What to Burn in My Rayburn?

Hey all,

I've been left in charge of a Rayburn Nouvelle here in Ireland for a few months. It is a hand-fired firebox with an oven attached, that also heats up the central heating and hot water. I have a few basic questions, and I wonder if you could help.

The fuel available here is kindling, peat, compressed peat briquettes, sawdust briquettes, bituminous coal ('polish doubles' and 'nuggets'), anthracite nuts, and slack. I have a bit of each at the moment.

What do you think the best way for me to get the best energy/cost efficiency is, with continuous burning? I have just been experimenting whilst the weather is good. I always start the fire with kindling, and some wood briquettes and peat. Then I can keep it going with more wood+peat, or once it is hot enough I can switch to coal and anthracite.

Is it bad to mix fuels up in this way? The candidates to use as main fuel are peat, anthracite and coal. Peat is probably cheapest per kg, then coal (about 11 euros per kg) then anthracite (about 15 euros per kg).

About refuelling coal or anthracite: when I throw on a new load of coal on top of some red hot coals, I get a bit nervous that I can no longer see anything hot or red (since you fuel from above, down into the firebox) and that the fire might die out. Is this a stupid worry?

Often with anthracite when the fire goes out there's a lot of 'dead' grey bits left on the bottom, that I have to manually clear out. Am I right in thinking that this wouldn't happen if I kept it going continually with anthracite-- the weight of the new fuel on top would break it up?

Thanks!
ohai

Love those Rayburns and Agas and the coal ones are the best (rare in the US). The Rayburns of course have the larger water boilers and can generate DHW and central heating - up to 9 radiators on some models. They will burn anything but take my advice and burn phurnacite (or any other anthracite brickette) which is the US equivalent of nut sized anthracite but better. Of course, nut anthracite per se is fine too. The extra cost is not extra as the high BTU of anthracite cancels out the fuel cost difference. Be careful of the flu. Cooking smells are also evacuated through that chimney and it must be of the correct type and needs to be installed correctly. Naturally, I am not familiar with your local building codes but professional installation will last a lifetime. As far as mixing fuels you can do it but it is not worth the troubles you get with sooted up chimneys etc. Any other fuel will mean cleaning out the chimney every six months as you are probably just going to run it 12 months a year. In your neck of the woods I would. If its an oldie but goodie remember on the heat containment lids the sealing threads were asbestos - that needs to be changed. Why do I ask? Well the original ones (from WWII) are still going . With care they last forever (an unproven claim at this time).

Like all old stoves in Ireland or the US a little technique is involved and that is different for every manufacturers stove as anybody on this board will tell you. Do not run a bituminous coal of any type as you are back to the six month service and smoke and that is where you will get your clinkers. Coke (a Euro product that is getting rare) is the cheapest coal and is the worst - that WILL gum up the works every day. You need a special Aga/Rayburn poker (google the term) they are for sale everywhere. You obviously know how to start the fire and once going poke it quite vigorously and fill back up 4 times day. The phurnacite brickette design will allow air to rise through large beds and so you might not see the fire after recharging. Of course, if the fire is nearly out and you load it to the top you might have an issue - so use common sense.

Service advice. Rayburn will still tell you 6 months but as I remember I burned pure phurnacite for years without cleaning the chimney. If your doing it yourself a 6 inch brush down the chimney and then remove all the round cooking plates and vacuum the area thoroughly, then move to the grate area. Don't let a family member throw any other c rap on the fire - sooty flames means service costs. In the US we are very litigious so my formal advice is sweep the chimney every six months. Choose your down time carefully as the stove needs to be out for 24 hours before you tinker and you will miss that heat. Get a torch (flashlight) and inspect the fire bricks at the same time. This fire brick inspection is important as moving a Rayburn is tricky as they are so heavy. This often requires a fire brick rebuild for proper heat transfer. Was that done in your case?

Takes me back to my childhood and that shows how long they have been around. 800F cooking heat that will boil 1qt water in 2 minutes, simmering plate, central heat, DHW, no noise and no electricity needed (yes the rads can be run by convection - but that is a whole other story) -AHHHHHH. LOL.

You were right to come over to this board. Somehow within the ranks of NEPA and the their thousands of members, good advice on any coal device on the planet is readily and freely available.

Thanks! That's extremely helpful.

What is wrong with this video?





How not to move a Rayburn. If it still works at all after this it will need a fire brick rebuild. Perhaps he has removed the bricks tough to tell. Send us pictures - we love pictures. Tell us about the Waterford - never heard of that one thought they made crystal glass.

Hey sorry I missed this post! Will put pictures online tonight.