WV Bit vs. PA Blaschak Anthracite in a WM stove

I must say, another positive to the WV bituminous is the easier shake down. I shake the grate just a few time and I see red. With the anthracite I feel like I'm shaking for a minute before I get to any red coal.

Also for you coal burning vets, maybe you can answer this one:
When I burned the bit, the entire stove was hot except for the pedals tool it stands on and it had very low flue temps around 180-200 and the stove would sit at 500 steady. The anthracite only gets 5/8 of the stove hot and the flue temps are closer related to the stove temps. It also took way less air to keep the bit hot but a lot more air in comparison to keep the anthracite at the same temps. What's going on with all that?

Smokeyja wrote:I must say, another positive to the WV bituminous is the easier shake down. I shake the grate just a few time and I see red. With the anthracite I feel like I'm shaking for a minute before I get to any red coal.

Also for you coal burning vets, maybe you can answer this one:
When I burned the bit, the entire stove was hot except for the pedals tool it stands on and it had very low flue temps around 180-200 and the stove would sit at 500 steady. The anthracite only gets 5/8 of the stove hot and the flue temps are closer related to the stove temps. It also took way less air to keep the bit hot but a lot more air in comparison to keep the anthracite at the same temps. What's going on with all that?

Your WM stove was designed for bit.

SteveZee wrote:

Smokeyja wrote:I must say, another positive to the WV bituminous is the easier shake down. I shake the grate just a few time and I see red. With the anthracite I feel like I'm shaking for a minute before I get to any red coal.

Also for you coal burning vets, maybe you can answer this one:
When I burned the bit, the entire stove was hot except for the pedals tool it stands on and it had very low flue temps around 180-200 and the stove would sit at 500 steady. The anthracite only gets 5/8 of the stove hot and the flue temps are closer related to the stove temps. It also took way less air to keep the bit hot but a lot more air in comparison to keep the anthracite at the same temps. What's going on with all that?

Your WM stove was designed for bit.

I know that Steve but the only real addition to the stove that they created was the 4 flues in the firebrick, burning the volatiles in the bit quicker.
Otherwise the WM doesn't have any other amazing features to burn better with bit.
I guess anthracite being a harder coal gives me harder ash...
With the anthracite I get small clinkers and shale looking bits but with the WV bit I didn't have a single clinker or any of the shale looking pieces. It was a consistant fine ash and very soft.

wow. Never realized Bit was almost twice the cost of Anthracite. Always figured it was cheaper since power plants burn it. Funny how one can make false conclusions.

This makes me doubly glad I burn Anthracite. Saving even more money! YEAH!

Vin.

uh... vin, bit coal is usually less $$ than anthracite, in smokey's case he's buying bagged coal from a specific supplier that happens to charge more for the particular bagged product.

Smokey, I've had many people switch from a good brand of anthracite to a good bit coal (especially eastern KY lump) when they've had a good setup (appliance, stack etc.) and taken the time to learn to fire it properly, usually after about 3 days of use people will decide they want to make the switch. Not everyone, but a majority of the people who can be bothered to try it in the WNY area do (which isn't many nonetheless). It's not for everyone, even a good eastern KY coal requires an appropriate setup, may produce some smell outside depending on chimney height etc, and will produce some visible smoke outside especially just after re-load.


(Smokey if you really want to try some of eastern KY's finest, I'll ship you 50lbs or so, you just pay the shipping)

Berlin wrote:uh... vin, bit coal is usually less $$ than anthracite, in smokey's case he's buying bagged coal from a specific supplier that happens to charge more for the particular bagged product.

Smokey, I've had many people switch from a good brand of anthracite to a good bit coal (especially eastern KY lump) when they've had a good setup (appliance, stack etc.) and taken the time to learn to fire it properly, usually after about 3 days of use people will decide they want to make the switch. Not everyone, but a majority of the people who can be bothered to try it in the WNY area do (which isn't many nonetheless). It's not for everyone, even a good eastern KY coal requires an appropriate setup, may produce some smell outside depending on chimney height etc, and will produce some visible smoke outside especially just after re-load.


(Smokey if you really want to try some of eastern KY's finest, I'll ship you 50lbs or so, you just pay the shipping)

That's awful nice of you! PM sent

Vinmaker wrote:wow. Never realized Bit was almost twice the cost of Anthracite. Always figured it was cheaper since power plants burn it. Funny how one can make false conclusions.

This makes me doubly glad I burn Anthracite. Saving even more money! YEAH!

Vin.

Vin - the bit from this supplier is cheaper /lbs bulk. He offers bagged to people in the city who have old coal fireplaces and enjoy a coal fire once and awhile. The only reason I bought two bags was to try it out. He said it was good stuff and he right. I have no other bit than the old power plant bit to compare it too but already I am thinking of making the cross over to bit . I have plenty of anthracite so I have time to learn more about it.
What Berlin is offering ( the Kentucky lump) will help me rate this WV stuff as well. After hearing all the rave about Kentucky coal I've been aching to burn it. I just did a quick search for suppliers in KY but hadn't contacted anyone the other day.

You also will get more BTUs out of a good bit than Anthracite which = more heat for you money making it ben cheaper to burn. I use more anthracite than I did bit, when I tired it, to achieve the same heat output. It also produced a lot less ash than the anthracite.

As you can see most of this thread is me arguing with myself about which is better. Sometimes I jump to conclusions to soon and the more I thought about it the bit did a hell of a job.

Ok so I found a new turn in this debate with myself between the bit and anthracite I've been burning. I came home today after 9 hours at work and found that my fire had died... What happened I thought , I did everything right. So I tried dumping the contents but the fork was jammed in the grate. Finally I was able to get the fork out and I found this:




Clinkers! And I know its not from the blaschak. I never stopped burning from the point when I started with the 42lbs of bit. I thought it was super low ash... Well I see why there was low ash. It ended up clinkers in the bottom of my stove. The anthracite that I burned on top kept building up on the clinkers when it was burned to ash and finally te fire choked, even though I poked it every time. I was amazing of how much trash was in the stove after that short burn of bit. Blaschak anthracite takes the lead again. An experience well learned!

Interesting Smoky,

I'd keep at it a "bit" (pun intended and make the comparisons. I feel like there are pluses and minus for both but I am interested to see what works out for you. Cost versus output versus ash, versus smoke/smell, etc...

SteveZee wrote:Interesting Smoky,

I'd keep at it a "bit" (pun intended and make the comparisons. I feel like there are pluses and minus for both but I am interested to see what works out for you. Cost versus output versus ash, versus smoke/smell, etc...

I will continue to try out different coals but after cleaning the stove and starting an anthracite fire quickly this time (a lot of practice in the past month) and when I woke up this morning to find a perfect fire not choked even the least bit by ash, well that was an awesome feeling. I am 100% happy with the blashak anthracite, I just find it interesting and fun to try out other coals. Others have the experience over time and I guess I am catching up.

I was fortunate to buy some of the best anthracite as my first real coal stove experience.
I will keep posting about te different things I try but I have come to the conclusion that the WV Bit that is readily available in my area isn't worth the cost, to me that is, at this moment. If I were to buy bulk it would be a penny/lbs cheaper than what I paid for 2400lbs of blaschak which came to $0.16/lbs and if I were to buy ben more blaschak at one time the price would most likely drop even lower. I am planning on building a large coal shed to put bulk in soon but until then I can't really get any large truck loads. I am in the process of contacting other coal dealers to see what else is out there. As for now I'm staying warm with this great anthracite.

I still agree that the WV bit seems to have a higher BTU/lbs but you gain that at a cost:
Smelly coal that smells in your house as well as out (while loading you will smell it inside and here is a video to show the smoke:

http://youtu.be/ydoiJs7lN1I?hd=1

I will continue to post more videos on the different coals. Here is blaschak burning in the WM:

http://youtu.be/xXBT5X5fbas?hd=1

http://youtu.be/iohFTG1jCRw?hd=1



So conclusion to the blaschak vs the wv stuff here in Richmond is the blaschak wins by quite a "bit" haha

I must make a correction to this thread. The bituminous may have had clinkers but I can't say for sure. After cleaning the anthracite only yesterday I found a decent amount of clinkers from the Blaschak. I'm not sure hats causing it for sure, maybe the WM doesn't burn the anthracite the best you can but I still like it better. I will give bit another chance sometime but will need to find a cheaper source. Because its close I may get a ton of it for the coal forge anyways. I just thought it was only fair to keep the post as unbiased as I can with comparing coals that I burn.

I am running 2 Warm Morning 523 100 lb capacity and I have found that the one with bad flues holds fire longer than the one with good flue bricks. The depth of the fire box is about 18 inchs. I have had no problems with clinkers in either one. Maybe the flue bricks would be better of plugged up when burning anthracite. Thoughts?

coalturkey wrote:I am running 2 Warm Morning 523 100 lb capacity and I have found that the one with bad flues holds fire longer than the one with good flue bricks. The depth of the fire box is about 18 inchs. I have had no problems with clinkers in either one. Maybe the flue bricks would be better of plugged up when burning anthracite. Thoughts?

I find that the stove will build up ash around the sides and will keep building until the fire will no longer hold 12 hours. I get about a week out of it before the burn times really suck. I poke the coals all around the fire box and I shake the ash as well as I can but it still does it and it will get to a point where I will burn it out, clean it all out , and then build a new fire. The way the WM is built, it seems it will always build up on the sides in a cone shape. Maybe the Flue idea is something worth trying. I need to do a weeks worth of burning on some Bit coal to really see how it performs.

As I recall you were firing it pretty hard. Try going to an 8 hour shake time and see if it is easier to get all the ash out.

franco b wrote:As I recall you were firing it pretty hard. Try going to an 8 hour shake time and see if it is easier to get all the ash out.

Well I had forgot to update the thread after you posted but going to an 8 hour shake just wasn't in the works for me because of the overtime I pull at work. I did however finally figure out how to successfully keep the stove burning 12+ hrs and air to the fire. It is a bit of a hassle but its less of a hassle than shutting the stove down. I open the mpd, open the bottom air control, shake until I see some hot coals drop then I take a 1/4 round rod that I bent up almost 90degrees at the end and I clear the grate holes 100% I also shove the rod up into the bottom of the flue area in the fire brick and release the ash from there. I then poke from the top and repeat those steps again and then I refill. It works very well! I am also using more anthracite than I thought I would and I am wondering if the supplier of the Blaschak will have any nut left for me. It looks like I have just about a month left of nut and 2 weeks of stove. I may just get a load of bit delivered if I can't get the Blaschak .

Hi Smokeyja.I like Blaschak I think it's very good but I just finished a ton of UAE and what a difference I had to cut the air back to maintain the stove temp with the Harmony it was so free burning and easy to load I would reload the stove with 35# to 45# (15 min time frame)and the temp would not drop more then 50* or 60* it just took right off and the ash(red) was around 10% I was playing the try some new coal game but it's UAE or Balschak from now on. not sure if it's Available down there or not but if you can get some try it.Keepaeyeonit