Coal in a WESO brown till stove.

Hello
I have a WESO brown till stove. Ive been burning wood only and was told by the importer a few years ago not to use coal. Ive been thinking of looking at new better burning stove useing less wood. The firebox in the weso need refilling to often.
Now I see your postings about coal and it has me wondering what I should do.
Im in VT and wonder if I should use coal what type should I use as my 1st choice and the next
choices?
Is there any special way to use coal then what I do with wood?
Would burning coal add to the build up in my 6" stove pipe?
WHen I burn wood I get the heat up for 1/2 hr a day just to burn out and build up there may be. So would coal be a bigger headach?

The stoves HAVE to setup to burn coal, with some type of shaker grate system,
Bottom/lower draft vents under the coal to get it to burn correctly, sometimes a combustion blower is needed, coal burns from the bottom up, wood from the top down.

Wood type stoves do require tending every 4-8? hours, coal can probably go 6-12+ hours depending on the stove/situation.

You would want to see if Hard (Anthracite) coal is available in your area, and maybe invest in a real coal stove. Each stove takes different sizes depending on the type of stove. The coal ranges from Rice to Pea to Stove etc....There are Hand fed type stoves, probably similiar to yours and the Automatic Stoker type.

Thanks for you reply.
From what I understand this stove (WESO) was made for both back in the 70's and use well in Germany. The person who I spoke to said that the coal in Germany is much better then our coal here. That was with his broken English-German accent. He was the importer for WESO.
I'm still hoping to get some more replies from other's who have or had used a WESO stove.
I'm thinking of useing a bag and see how good it works. I belive that a wood fire should be 1st. then add the coal.

bombo wrote:The person who I spoke to said that the coal in Germany is much better then our coal here.

He is wrong.

bombo wrote:From what I understand this stove (WESO) was made for both back in the 70's and use well in Germany. The person who I spoke to said that the coal in Germany is much better then our coal here.

Subjective, however the cream of the crop in Northeastern Pennsylvania is considered the best in the world from my understanding.

Whatever the case if you're stove is designed to burn anthracite it won't be an issue.

I've edited your title and moved this to more appropriate forum. Please use a descriptive titles in the future.

bombo wrote:Thanks for you reply.
From what I understand this stove (WESO) was made for both back in the 70's and use well in Germany. The person who I spoke to said that the coal in Germany is much better then our coal here. That was with his broken English-German accent. He was the importer for WESO.
I'm still hoping to get some more replies from other's who have or had used a WESO stove.
I'm thinking of useing a bag and see how good it works. I belive that a wood fire should be 1st. then add the coal.

Is the guy you talked to named Peter Fleischhacker?

I have been e-mailing him and he asked me to call him. I haven't yet had the chance to call him. My father has one of these stoves and it has a sheet from a UL testing lab which states it was tested with anthracite coal. I asked my coal dealer and he pulled out a massive book of different coal stoves and agreed that anthracite could be used in the WESO stove. Mine is a model HSK125. The manual states it is a "solid fuel stove" and says it's OK to use bituminous coal but not anthracite.

I am concerned about the mixed information I am getting but I will try to report back here when I talk to that Peter guy.

Isn't German coal Bit? I'm thinking of the Rual valley, western !

Coal, of course can be used in your stove. WESO, the manufacturer of this stove is located in Germany where wood burning is a rarity among coal users. Anthracite of the walnut size works best. I have been using the model HSK 225 C3-4 since 1986 seasonally providing all the needed heat in a 3-bedroom house off the coast of Maine. On the coldest days of winter I use approximately 40 pounds (A little less than a typical bag) per day. Your stove may be smaller than mine and therefore different rules may apply.

For your situation you may want to be sure that the proper inserts for coal burning have not been removed from the fire chamber as your stove has been exclusively utilized for wood burning. As to the operation of your stove, you should be able to duplicate what I am doing for years. During the spring and fall seasons you will be tending your stove once every 24 hours, probably in the morning. You will observe that you have steady heat during the day and night. During the coldest days in the winter you may find that you have to attend to your stove every 12 hours to get the kind of comfort you desire.

For somebody who has been using wood exclusively coal burning may be a bit tricky at the beginning. You start your stove with a usual hot wood fire. Once you have a red hot wood fire going (red glowing) add a two inch layer of coal and allow this to get as hot as the wood fire. At that point you add other layers of coal until the top of the coal is level with the top of the firebox. You will find that adding cold coal actually cools the firebox. If your room is optimally tempered, you may choose to reduce the air flow to the firebox at that time. If you like more heat, let the top layer heat up a little before reducing the air flow. You probably want to reduce the air flow to the lowest setting before going to bed. If you do nothing from this point on the fire will still be going 24 hours later. - This needs a little practice; but you will be extremely satisfied with the performance of your Weso stove.

At the 24 hour mark or earlier in the dead of winter, mostly in the morning, you will find that the stove has cooled down a bit. You may barely see glowing coal in the center. At this point do NOT shake the ashes! Instead, open the air vents and allow the maximal amount of air to flow. In about 20 or 30 minutes you will find you have reawakened a hot coal fire. This is the moment you vigorously shake the ashes out of the firebox. And a short while later you add new coal to the firebox as outlined above. By following this method you will have a steady fire going for weeks. And you will also find that the temperature in your room is steady and comfortable. This is a great bonus, finding your home comfortably tempered, when you come home from work.

The WESO stove in my experience is the best of all coal stoves on the market. I have mine going in the center of the house, heating the great room and the kitchen. The surrounding bedrooms are comfortably tempered for sleeping. It is the sole source of heat in the house.

Before you start though, make sure that the proper coal burning inserts have not been removed from your stove. Coal burning requires a much smaller firebox than what is used for wood. These inserts are available as WESO sells spare parts for existing stoves. The Company Name: Ceramic Radiant Heat, 603-364-6776 or e-mail them at tkm@worldpath.net. I have good experience with this company. I had to replace one single firebox insert component in over 20 years, a pretty good record.

Good Luck with your WESO stove,

Klas

Bombo,

I forgot to mention that there is no creosote buildup in your stove pipe and chimney, when you use coal. There may be some fly ash that you can vacuum up from time to time.

Klas

I have an old Weso 125 wood/coal stove that has been sitting unused for several years. We used to use it at my parents house until they decided they wanted to use it at their cottage and my dad wanted to convert it to propane. He was never able to do the conversion and now we want to give it to a friend to use in his home. We want to make sure all the parts are there so we are looking for an exploded view of the stove. This would also help us to disassemble it for transport. We would also like to provide a manual for him as he is new to wood stove use. Can anyone help?
Lori