Buckwheat vs rice LL110

So it's that time of year. Looking to secure next years coal supply, and mabey more. Is anyone burning buckwheat in their boiler. Does anyone have a comparison vs rice? I'd like to try some buck, but don't want a 10 ton mistake.

Your LL 110 will and is designed to burn both Rice and Buckwheat sized coal. The manual clearly states that, as does Keystoker. you can stock up with buck or rice, and I'd suggest an early purchase this season. The only adjustment would be air, but you know the deal on that front: bigger usually means slightly more, smaller less. That is just a general rule. Buck is usually less per ton....save where you can....

I know I can burn buck, but should I? I wasn't very happy with the 5 tons of Blashak rice I bought. It was all soaked, on average 3 lbs per bag of water as well as all the little pieces of slate. Of the 5 tons I bought, I think I got at most 9,000 lbs after all the water dried up and probably less taking the little rocks into account. Well enough of my rant, I don't know if it was the rice or tha Blashak, but I want to try something else. Hopefully for the better. What can I expect to be different if I change to buck?

I suggest you do a "trial" with buck before commuting to a large order. Smaller stokers with a shallow fire are more sensitive to coal size. Forum member "steamup" said he had to mix some rice in with the buckwheat to make his Keystoker less prone to outfires.

That's kind of what I'm afraid of. No one around here sells buck, so I would be locked in to a large order.

BUck will work fine in your boiler. The only real downside is you will see more overshoot after a high fire cycle. In my situation running in series with the oil boiler that is a non issue, however if you are on the edge of hitting your dump zone you may want to stay with rice. I think really it comes down to personal preference. I like thge fact that buckwheat has much less in the way of fines which equalls a cleaner basement in my case.