The hopper is just outside and is a plastic 40 gal drum. My concern is freezing. Any ideas. John

As stated, dry coal will not freeze togehter. How about posting some pics of this set up. Sounds interesting.

If the plan is to dump from bags into the outside barrel then auger it inside, it doesn't seem like there will be a chance for the coal to dry enough. Especially in NH (sorry NJ and MD guys, but this fellow is in a different climate), I'd expect a lot of freeze-up problems. I've kept bulk coal outside in gravity wagons and it flows fine as long as it's bought far enough ahead of time to dry well. Dumping fresh bags outside might work best if the outside hopper was more like a box against the house that was insulated on all sides except the side facing the house (i.e., so that heat from the house would keep the frost out of the coal). Otherwise buying and drying ahead of time seems essential.

Mike

John, go but an electric blanket and wrap it around the barrel and insulate it, you can buy a switch that will turn it on when the temp dips below freezing.

Glenn