Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Wiley · By: **Wiley** On: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:08 am

Has anyone tried Ben Hal Mining's coal out in a hand fed? I just got a price from them of $60 a ton for ROM, they don't size their coal. The lady on the phone said a lot of folks around the area use it in outdoor woodboilers without a complaint, and that it's fairly clean with limited fines. It was mentioned in a post last year, but no one had tried it.

This was posted by Paul N last year for an analysis.

As received

9-23-10 10-01-10 10-21-10 10-29-10

Moisture 5.05 7.74 6.34 7.25

Ash 9.99 11.72 8.96 8.28

Sulfur 3.71 4.73 3.33 2.68

BTU 12,691 12028 12701 12672

lumpocoal · By: **lumpocoal** On: Tue Jan 03, 2012 7:56 pm

Im burnin it in my stove rite now. If your house is well insulated, it will most likely last longer than it dose for me. I empty my ash pan every day, I have a HITZER 55 so ash pan is about 5" deep

Wiley · By: **Wiley** On: Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:32 pm

Hi Lumpocoal. Thanks. Can you tell me if there is a lot of fines to it and if it clinkers much for you? I was thinking of running up in the next week or so to get a ton to try out myself. Do you think it's worth burning? Our old house is poorly insulated too, but the wood stove takes a good bit of the load.

lumpocoal · By: **lumpocoal** On: Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:50 pm

It would definatly be worth it. I mean, there are fines but you also get some nice lumps mixed w it too. My stove handles clinkers pretty well (my grates twist and not the slide type) though I dont seem to get alot of them, but occasionaly I get some shale in it. They must hit some shale in the vane they are mining from if you can I would also get a few bags of lumps they sell too and keeep those to mix w the fines. I dont go to the yard and get it, a small trucking co has it in his yard about 3 mi away from me so I just take my trailer and go up and get some, or in a pinch he delivers it to me. I will take a pic and post in a while of my ashes, I havent noticed any iron in this load, just a few small rocks here and there but that could be from the truck it was hauld up here with.
Don

Berlin · By: **Berlin** On: Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:58 pm

Any unwashed coal but especially unsized ROM will have some rocks and shale in it. For $65/ton it doesn't sound too bad and the specs don't look terrible either, with high organic sulfur and mid pyritic sulfur it won't clinker too easily unless it's fired real hard. The BTU's are comparable to anthracite and the ash #'s are pretty decent. The unfortunate thing is being ROM, you have to deal with all the fines. If they let you hand-pick and you could go spend an hour or so loading up with all the large lumps that would be worth it for the price and then you wouldn't have to deal with the fines.

lumpocoal · By: **lumpocoal** On: Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:09 pm

My old stofe seemed to play heck with this coal, it was a wondercoal with a sliding grate, it would make the iron abstract shapes "clinkers" but my hitzer 55 has 2 big rocking grates and it loves this stuff, each grate has a peg wich you engage w a handle so if there is anything in ther it chews it up, but for $/ton I would put up w anything, I heat this brick for about 300-450 a heating season, deff couldnt do that w propane! lol

lumpocoal · By: **lumpocoal** On: Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:21 pm

I imagine that alot has to depend on your set up. If ya wanna just try it I would guess if you took some buckets or totes with you they would prolly sell you some that way to ry it out before ya go buyin it by the ton, thats what I did when I wanted to get away from wood. I went to they guys yard up here, and asked him if I could get 2 5 gal buckets of it to try it, atleast in your situation if ya like it, you can always get more, Id call em and ask if you could buy it by 50 or 100 lbs worth to try it out. And if ya like it and it works, you got to go on a scenic drive that was productive, if not ya went on a scenic drive lol, but I would deff try it out that way before purchasing a ton or so. just my 9 cents worth.

Don

lumpocoal · By: **lumpocoal** On: Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:24 pm

Berlin wrote:Any unwashed coal but especially unsized ROM will have some rocks and shale in it. For $65/ton it doesn't sound too bad and the specs don't look terrible either, with high organic sulfur and mid pyritic sulfur it won't clinker too easily unless it's fired real hard. The BTU's are comparable to anthracite and the ash #'s are pretty decent. The unfortunate thing is being ROM, you have to deal with all the fines. If they let you hand-pick and you could go spend an hour or so loading up with all the large lumps that would be worth it for the price and then you wouldn't have to deal with the fines.

they sell bagged lumps in burlap too down there, they usualy run an ad in a free paper for it by the ton and bagged lumps I will see if I can find the ad n post it

lumpocoal · By: **lumpocoal** On: Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:36 pm

here is the ad, there is the # and address

Yanche · By: **Yanche** On: Wed Jan 04, 2012 11:43 am

Google maps, satellite view on 2570 Clintonville Rd Harrisville, PA 16038 shows some kind on mining going on there and in the general area. You can see coal piles.

lumpocoal · By: **lumpocoal** On: Wed Jan 04, 2012 11:49 am

Yanche wrote:Google maps, satellite view on 2570 Clintonville Rd Harrisville, PA 16038 shows some kind on mining going on there and in the general area. You can see coal piles.

I used to haul limestone out of there, they used to sell 2A limestone and they sell coal lol, Its been about 4years since i been there.

Wiley · By: **Wiley** On: Fri Jan 06, 2012 9:04 am

Thank you for all the info. I'm going to give them a ring this morning and see if I stop up if they will allow me to hand pick a ton or so. It's pretty close to the house, so if they allow me to hand pick, it wouldn't be too inconvenient to run up once a month and grab a load. I can't beat the price and proximity.

Paul N · By: **Paul N** On: Tue Mar 12, 2013 3:17 pm

I called again and what they have now is as follows:

$60/ton
1.8% sulfur
9.8% ash
12,000 btu/lb

I tried to post a picture. This has pretty big lumps in it and should be good for hand firing.

Paul N · By: **Paul N** On: Tue Mar 12, 2013 3:22 pm

Here is another try at the picture.

Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Re: Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Re: Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Re: Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Re: Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Re: Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Re: Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Re: Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Re: Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Re: Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Re: Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Re: Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Re: Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?

Re: Ben Hal Mining Grove City PA, Anyone tried it?