Idea for No-Mess Coal Loading

I'm from Wyoming, and burn bituminous coal in a hand-fed stove. A stove dealer in South Dakota had a great idea for loading coal into the stove. He said just load a paper grocery sack with coal, roll the top of the bag shut, and toss the whole thing into the stove. Tried it yesterday and it worked great. Beats trying to dump it into front-load stove from bucket or handling it a shovelful at a time.

So, we now say "paper" when they ask us for "paper or plastic?" at the grocery store.

Also, another dealer in Montana had an idea of how to burn the fines/powder. They just get empty milk cartons (not jugs), open the top, and scoop the fines into the carton. When they throw the carton into the stove, the "waxy" part of the carton holds the fines together. Not sure if it works, but I plan to try it.

Good luck

That's a good idea if the door is big enough.

See this post for another idea: No More Coal Dust!!!

Hello steinke, welcome to the forum. I used a paper bag to burn fines when I was burning bituminous coal in hand fed boiler. I put in enough fines , usually about 2-3" then rolled it up like a log, and added it to the fire.
The problem I found was that the fines stuck together and formed a single mass of coal, it had to be broken up to burn completely. Not a problem if you mess with your Bituminous fire through the day. There wasn't any air spaces for combustion air to get through the lump of fines, so they got soft and gooey and stuck together.

I had a huge door on this boiler, and it took 80# per loading, so I used a shovel most of the time.

How's the weather in Wyoming??

Greg L

Very nice work!! Clean and neat construction. I'm looking forward to the latest 'burn' report.

Greg L

Split topic about other issues here: Bituminous Coal Burning Erratically Because of Fluctuating Temperatures