brunco 150 spinner door pics

Here are some pictures of the ash door spinner I had put on. I am in the process of burning anthracite and checking to see if this brunco is cost effective for me to burn coal over wood. The firebox is huge. I am going to try to keep it going on 50lbs. per day. I am figuring a 5 gallon bucket of anthracite nut weighs about 30 pounds. Please correct me if that figure is correct. My cost for coal is .11 cents per lb. I believ it takes atleast 3 5 gallon buckets to get her filled up, but I read on here where wants you get them filled up it isnt as bad keeping it going. Thanks an please any help or tips is great..

Did you have a draft problem that you needed to install the spinners? I have the same stove and just control the draft with the fan's block off plate. My stove burns around a 5 gal. bucket and a half when it is really cold, and a bucket normally. This keeps my 1800 sq.ft home around 75 in the coldest weather. The firebox is big on this stove, but it does burn coal very well. I used it with wood for years, this is the first year with anthracite. It's nice not having to worry about chimney fires!

The spinners are going to make the stove perform alot better than it did before. I have the 120 and I also added a draft to the ash pan door.I getting a much better burn since I made the change.

Ohiocoalburner: Anthracite coal won't burn well if at all with over the fire combustion air. Bituminous coal like I'm assuming you are burning in Ohio will burn much like wood, and will burn OK with a mix of under the fire and over the fire air. Your combustion blower in this unit blows both under and over the fire if I remember correctly. So the under fire air via the ashpan door spinner vents will make the stove able to burn anthracite coal.

Greg L.

Yes, I am burning anthracite in my stove. The draft fan on my Brunco is ported through to under the grates only so the air is not on top of the fire. In fact I never open my fire box door spinner to avoid that situation. I run my stove normally with about 1/2 the fan opening exposed and have no problems. If I need more heat a very slight adjustment is all that is needed. I am allowing only about 12 to 14 hour burn times without shaking and charging, but have let it go a few hours more without noticing any real difference. I had considered trying to add a spinner on the ash door also, but some experimenting (and a little swearing) and the stove has burned all winter with almost no adjustment. To be honest, it burns as well as my Hitzer 503. Uses more coal, but heats a bigger area. Anyways Grizzly, it looks like they did a good job on the spinner installation. I'm sure it will work well for you.

Thanks guys. I just got in and after a 24 hour burn I opened the ash door and got the fire really heated up, then shook it down. it appears as i was on my knees watching that it burned real nice. I just shook it very gingerly so i didnt dump many hot coals down. Then I started adding coal. I first added to the back half of the firebox then closed the feed door and opened the ash door to get it going then added to the front. then opened the ash door again and after about 20 minutes i repeated this again. All in all I added 1 and a half 5 gallon buckets. i could probally get another 1/2 bucket or so to totally feel it up but i am trying to burn very conservatively. I am trying to find out if burning ant coal will save me some money. Does anybody know what a 5 gal. bucket of ant weighs. I put a filled to the brim bucket on our house scale and it said 40 lbs exactly. i am suspecting this scale is a bit off. i would like to confirm this.. lets just say for arguments sake it weighs 35lbs and I burn 2 5 gal. buckets per day. That is 70lbs. per day. the ant coal cost me .11 cents per lb. so that is 7.70 per day. that comes to 231.00 per month. That seems high to me. what do you guys think..

I have burned firewood for years and my electric bill has never been over 250 in the last 10 years.. I have an electric furnace and it does get used when I am not home and threw the days when I am at work.. The brunco is a great heater dont get me wrong. My hoe is 2500 sq. ft and right now it is 79 in here and it is as low as I can run It I believe but I am new to coal and still experimenting.. After reading on this forum for the last few weeks it seems as if there are alot more efficient coal stoves than the brunco but I just have to find out for myself.. I will say this, only messing with the fire every 24 hours sure is extremely nice..

Maybe tonight I will even turn it down more. I have both spinners open maybe 1/4 inch, so maybe I will try even less. The circulation blower that blows the heat threw the ductwork in the house seems to run for about 10 minutes and then off for 5. It cycles like this all night, where as with burning wood when it comes on it stays on till the fire is about out. I am sure i could open the draft more and just plain melt the sides of the stove if i wanted but I am trying to run it very very low..

Like I said I am new to this very new Only 1 week or so in so any tips or tricks from you experts is sure appreciated.. Thanks in advance for all your time in reading this. I must go spend some time with the wife,I think she is starting to think i enjoy spending time with the brunco more than her.. lol.. The brunco is way easier to get along with than her.... LOL!! thanks and goodnight..

ohiocoalburner wrote:Did you have a draft problem that you needed to install the spinners? I have the same stove and just control the draft with the fan's block off plate. My stove burns around a 5 gal. bucket and a half when it is really cold, and a bucket normally. This keeps my 1800 sq.ft home around 75 in the coldest weather. The firebox is big on this stove, but it does burn coal very well. I used it with wood for years, this is the first year with anthracite. It's nice not having to worry about chimney fires!

Maybe I will try just using less coal, but a 5 gal. bucket seems like it wouldnt be deep enough. After I shook down tonight I would say I only had a couple of inches of red coal in there. When I spread the next 5 gal bucket on it may be about 3 inches on top of that. do you think that would be enough for me.

On my initial startup after burning some paper and kindling down then spreading it out I think I added about 3/5 gal. buckets to fill this thing up to the top of the fire brick. I read where call likes a nice deep even bed about 6 or so inches deep. Thanks alot for any input..

Ohiocoalburner: well that's what happens when I assume.. I wasn't aware that you could block off the over the fire air from the combustion blower.

It sounds like you have your's figured out [after some cussing ].

Greg L

A standard 5 gallon bucket will hold 40 lbs...
If your house is 79* and 2500 sq ft...
80 lbs a day does not seem high...
I bet that you can get the fire to run a bit lower...
And reduce your coal consumption...
Keeping the house at 72*...

70 pounds a day is alot of coal! You are heating more sq.ft than I am and I try to keep the house a bit cooler than 79. I can see how you think this isn't economical. Can you adjust your temperature on the blower control for your stove? See what it is set at. Maybe you can cut the draft down a little and just reduce the on/off temps for the blower a bit. You won't want to go too low or it will seem like it's blowing cool air through the duct work. Also do you have the draft fan totally closed off so that no air can get through it? Maybe you can run the stove a little cooler by just using the spinners on the ash door to more precisely control the amount of draft. It is probably going to take some trial and error to get the best performance with the least amount of coal. BTW, your correct, try to keep the coal filled close to the top of the firebrick.

CapeCoaler wrote:A standard 5 gallon bucket will hold 40 lbs...
If your house is 79* and 2500 sq ft...
80 lbs a day does not seem high...
I bet that you can get the fire to run a bit lower...
And reduce your coal consumption...
Keeping the house at 72*...

Ok 40 lbs. is what it weighed for me I was it was less.. Thanks for confirmng this.. I am going to be trying to run it lower and use less coal.. trial and error I guess.. This warm weather we are getting wont help me much but I wont complain a bit after the winter we are having here..

ohiocoalburner wrote:70 pounds a day is alot of coal! You are heating more sq.ft than I am and I try to keep the house a bit cooler than 79. I can see how you think this isn't economical. Can you adjust your temperature on the blower control for your stove? See what it is set at. Maybe you can cut the draft down a little and just reduce the on/off temps for the blower a bit. You won't want to go too low or it will seem like it's blowing cool air through the duct work. Also do you have the draft fan totally closed off so that no air can get through it? Maybe you can run the stove a little cooler by just using the spinners on the ash door to more precisely control the amount of draft. It is probably going to take some trial and error to get the best performance with the least amount of coal. BTW, your correct, try to keep the coal filled close to the top of the firebrick.

Yes the circ fan has a high and low setting.. I have the combustion blower shut off and the flap totally shut just using the spinners on the ash door.. I have them open maybe 1/4 inch.. I will just keep at it and see what happens.. I think if I could get away with 1 5 gal. bucket / day I would be happy.. That is what you use correct.. and that will keep yours close to the firebrick after shaking?? what is your procedure from no fire at all to say like a 48 hour period. I would be curious to see what you do maybe I can learn something.. thanks and appreciate it..

You have 40% more floor space 2500 vs. 1800...
There may be some difference in heat loss between the two structures...
So if you burn 60 lbs per day you will be doing good...
Don't feel bad I'll burn 80 lbs a day when the wind kicks up and it is 20*...
I only heat 1900 sq ft...

Trial and error sounds like the best plan. Actually that is half the fun of burning anthracite, playing around with the stove until you get it right! I'm sure you will find a happy medium between coal use and temperature. The ash pan spinners will give you alot better draft control than I have using only the combustion fan damper. To be honest, since I got the stove running well this year I have made very few changes to it other than just tweaking the amount of draft to compensate for outside temperature. I just shake it twice a day and add coal I really have no special procedure for the first 48 hours either, it is no different than starting any other stove. I use match lite charcoal with a small amount of coal sprinkled on it. I get a good, strong fire going with the charcoal and look for yelllow flames from the coal. A lot of draft will help keep everything moving along. I add more coal and when I see it start burning add some more. Keep going until your up to the top of the firebrick, then cut the draft down to where your going to want it to run at. Shouldn't take more than an hour from start to finish.

It sounds like you have made a great amount of progress so far, much more than the first time I tried to burn anthracite in mine. I had used my Brunco for around 15 years with wood and a little bituminous coal (Which was a smokey,smelly mess!), but had friends tell me about the virtues of anthracite. I tried several times to burn it in the Brunco with absolutely zero luck. I was firmly convinced that the stove just would not burn anthracite no matter what Brunco said. After some of my children grew up and left home, I had less of a need to heat the downstairs of my house so I bought a Hitzer 503 insert for my fireplace to heat just the upstairs area. I got a few years coal burning under my belt with the Hitzer and really enjoyed using it, but this year one of my kids needed to move back in with us. I started looking at another stove to replace the Brunco, but thought I would give the Brunco one more try on anthracite (I'm really just cheap and didn't want to spend the money on a new stove). To my suprise it worked fine! I have been using it all winter and am planning on using it from now on, or at least until my daughter decides to move out again. A little experience and help from this wonderful forum (which I didn't know about the last time I tried) and you should be able to get back spending time with your wife in no time.

Anthracite coal can weigh anywhere from 46 lbs per sq ft to 59 lbs per sq ft it will depend on what vein the coal came from and how big the bucket is I have 35 buckets some are 3.5 gal some are 4.5 gal and some are 5 gal a few are 30 and 40lb laundry powder buckets The buckets will weigh from 33 lbs up to 51 lbs per bucket filled empty weigh 1.75 lbs up to 2.50 lbs depending on size and thickness of the plastic