Price of Water

I had 4 ton of coal delivered today. Very wet, which I hear is usual. I'm wondering how many pounds of water I just bought at $188 the ton. I guess I could weigh a 50 lb bucket now, when wet, and then later, when dry, and do the math. Too bad they don't weigh it prior to hosing it down and then deliver it. It's common practice in the gravel business to sell water under the guise of a clean product.

So let's see, I just paid $288/ton for my bagged dry coal. That's 14.4cents/pound.

You paid $188/ton for wet coal. That's 9.4cents/pound.

Suppose you had 10 gallons of water in that coal. You paid a whopping $7.52 for that water. That's cheaper than you can buy water in the store for.

So in conclusion it cost you $195.52 for your ton. I'd say you got me beat by darn close to $100/ton. Uhhh....what was your point again?

I pick up my own, they deduct 100lbs on a 1 3/4 ton load. What gets me is last time I went for 2 loads, fri. and sat., my truck was 6700 on fri. and 6800 on saturday on the slip empty. I did not add any fuel, etc. etc. If anything, should of weighed less. They said I got 100lbs free. I believe the 6700 was a little low, it's between the 2 in weight.

Depending on the operation it can vary, over a 5 ton load maybe about 200 to 300 pounds, the smaller sizes like rice will retain more water.

If you got it from Hudson and with rice coal it came from three possible places. Right from under the breaker and in that case the pile will have have a constant stream of wet coal going onto it. If the pile is high the outside of the pile will be well drained out. This is where I always wanted coal from because it was the cleanest it could possibly be and wasn't soaking wet. If they got it under the breaker where the pile was low you're going to have more water and more dust when it dries. Lastly off the stock pile in which case it will be drained out pretty good and your mileage will vary on the dust.

Look at it this way if there is no water then the price goes up. As I've mentioned previously in other threads whenever I left there I was always a few hundred pound over so the water weight was mitigated by that.

Did you get it from Hudson? Looks nice?

Too bad they don't weigh it prior to hosing it down and then deliver it

Rice is always going to have some dampness, even dead summer in a stockpile that's been sitting there for weeks. The outside layer might be dry but once you start digging into it you'll find water. Truthfully you'd have to let it drain overnight in the truck to get most of the water out and even then it's going to be damp.

Cabinover, Please don't drink the coal water!
I'm sorry you pay $288 the ton for your coal- Tell me, where does it come from?

What do you mean don't drink the coal water? It's natural filtered isn't it?

I live in Vermont. I can pay that price or I can pay $309 for bulk delivered and not know the quality until I have a couple tons of it.

You guys that buy it for under $200.00 are getting a heck of a deal in my book. I wish I lived closer to the mines when it comes time to buy my heat for the winter.

Just buy 24 tons...
Should get the price down to $200-$220 ton...

Cabinover,
Yes, transportation does cost a lot, especially with liquid fuel prices going up. So, we're not really getting a "deal" per se, but you, rather, have a higher price factor. I live 15 miles from the source, you live 250 -350 miles from the source. BTW, my sister lives in Sunderland, VT outside of East Arlington. But, look on the bright side, I'll bet you can buy VT maple syrup at a lower price than me!

Last I picked it up from the breaker they deducted so much for water. So my truck was loaded to a certain ton, but I was charged for less than that.

I think in the long run, I would rather pay a few bucks for a little water than get a lot of fines for free.

coaledsweat wrote:I think in the long run, I would rather pay a few bucks for a little water than get a lot of fines for free.

That really applies to the the larger sizes, at Hudson it goes into giant hopper. The coal goes over a screen which has water jets on it. All the fines and dirt goes through the screen and you get some decently clean coal.

They don't use the hoppers in the winter because of freezing, so it's right off the pile into the truck. It is coming out of the breaker wet and perfectly clean but all that moving it around and falling off the end of the chutes produces dirt. When I was delivering I'd let the loader guy know when I was coming in for nut so he could save me the nice clean stuff off the edge of the pile.

coaledsweat wrote:I think in the long run, I would rather pay a few bucks for a little water than get a lot of fines for free.

I think you are probably getting both. While I don't have data on it(yet), I also think our coal(rice users) has more water than we suppose.

CapeCoaler wrote:Just buy 24 tons...
Should get the price down to $200-$220 ton...

But you have to add another 30-40 for delivery...
(at least to here)

Coal is $140-$160 at the breaker...
Trucking should not add more than $60 ton even to your part of New Hamster...

It would be nice to grab a bulk load but I really don't have the $5G to spare, nor the place at the moment for the load. Maybe next year.

thornhurstian, I'd bet you can buy Maple Syrup darned near as cheap as I can. There isn't much markup in it. That's fine with me though since we don't use it. One of those things that if you didn't grow up with it you don't like it much.