Combustioneer Model # 77B

Hi,
I just bought a used stoker Combustioneer m/n 77B for $100.00. I have some paperwork on it but I do not have any info. on the type of coal to use. I figure on either bituminous or anthracite coal , I really don't understand the reason for using one or the other. Also, since I am planning on putting this in my basement, I need to know anything as far as safety issues other than common sense. I would like help in setting up my barometric dampner too. I had to put a 6 inch pipe in my chimney as a liner and it ended up being aprox. 20 feet long including the 2.5 foot chimney rise and the 1.5 foot rise above the top of the chimney. I do have a cap over it. I can feel the air being pulled up the pipe when I placed my hand over it at the bottom. The furnace will be with in 4 feet of the chimney connection. I plan on firing it up out side the house with a aprox 6 foot pipe just to make sure there are no leaks and that it operates ok knowing that the thermostat will not work correctly because of the outside cold.
I live in East Tn and the local coal supplier said he had some hard stoker #5 coal. What does that compare to?

Thanks,
coalman44

It will burn either bituminous or anthracite coal. Good bituminous coal produces more heat with less ash and costs less money than anthracite. Why did you insert a 6" liner in your chimney? it may have been unnecessary and will fail very quickly collapsing and possibly blocking the flue. If it's a masonry chimney, i'd lose the cap, it is unnecessary. Set the baro on .04, a manometer is nice, but it's not necessary, set it at .04 on the baro and you'll be fine. It is a good heater but a bit inefficient the way it was manufactured. ideally, you plumb it into your ductwork like an "add-on" furnace and put a large squirrel cage fan on in place of the small heat circulating fan currently on it. I highly reccomend a "magic heat" reclaimer on the connector pipe of these units as the small heat exchanger leads to high stack temps - and with coal there's no problem cooling the stack gasses quite a bit, there's no creosote.

"Stoker coal" is generally a screened bituminous coal. be sure the top size is ABSOLUTELY no more than 1-1/4". what you may need to look for if the coal you called about is too large is what is known as "pea" or "undersize" bituminous stoker coal.

M y chimney is brick with no liner. I put the 6 inch pipe in to act as a liner. Each piece is put together with bolts so it shouldn't come apart. The cap is on the 6 inch pipe aprox. 6 inches above the end of the pipe. What do you mean when you say the heater is inefficient the way it was manufactured?

Thanks,
coalman44

Coal flue gases are very corrosive to steel, stainless included, but any light gauge non-stainless flue pipe will rust out after a season or two collapsing and causing a potentially dangerous situation. If your brick chimney is sound, and you have no wood-burning appliance attatched to the same flue, any steel liner is unnecessary and will likely lead to a more dangerous situation in a short amount of time. A liner gives an extra barrier to creosote penetration of the mortar joints and adds another layer of protection to contain a chimney fire - this does not apply to coal as coal produces no flammable or tarry creosote, only powdery soot and flyash.

The stoker is somewhat innefficient as manufactured because it has a small heat exchanger for the btu output. To solve this a much larger fan to blow air over the heat exchanger faster to remove more heat is best, such as a large "furnace blower" or squirrel cage type fan fitted where the small heat exchanger fan is located from the factory. Even with a larger fan fitted to the main heat exchanger, your stack temps (burning decent btu coal and even on the lowest feed rate) will exceed 450ºF. To solve this problem, I highly reccomend a "magic heat" type flue heat exchanger be located on the flue shortly after it exits the stove and hardwired into the fan/limit control switch on the appliance (don't use the "magic heat's" built in thermostat to control the flue heat exchanger fan if you choose to purchase one).

Thanks again for the info. I didn't realize how corrosive the gases would be. I'll have to rethink my situation. The main reason I put the liner in is because I didn't want any gases getting through some crack I didn't know about. My chimney seems to be in good shape though. I'm not going to burn wood because I've had 2 or 3 chimney fires some years ago in a pipe liner when I used to burn wood on my main floor and I do not want to go through that again. I got them out, but it was scary. Also I have about a 12 -15 inch stove fan (2 speed) that mounts to the back under the flu pipe outlet.
Any other bits of wisdom would be appreciated also.
Thanks,
coalman44

Berlin, thanks again for making me rethink my chimney pipe. I took the pipe out today and I hope to use the existing chimney. Can you tell me what I should expect for operating temps inside the chimney?

coalman44