"Real Life" Stove Operation

Having burned 3 different coal stoves over the years now, I know I have developed some bad habits that I hesitate to admitt to . With that in mind, how about an honest thread where you admitt to some shortcuts, marginaly safe procedures & the like that will probably not appear in any "How To Burn Coal Safely" manual!

1. I have always opened the ash door (prior to shaking down or just to quickly increase heat output) & often leave it open for a short time rather than merely open the air intake vents & waiting forever for the fire to liven up! I always carry a cheap kitchen timer with me (set to go off in a matter of 5-10 minutes) to avoid becoming distracted. In over 25 years of doing this I have never forgotten to close the ash door.
2. After the stove has been burning for about a week I have always found it necessary to poke it down a little (from the top) in order to get the coal bed to settle down. I think the problem is called "bridging" but I have found that,unless I do this, the shaker grates will end up shaking down nothing but air! (I also twist the tip of the tool around a little to break up any large clinkers, etc) Maybe it's the coal I have bween using but this system works just fine for me & I rarely lose a fire all winter long.

Anyone else want to enter the confessional?

Amen, I myself wish to confess also that this is the way to do it. With a up in the morning and off to work, there isnt much time to toy with a stove, I open the ash door shack it down till just a few embers show and withen a few minutes after a good flameup,.. its time to add about 15 or 20# with a little jab around the dark coal bed to help ignite the blue dancers. I return in 5-10 min and a good flame is a roarin, A little more shakin then close it up and out the house, the wife wont chk on it till afternoon so I dont worry.

Thanks for being HONEST. Sometime you just have to figure it out thyself.

"Forgive me father for I have sinned"......

Some mornings if the fire has died down considerably, in order to kick start it back up again I will throw a stick or two of firewood on and leave the ash pan door open about an inch while taking the pan outside to dump it. By the time I get back in I can close it up and leave the vent screw open a little wider than usual to keep it going.

Does this get me kicked out of the club??

Having two handfired units I try to keep at least one going all the time, but have found that even the Franco Belge after a couple days needs to be 'let go' and dies out. This routine requires alot of start-ups from cold after a good grate cleanout. Leave the old half burn coal as a bed for the new wood fire.
Now being an expert 'piro', I always use Kero , about a two second squirt onto the kindling and sheet of news paper. Never a problem , and always a good hot fire. Nothings worst then starting a fire and having it smother and having to open the door back up and smoke out the place!
Another tip here. For starter wood , I found that used oak hardwood flooring works great. Cut the pieces into 8 to 10in lengths, avoid the old nails. Split into stick size pieces, I still got all 10 fingers!
I picked up about 800 sq foot of the stuff that was gonna be sent to the dumpster! Stacked up neatly in the back of the gragage. I figure I got a 10 year supplier once processed!

I went to catholic school for 7 years so I know a little bit about confession. Sometimes if the tv remote stops working I rob the batteries out of me co detector. There I said it. Jim

I haven't heard anything too bad here yet, except that robbing the batteries thing...
When starting the stove from scratch I use charcoal. I put it into a large coffee can and douse it with charcoal lighter, dump it in the stove and light it from underneath. It's the same as using Matchlight, only the plain charcoal and the fluid ends up being cheaper.
My confession is that I use a propane torch to light the coal stove as well as the wood stove (use the charcoal to start that too).

Wood'nCoal wrote:I haven't heard anything too bad here yet, except that robbing the batteries thing...
When starting the stove from scratch I use charcoal. I put it into a large coffee can and douse it with charcoal lighter, dump it in the stove and light it from underneath. It's the same as using Matchlight, only the plain charcoal and the fluid ends up being cheaper.
My confession is that I use a propane torch to light the coal stove as well as the wood stove (use the charcoal to start that too).

Hmmm...Never tried using charcoal to start the fire but I'll give it a go next time. (hopefully next winter!)

Charcoal works great, because it burns for a long time and burns hot. I've had wood fires burn out before the coal ignites (usually because I'm using some of that "seasoned" firewood from my hillbilly wood guy).

this is how i taught myself to light my stove. first i do the newspaper thing then i add scrap pine from the local lumber mill. it's all kiln dried scrap and i keep the damper relatively low to the fire "simmers" and i build up the pine till its about 3 inches of coals. then i add a thin layer of coal and close the door and leave it for like 10 minutes then i add a layer on top and open the flue and dampers all the way and let it rip for 10 minutes. once that's done i shut the damper and flue to desired amount and im ready to fill 2 inches at a time then 10 minutes to burn.

bill4117 wrote:this is how i taught myself to light my stove. first i do the newspaper thing then i add scrap pine from the local lumber mill. it's all kiln dried scrap and i keep the damper relatively low to the fire "simmers" and i build up the pine till its about 3 inches of coals. then i add a thin layer of coal and close the door and leave it for like 10 minutes then i add a layer on top and open the flue and dampers all the way and let it rip for 10 minutes. once that's done i shut the damper and flue to desired amount and im ready to fill 2 inches at a time then 10 minutes to burn.

Pretty much the way I do it. (hopefully once a year!) I've gotten pretty good with it to the point that I can clean out a cold dead fire, relight & have a fully filled coal fire going in under an hour! (Used to take me a few hours to just light the coal)

The charcoal trick is great also for saving a fire that you otherwise can see you are losing. Throw in a shovel full on top of whatever coal is still glowing, give it lots of air. Once the charcoal is flaming well I immediately cover it with a least as much coal, keep giving it plenty of air. I DON'T wait to add coal until the charcoal stops flaming. It's my first season burning coal, so I bought about a dozen bags of charcoal not knowing what to expect. I have used just under one bag so far -- once to start the fire a month ago, twice to save it when I waited too long to add new coal. (Hey, I'm still learning....)

Also, no kerosene or match-light, it stinks too much, who wants that stuff in the living room? I bought a bundle of the lowest-grade cedar shingles I could find at Home Depot. Split up the shingles for kindling. Newspaper starts the shingles, shingles start the charcoal, charcoal starts the coal.

rberq wrote:The charcoal trick is great also for saving a fire that you otherwise can see you are losing. Throw in a shovel full on top of whatever coal is still glowing, give it lots of air. Once the charcoal is flaming well I immediately cover it with a least as much coal, keep giving it plenty of air. I DON'T wait to add coal until the charcoal stops flaming. It's my first season burning coal, so I bought about a dozen bags of charcoal not knowing what to expect. I have used just under one bag so far -- once to start the fire a month ago, twice to save it when I waited too long to add new coal. (Hey, I'm still learning....)

You'll be happy you have all those bags of charcoal in 2 months. The supply tends to dry up in the stores over the winter, esp. in places like the Home Depot where it's in the Seasonal dept. Right now all the BBQ stuff has disappeared in favor of Christmas decorations. I can usually find it in the supermarkets, any stock they have us usually out on the shelves. They must think nobody BBQ's in the winter (I do). If I don't see any and I ask if they have it I tell them I use it to light my coal stove (once again I get the look like I suddenly sprouted a third eye in the middle of my forehead), once in a while I ask someone who says "Y know, that's a good idea!".

Back to the confessional: As a member of the "question authority" generation, sometimes I poke and stir my coal fire just because everybody says I must not. It doesn't do the fire any good, but I feel better.

Spoken like a recovering wood burner!

Our stove hasn't been fussy about staying lit, thank goodness. I lite it with small hunks of wood, douse with BBQ fluid. Fast and a bit stinky, but rare. Woof and come back later to load coal.

Depending on the coal (some, mostly pea, 'bridges' up on me), Saturday morning I troll for clinkers, dragging the hook through the coals and pluck out the biggies. Messes up the bed, but doesn't kill it. My wife works at home and I work nearby, so we generally have a good strong bed going. Seems to need it more with pea, than with nut. I probably push the pea too much as we had the vent almost wide open during the past week's cold nights.