Burning Bituminous : Round II

A new year, a new stove

Yesterday, I ran to Valier Coal Yard, and picked up some of the "Oversize" or "Lump" coal.




I got back and tossed some of the big lumps into the stove, on top of a bed of UAE Harmony anthracite. It immediately burst into flames.


As I suspected, the DS, set up for burning anthracite, smoked like crazy for an extended period, since there is very little overfire air available. As I had seen while searching this forum, another user had their DS set up with the door from a DS Basement stove. I called DS today and they had the doors in stock. I ran down and picked one up.



I put the door on as soon as I got home, and tossed in some fresh bitty. The new door with the overfire controls is just what the bituminous coal needs. It stops smoking quickly, and instead of smoldering, it burns nicely.



So far, so good. It really cuts down on the thick smoke outside. If anyone has additional commentary on burning bitty though, I'm all ears!

That's the same door I have on my DS 1400.Just make sure those knobs turn in tight against the door.Mine didn't.
The coal you have in your hand is the size I like to burn and bigger.I've been burning coal from Oxford Reclamation out of New Lexington,Ohio.That would be closer to you instead of running down to Ky.The btu on their coal is around 12,000.My 1400 does very well with this coal.

Pulling a coal trailer with a Prius...

Looks good Bro

Rob R. wrote:Pulling a coal trailer with a Prius...

Yeah I laughed too. That's gotta drive the lefties nuts to see coal behind their car of choice!

Well played LD!

SMITTY wrote:

Rob R. wrote:Pulling a coal trailer with a Prius...

Yeah I laughed too. That's gotta drive the lefties nuts to see coal behind their car of choice!

Well played LD!

Hey, give the man credit,he's saving money on fuel and heat

Damn, that is one nice looking stove. I love the loading door.

nice looking stove...great pics too..mr hitzer should do this...i would buy a new door if he did

Rob R. wrote:Pulling a coal trailer with a Prius...

Hey partner, how many tons can ya haul with that?

Since most electricity is still produced from coal, I believe that Rush Limbaugh is correct in stating that electric cars are in effect "coal fired cars".

Can anyone verify if there is a DS Basement Stove door that will also work with the DS1600? I believe these stoves are better looking (in additional to being far more functional) with the over the fire air inlets on the door.

Dennis wrote:

SMITTY wrote:

Rob R. wrote:Pulling a coal trailer with a Prius...

Yeah I laughed too. That's gotta drive the lefties nuts to see coal behind their car of choice!

Well played LD!

Hey, give the man credit,he's saving money on fuel and heat

Well next time I will probably take the 2500HD, and try to borrow a dump trailer. I figured the Prius would be the right size for a test batch
The bed of the 2500HD still has a pretty good load of UAE Harmony anthracite in the bed. I still didn't get my coal bin built!

Lightning wrote:Hey partner, how many tons can ya haul with that?

I can put about 1000 lbs in the trailer, it is the Harbor Freight "heavy duty" folding trailer. That was 600 lbs of coal in the picture, and I don't think I would want to haul much more than that. The little 1.5L was working pretty hard on the ride home! Got 33.2 MPG for the round trip.

lsayre wrote:Can anyone verify if there is a DS Basement Stove door that will also work with the DS1600? I believe these stoves are better looking (in additional to being far more functional) with the over the fire air inlets on the door.

Looking at the stoves in the DS shop yesterday, I would venture to say yes, however it might be worth giving them a call to make sure. (717)768-3853

lsayre wrote:Since most electricity is still produced from coal, I believe that Rush Limbaugh is correct in stating that electric cars are in effect "coal fired cars".

Although the standard Prius can't be plugged in, that would definitely be a true statement for plug in cars. I wouldn't mind having a plug-in someday if the prices come down. I bought my prius used for $12.8k and the plug in starts at $32k plus tax. That nearly $20k will buy ALOT of gasoline, over 200,000 miles worth at today's gas prices.

I know there are people that drive these things to "save the earth" and make a political statement. Not that I advocate trashing the environment we live in, but I drive the thing because it's cheap to operate and it has some of the best reliability ratings in the industry. I also love to travel across this great state and country, and this car gives me the freedom to do so.

I have considered putting some right-leaning bumper stickers in the window, and my NRA sticker, but I'd hate to park somewhere and come back to a vandalized car!

OK. Now I'm on day 4 of burning bituminous coal. Today I noticed that I seem to be having issues with smoke rolling back into the room when I open the loading door. I'm not sure if it's the warmer weather, or if it is possible that I am already getting the pipe clogged up with soot, or a combination of those 2 factors.

I shined a light into the stove, and there was an incredible amount of soot built up inside. It looked like hundreds of little strings of soot, maybe 1-2" long, hanging from the inside of the stove, especially the baffle plate inside the stove.

The chimney is 8.5x8.5 unlined, but from the back of the stove to the crock is 6".

As far as the soot buildup... would that indicate that I am burning too low? I still have my bimetal t-stat on the DS set to "Lo", and I was opening the dial dampers on the door over 1/2 way. At this rate, the stove runs 75-100* hotter than it does with anthracite. If I burn it much hotter, I will cook myself out of the house.

Any suggestions are welcome!

LDPosse wrote:The chimney is 8.5x8.5 unlined, but from the back of the stove to the crock is 6".

As far as the soot buildup... would that indicate that I am burning too low?

Any suggestions are welcome!

When the bituminous coal burns down to a glowing pile of coke and it's raining or snowing (or the wind is blowing away from your neighbors house) open the ash pan, crack (just a tiny bit) the loading door, get the stovepipe temp up to about 500º for about 30 seconds, and burn the soot out of the stove and the connecting pipe - this only works with a stove full of coke. Be sure to let the coke cool back down for a while before adding fresh coal!

Yes, your connecting pipe is too small - 8" is what you should be using. Even if the stove collar is 6", immediately transition to an 8" pipe and run that into the stack. The warm temps don't help. There's nothing wrong with burning the stove on low burn, but the soot will collect in strings and buildup in the stove and the first few feet of connecting pipe so it will need to be burned out of the connecting pipe (esp. on a 6" pipe) from time to time. Valier coal likes to produce soot, so that's just something to deal with during mild weather with a small connecting pipe.