Best Way To Fill Coal Hod From Coal bags?

I am going to order some nut coal from a company that delivers 50lb bags of coal in fairly skimpy polyetheline bags. The coal is excellent (I tried 2 bags) but I am used to Blasjack's 40lb bags, which are a little more sturdy when pouring into the coal hod. Even being careful, I tore one bag & spilled coal all over my basement steps. (I keep bagged coal just outside the basement door under an awning for the winter)
My question:
Any ideas on how to easily use these bags?

A few ideas I have been pondering:
1. Build a small coal bin (with a chute) so that I can dump a number of bags into the bin for transfer to the hod.(alot of work)
2. Buy a plastic waste barrel & slip the 50lb bags into it (to dump into the hod) while holding the barrel. (maybe hook a strap to the bottom of the barrel to make tipping into the hod easier.

Any other ideas?

Refining my ideas:

As long as I'm trying to come up with a device to make filling my coal hod more easily, why not devise something that I can lift the bag into (a plastic barrel or something) that is bolted to the cement wall ( about 2' above the step I place the hod onto for filling) that I can tilt down to easily fill the hod???

I use 100# bags and keep them on a small pallet in the garage. I fill the hod there using one of these:



Once the hod is full, I keep the scoop in the hod and use it to fill the hopper once inside. They also make larger scoops and galvanized ones.

I made this with a 5 gal. bucket, the scoop attached is a piece of formica. I fill the stove once a day & it guides coal right in the hopper.

spc wrote:I made this with a 5 gal. bucket, the scoop attached is a piece of formica. I fill the stove once a day & it guides coal right in the hopper.

Pioneer1.jpg

How do you fill the bucket? Neat idea, BTW!

Devil5052 wrote:I am used to Blasjack's 40lb bags, which are a little more sturdy

Best bagged coal I ever found, and it goes down the cellar steps like a slinky (stand it up on the top step and push it over, its amazing!). Never had a bag break.

coaledsweat wrote:

Devil5052 wrote:I am used to Blasjack's 40lb bags, which are a little more sturdy

Best bagged coal I ever found, and it goes down the cellar steps like a slinky (stand it up on the top step and push it over, its amazing!). Never had a bag break.

Yes, the Blaschak I had burned well for strip coal.
I build a coal bin and a chute, and coal I buy (bagged or loose) goes down the chute into the bin. It is more work at first, but it's nice to just go into the cellar and fill the scuttle instead of having to go outside, esp. if the weather is bad.

Devil,

Looks like you're going with the Brockton coal?

Good stuff it is.

I had the same issues as you when switching from the 40# bags. Nice thing about the 50#'ers is they exactly fill the coal hod twice.

I just slice the bag above the coal with a knife, maybe a 120 degree arc. Too much and you'll break the bag. Then just hold it from each end and pour. Sometimes it's hard to hold the full bag from the bottom, so just put the bag on top of a milk crate and tip it over. Filling the 2nd hod is really easy.

Something else I tried once and then didn't go back to was putting 4-500# of coal into my landscape trailer and then just shoveling it into the hod. No problems with it, really, it just didn't allow me to use the trailer during heating season.

Islander wrote:Devil,

Looks like you're going with the Brockton coal?

Good stuff it is.

I had the same issues as you when switching from the 40# bags. Nice thing about the 50#'ers is they exactly fill the coal hod twice.

I just slice the bag above the coal with a knife, maybe a 120 degree arc. Too much and you'll break the bag. Then just hold it from each end and pour. Sometimes it's hard to hold the full bag from the bottom, so just put the bag on top of a milk crate and tip it over. Filling the 2nd hod is really easy.

Something else I tried once and then didn't go back to was putting 4-500# of coal into my landscape trailer and then just shoveling it into the hod. No problems with it, really, it just didn't allow me to use the trailer during heating season.

I think the name of the coal place is Eastern Ice & Coal, but yes, they are in Brockon. They were the cheapest for delivery of a ton (forget the price right now) but I finaly found a place near me where I could buy a few bags to try it out. I burned 2 bags & it was great. My only problem was the flimsy bags it comes in. (the place where a bought a few bags has it stacked up on pallets so they evidently have no problem with the bags, but I did going from bag to hod)
I would be more tempted to build a bin but, in order to keep peace in th house, I would have to make the bin moveable so that I could hide it under our back deck in the summer. My wife could care less what I do out back in the winter, but hates any eye-sores (next to the basement door & visible from our deck) in the summer.

Devil,

The bags are strong enough for the task. You've just got to figure out what works for you.

I've gone thru more than 4 tons, which is 160 bags without a single blowout, even after using some which were left over from last year.

Good luck.

Question, what is a HOD? I've a Stoker, so maybe it's a handfired manly-man stove thing?

Ed.A wrote:Question, what is a HOD? I've a Stoker, so maybe it's a handfired manly-man stove thing?

Apparently, anything you can carry coal in!!

http://www.nextag.com/coal-hod/search-html

Oh.....I see. I carry in bags and dump them in my hopper, wa-la! Amazing things these Girlie-man stoves

BTW, I've a coal bucket, with a lid, it's kinda the same I suppose.

Whats a hod? A hod is a scuttle.

coaledsweat wrote:Whats a hod? A hod is a scuttle.

Well cripes! Why didn't they just say so in the first place.....sheeze.