Washing Coal at Home Before Use?

SMITTY · Post by **SMITTY** » Mon. Dec. 26, 2011 6:47 pm

Yeah Inga loves her coal.

Just don't get the coal too wet. Water & coal make rust pretty fast ....

009to090 · Post by **009to090** » Mon. Dec. 26, 2011 7:59 pm

SMITTY wrote: Just don't get the coal too wet. Water & coal make rust pretty fast ....

I'll reword that,....
Water and coal make HOPPERS rust really fast.

Keepaeyeonit · Post by **Keepaeyeonit** » Mon. Dec. 26, 2011 8:50 pm

Diana,I sprayed my coal last with water and I still had black dust in the house

(not much but I still got some)this year I put the coal in 5 gal buckets(bulk and bagged) and spray it with canola oil and let it sit for a week before filling my indoor bin(it holds 380#)and I have no black dust this year at all

so that working for me right now.keepaeyeonit

Berlin · Post by **Berlin** » Mon. Dec. 26, 2011 10:51 pm

I really wouldn't recommend vegetable oil of any variety. It can go rancid, get tacky and cause a number of problems with your stove and your coal. A few people may have gotten lucky, but it's not worth the risk when there are FAR better options out there readily available.

A light to medium mineral oil will be best. mineral oil is available in gallon juggs at tractor supply for under $15/gallon. A 0 or 5 weight motor oil or light hydraulic oil also will work very well. I've refined my approaches over the years and about a half-gallon per ton seems to work best for my pea sized stoker coal.

Keepaeyeonit · Post by **Keepaeyeonit** » Tue. Dec. 27, 2011 7:40 pm

Hi Berlin,I have heard that veg oil can go rancid but the coal I oil only lasts no more then 2 weeks but I'm going to use mineral oil once my sprayer is empty,I used motor oil the first time I filled my bin and the house smelled like a quick lube shop fixed one problem and created another (made the wife

). Keepaeyeonit

coconut56 · Post by **coconut56** » Sat. Dec. 31, 2011 8:36 am

I have a Hitzer with a hopper , I just pour the coal in as slowly as possible. Before I would just dump the coal in and was getting the coal dust all over , doing it very slowly cuts down on the dust quite a bit. Still a lot cleaner than burning wood as far as I am concerned. No more splinters in my socks anymore.