Blaschak vs. Reading rice coal

gambler wrote:Hear is a pic of my rice coal. When I bought it this fall the owner of the yard would not tell me where he gets it from. I asked several times and all he would say is it comes from out east. you would have sworn I was asking for some secret family recipe. Is this normal rice coal or is most rice coal more uniform?

coalstoves wrote:Modern day regulations will all but end deep mining in the area, most of the operations will not be able to financially bring themselves to comply this is sad and nobody wants to see it happen but time marches on . As it is now the bulk of deep mining is restricted to the less desirable home heating product produced from the Lykens veins which while high in BTUs is more suitable for industrial application rather than home heating .
Strip mining however continues to grow and in some of the most premium veins of anthracite . Given technology like Reading and Blaschak use, computer programs control all aspects of the plant operation, maintaining consistent quality product .
The raw coal as it comes from the stripping pits contains foreign matters - such as stone, shale, wood and dirt. These impurities are removed by passing the coal through a modern series of mechanical operations in which water and magnetite serves as a flotation vehicle. There are three main processing systems that produce nine different sizes of anthracite coal two of which are

Course Coal Heavy Media Vessel - cleans and produces Stove, Nut, Pea and #1 Buckwheat sized coal

Heavy Media Cyclone - cleans and produces - Rice, Barley and #4 sized coal

After the washing and cleaning, the coal is separated into various sizes over different types of vibrating screens.

I know Blaschak coal is sold around many parts of the country their coal has never ever disappointed me and I don't think they would chance their reputation on an inferior product and Reading has a long rich history in the coal bizz I would hope they valued a good reputation also but a bad ton of coal in the basement bin is a real pain in the ass to undo so I just might stick to Blaschak after reading what others have reported .

coal berner wrote: And as far as Reading you might want to look at the Refuse link for them aswell as the Surface mining link And look at the number of tons

Grinder wrote:

gregolma wrote:Reading is better.

What do you like better about Reading?

noknokman wrote:I bought 20 bags of Reading last week. So far I'm not impressed. Sizing is far less uniform than Blaschak and it's so wet that it's freezing in the bags outside. I won't be buying it again; glad I didn't get a ton.

I too noticed that it seemed very wet. It would be interesting to know how much water weight we're paying for.

coal berner wrote:You Better look at the link below Because If the lykens veins are not suitable for home heating You better stop using Blaschak because they are in Lykens 1 threw 7 veins In Columbia county and they are pulling out of the 7 lykens veins 99.502 Tons way More Then all of There others 43.862 tons For Northumberland county 4.547 ton in Schuylkill county so I am wondering what coal are you getting From Blaschak

coalstoves wrote:It goes without saying I am a Big Blaschak Fan, Blaschak has been pulling a lot of red ash coal out of the Lykens vein near Centralia to blend and the ash this year has bee more tan to red than the white I prefer

coalstoves wrote:Modern day regulations will all but end deep mining in the area, most of the operations will not be able to financially bring themselves to comply this is sad and nobody wants to see it happen but time marches on .

ken wrote:i found a welding rod in a bag of Blaschak.

Wood'nCoal wrote:

e.alleg wrote:Some bags look like pea coal, other bags look like ready mix concrete with stones mixed in. It all burns, the bags with the large chinks also contain nails, screws. cotter pins, wood, and plain old rocks. What I've been doing is picking out the huge pieces, it all burns hot so no complaints there.

Was this Reading in the 40 lb. heat sealed plastic bags or was it coal bagged by the dealer at their yard? I can't believe someone would sell bagged coal with all that junk in it. Every time I've gotten bagged coal the most I'll find is some wood, a stone once in a while, or a little piece of slate.

Of the big names in (strip) coal I liked Blaschak the best, very uniform size.

The quality of the coal from the big strip mine companies varies constantly, depending on where they are pulling it from and what they are blending it with.