HotBlast 1500 coal burning newbee help

Hello
I have purchased a USSC HotBlast 1500 furnace. I started burning wood in it and it worked great. I have switched to Anthracite and had very poor performance. I am heating 2500 sq ft, with 16 ft ceiling in center. I purchased the draft blower and have installed it with a thermostat. It is wired correctly and works as it should. I have left the ash door open, closed, open and closed the draft nob, have kept the thermostat setting on the feed door fully open, and closed with ash door in both positions. I can get a decent bed of coal but just dosent put out the heat as good as a wood fire. I have opened and closed the draft dampening shield on the new draft blower, adjustment have seen little change. When running wood I have great draft catches and screams the heat. Please send any suggestions, I am hoping to burn coal and hoping it is something I am doing incorrectly that will get this stove to crank with coal. In addition I am emptying the ash and shakeing it down every 8 - 10 hrs.
Thanks
cmachinetool

Does this furnaces manual specify anthracite or bituminous coal?

in the manual it says I can use either

How full are you filling it with coal? It needs a really deep bed, typically I believe up to the top of the firebricks 6-8" thick.

Hows your draft? how tall of a chimney? What size coal are you using?

Burning stove coal 2 5/16 or larger, My chimney is approx 19ft, I have a bed of coal approx five inches thick, and draft hasn't been a problem (never measured) also have barametric damper in chimney.

hi there ,i had a claton 1600m, similar to your hot blast, made by the same manufacture. i burned nut coal in it for the past 3 yrs, made great heat, i did not use the forced draft blower much, usuallyjust kept that flap shut, had my spinner on the ash pan door,open aprox 3 full spins, would have my coal loaded to top of fire brick and mounded in the center, shook down every 10 -12 hrs, i did not hook up the thermostat that come with it, when i shook down i would leave ash door open for a few mins to let trhe new coal catch, then it was good, you might have a klinker cloggin your grate ,i had that happen if she ran too hot , take a bent on a 90 piece of rebar and rake through your coal bed, to look for klinkers, be careful though only do that before you add coal, so you dont get a puff back, and if your fire is marginal rakin through it might put it out, the hot blast will burn coal just needs to be tweaked just right ,, youll figure it out, i had trouble too in the begging, there are some memebers here who have the hot blast and burn coal efffectivly, good luck, tommy

Thank you for your input,I will try your suggestions. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my post, actually that goes for everybody that has answered my call for help, I greatly appreciate the suggestions.
I have implemented a few as of today and they have made a sinificant difference already. I have kept the ash door open a little, closed the manual thermostat on the feed door, and have increased the depth of the coal bed gradually all day. I think it is my lack of experience with coal, and the instant heat wood puts out that has me a little stumped.

hi there i forgot to add in that it needs to be 50 deg. or colder in order to get proper draft up your chiney,, when it got warm my clayton did not perform as well as when it was cold.

Another great point, it was rather warm, above fifty, and I didn't realize it would make a difference on my draft. I am in Massachusetts and we really don't see good continious cold until mid december.

cmachinetool wrote: When running wood I have great draft catches and screams the heat.

Do you have a barometric damper on your stovepipe? If not, your heat and coal are probably going up the chimney. You shouldn't need to shake every 8 hours in this weather.

Yes, I have discovered that, I am new at using coal and learning as I go. I am sure the 10- 12 hr shake down wil be just fine. I do use a barometric draft dampener, it works well. I have a unit that just dials in to the pipe size, but am going to invest the thirty dollars for a tester.
I have been burning wood for years and did not realize the differences between coal and wood were so great. I am looking forward to coal because I just don't have the time for wood anymore, and I am tired of carying it. On a heavy year I have torched 13-16 cord. I am done with that, I will use some hard wood for this stove obviously for lighting and relighting purposes but for the most part unless necessary I am done with burning large quantities of wood.

In addition I am just about to purchase a coal stove for the house, any suggestions??

Eight days since my last post. I am patient but this is getting a bit much. I have implemented each of the suggestions on this page, and still have little luck burning coal. All day yesterday I put in a layer of hardwood chips and a layer of coal left the ash door open to catch and fire up the bed, by the evening it was still marginal and fading. Temp has been in the mid forties in the day and thirties at night. Closed the damper on the thermostat on the feed door, closed the ash door leaving draft adjustment nob open and woke up to a coal bed that was barley warm. I have ordered a cord of wood, and will burn with coal but this is not what I planned on.

I have installed the draft kit with thermostat, and have experimented with this also by opening and closing the damper slide on the side of the little blower intake. Maximizing / Minimizing the fresh air into the chamber. If I leave the blower damper open it seeems to add so much air that I end up with negative pressure in the chamber and the bed dies out, shouldn't this be on the other end of the stove mounted on the ash door and blow across the bottom of the bed of coals?? I did my reasearch and this was supposed to be a good furnace, disapointed but have not given up yet?

You might want to give bituminous lump coal a shot.

Welcome to the Forum
At the very top of the page is a new message/mail link. I sent you a message.
Charles

Welcome to the forum, I missed seeing this thread until this morning.
Below is a thread detailing what some have done to get their similar hot blast units running anthracite. More draft via a second hole or a draft fan seem to be common. My neighbor has one and needed the fan mounted on the ash door to get his to work well with anthracite.


US Stove Hot Blast Furnace Problems