Lighting nut coal

Here is a pic of that fire tonight after running at about 2/3 open on the spinner since this morning. I have not tended it yet. You can see from the firebrick on the side it has dropped the coal bed about 4 inches through the day.

It was warm enough here today (and since the oven was on in the kitchen for dinner tonight) that the temp in the LR held at 73*. I'll shake down and load up before bed tonight, I am guessing it will take about 30lbs, but I'll update after I'm done with a better guestimate (it took about 35lbs). Since there is no sleepover tonight I won't run it as hot and the temp will probably drop to around 68 by morning.

Just for comparison sake, A couple of those real cold windy days last week I had the spinner open about 1-1/2 turns and would have been refilling with about 40 lbs at about the 10 hour mark so I wouldn't have the big temp swing.

By page 16...
Converted to coal...

CapeCoaler wrote:By page 16...
Converted to coal...

Page 18...

" Working in a Coal Mine"

It seems to me, from my experience, that the quality of the coal, or more precisely, the bagging and handling process has a large effect on layering when reloading. You said you were using Blaschak I thought, and there is not a lot of fine material in the bag with that coal, so the layers can be thicker and fewer. The stuff I get from Elligson (local supplier) is about the same with very little fines. One of the first things I bought though this year was a skid of Reading coal, what a mistake. Now I know quality can very from year to year, but this stuff has a tremendous about of fines, moisture, and trash (actual wood chips atleast 3-5 per bag) in it. I have even tried siffting them out, and this has been a tremendous help (do what you have to, to get through the junk, will never buy again). Point here is that if I load this stuff in less then 4 lifts, the fines will actually smoother the fire, I know I did it twice till I figured out what the problem was. If it is layered though, 4 lifts, the fines light very easily and are gone by the time I get to the next lift 10-13 minutes. Bottom line, cleaner coal can be done in less lifts, and trashier stuff like the Reading nut that I have has to be done in more lifts, just depends some what on what you have to work with.

It seems to me, from my experience, that the quality of the coal, or more precisely, the bagging and handling process has a large effect on layering when reloading.

No, it's just the quality of the coal, that's all. A processor can take the worst refuse coal and process it perfectly and bag it, it will still be lousy coal.

My point there about the bagging and handling process is, the more they are handled the more breaks up inside and more fines. I was trying to giving Reading a little credit, even though it may not be due. Generally speaking the more the bags are handled the more fines they will have.

My friends! Happy new year to all of ya, and may it be a warm and prosperous one.

Dan and Ashcat, your last posts were great and cleared up that confusion, cheers. And yes Ashcat, the rename is appropriate as I've had that same bed going since Thursday, no relights!

Titleist, thanks! Great blow by blow and I get it now, all clear and makes perfect sense.

So I did swing a few more bags Friday, as relighting is not attractive and I was more keen on seeing its consumption through a warmer time, so let's see where I left off. Was loaded full Thurs, Impressed Friday morn at 1.5 turns overnight, added last few coals, planning to let it die out...

Friday afternoon reloaded full about 130PM, about 35 pounds did it. I then went to 1 turn. (new low) This slowed it down indeed. Since I wouldn't be up at 2 or 3 am I used the last 5 or so pounds from that bag by bedtime. I've also moved thermometer to stove side near top. 1 turn kept it about 400-450, nice. Well I was up at 3 and 4 am but didn't go down to mess with it, instead getting to it at about 8:30AM, 19 hrs after last real load. Warm day ahead, I was iffy on letting it die or reloading. I decided I'd consume less by leaving it lit as it's 2 bags from scratch, seems that was the right call. Full load, the last page's posts cut load time to about 20 minute total time. Full bag did it. Went to 3/4 turn. (newer low) Brought it to about 325-350ish all day. Last night added about 15 pounds after shakedown, that's it. Today stoked up, shook down, 25-30 pounds added to top it full, still at 3/4 turn and will open it up gradually as the temp drops.

So only 12 pages to convert me as I was pretty convinced by my "Impressive!" post. Thanks to all who worked so persistently. God Bless the board for existing, I don't know how people get this without this help. This is what I read before coming here in seeking just ignition advice, this was my reference to obtain to success with coal, lol. You can see a newbie reading this would have a lot of wrong info to overcome, including never expecting beds are filled to that top of the back bricks!
http://www.ehow.com/how_6234352_burn-coal-stove.html

I do like the coal mine career idea though. If anyone knows of an opening sure, why not, I'm in!

PS. Ashcat, my only remaining question is on your strong fire throughout the fire box comment. It seems to me the coals in the front will always be gone after 'X' hrs, based on spinner setting, as it's just not as deep there. (3"-4" inches to say 9") . I have a solid bed across the whole box a few inches back, but the shallow coals in front are always poke-able ash by heavy reload time. Please let me know if you agree there or if you see a flaw.

coldcoal, OUTSTANDING my young friend. I'm sure titleist,ashcat or dan will get to you on the final fine tuning if there is any--too many chiefs & not enough Indians

Thanks Fred, you were instrumental in the novella that is this thread as well!

Peace!

The Harman Mark's always have an issue with front ashing up...
Just the nature of the beast...
Glad you stuck it out and now have 'seen the light'...
Some new bricks and gasket will tighten up that stove...
A baro will help on the strong draft...
Always some tweeking to be done in coal burning...

CapeCoaler wrote:The Harman Mark's always have an issue with front ashing up...
Just the nature of the beast......

It's funny.
My 'brother' has two Harman TOP flue stoves,
and neither ever had that problem at all.
He has had them for over 25 years... and never had to 'poke' at the front row..
They are always just as bright as the rest.
My rear flue, is just like all the others... you need to poke it often.

Coldcoal, glad to see that you are getting better burn times. The more you burn the more you learn.

coldcoal wrote:PS. Ashcat, my only remaining question is on your strong fire throughout the fire box comment. It seems to me the coals in the front will always be gone after 'X' hrs, based on spinner setting, as it's just not as deep there. (3"-4" inches to say 9") . I have a solid bed across the whole box a few inches back, but the shallow coals in front are always poke-able ash by heavy reload time. Please let me know if you agree there or if you see a flaw.

Yes I have this issue as well in my Hitzer. The extreme edges of the floor of the firebox, all the way around, is the frame that holds the grates, and ash does tend to get hung up there. As you say, this is more pronounced in the front of the box where less coal is laid each reload, because you're sloping back-to-front, and therefore loading less coal there.

Every three or four reloads, I use a poker to poke and "lift" the bed in that front area (and sometimes in the back corners as well, since ash seems to hang up there too), which eliminates that collection of ash, then reload. This allows once again having active fire in the whole coalbed, even after the next couple shakedowns.

Well done on the continuous burn! You seem to have mastered the second major step (the first step being establishing a healthy coalbed at the start) of the learning curve, which is the tendency not to shake down enough ash, which tends to lead to a lazy or choked fire about 48-72 hours into the process. Shaking down adequately (I shake until I see an orange glow in the ashpan under each grate) prevents a build-up of ash that could choke the fire.

You're obviously also seeing that, once you have a healthy bed, you don't go thru alot of coal maintaining it. Much more expense with re-lighting frequently, as opposed to maintaining.

Yeah, front will always ash up first because it's the shallowest coal bed. If you piled it up as high as the back, you'd never get the load door closed. Sides will ash up after the front does.