excessively wet coal

I have an older LL Pioneer and in my manual it states that excessively wet coal can cause a sulpher smell which to me means you are smelling the flue gases. How can wet coal cause flue gas smell? Is it because the water turns to vapor and cools the flue gas which in turn lowers your draft?

It's probably absorbing the smell from the coal and you might smell it in the hopper, not the flue gases.
It should be anything to worry about. I can kinda smell my coal in the basement when down there, the water probably just enhances the smell of it.

I don't have any smell but was just reading through the manual and saw this and wondered why.

Here are the quotes from the manual under trouble shooting.
Sulphur fumes:
Make sure your chimney is not blocked
Make sure flue cap is not too close to the top of the chimney and resricting the draft
Make sure clean out door to the chimney is closed
Make sure that all of the stove pipe is clean and free of excessive fly ash buildup
Make sure all gaskets are intact and in good repair
Make sure the space between the hopper and stove body is free from coal
Make sure coal is not excessively wet
Make sure barometric damper is in good working order and not sticking open
(barometrics need to be replaced every 5 years)
Make sure stove has negative draft (check with gage)


I can understand how all of these can cause sulphur fumes except the excessively wet coal.

I think those are things to check "IF" you smell sulpher...

gambler wrote:I have an older LL Pioneer and in my manual it states that excessively wet coal can cause a sulpher smell which to me means you are smelling the flue gases. How can wet coal cause flue gas smell? Is it because the water turns to vapor and cools the flue gas which in turn lowers your draft?

I think your analysis is correct, as is the post where someone indicated that if you smell sulphur, that could be a cause.

Hi Gambler,
Some people burn their stoves and do not run the convection fans, radiant only. When this happens the inside of the hopper tends to get very hot drying the coal out and causes an oder. We need to cover all angles to protect ourselves. In our new manuals (2 yrs) we give a 2 page explanation on CO, and how it can effect you. We are the only manufacture to even mention about the effects of CO with a coal stove. I guess they are afraid of chasing away a customer. I'm afraid of one being hurt.
Jerry

Leisure Line wrote:Hi Gambler,
We need to cover all angles to protect ourselves. In our new manuals (2 yrs) we give a 2 page explanation on CO, and how it can effect you. We are the only manufacture to even mention about the effects of CO with a coal stove. I guess they are afraid of chasing away a customer. I'm afraid of one being hurt.
Jerry

I know what you mean. I am a retailer and sell space heaters and water heaters of all types. When I sell one on one I give the whole story and it often can cost a sale. People like it simple. Most won't read your two pages on CO. Most don't even read the darn manual.

I get kero heater customers back all the time with contaminated fuel problems. The manual is very clear on fuel and cleanliness. They always think it's the heater, never the operator. They just know "[they] didn't do anything wrong" and those engineers are over educated and too smart for their own good.

my 2 cents

when i put wet coal in my stoker. i can get steam.... expansion.... so i think it pushes gases out of the stove because of the quick expansion of water being turn to steam.... 7 to 1 i think.. forces air out of the stove..... reason i know... 2 weeks ago i put alot of really wet coal in my AHS130.... had steam coming out of back flapper and grate opening rod.... this steam actually lit off outside of the boiler so the vapor was taking coal gas with it..... while it was expanding.... so....

Leisure Line wrote:Hi Gambler,
Some people burn their stoves and do not run the convection fans, radiant only. When this happens the inside of the hopper tends to get very hot drying the coal out and causes an oder. We need to cover all angles to protect ourselves. In our new manuals (2 yrs) we give a 2 page explanation on CO, and how it can effect you. We are the only manufacture to even mention about the effects of CO with a coal stove. I guess they are afraid of chasing away a customer. I'm afraid of one being hurt.
Jerry

Thanks for the info Jerry, It is my nature to always find out how and why.

mikeandgerry wrote:I get kero heater customers back all the time with contaminated fuel problems.

I used to work in a shop that sold kero heaters many moons ago. That was great fun when they'd come in demanding their money back, piece of junk.. etc. then we'd open it up while they were standing there to show them the water. Every heater that was sold they got warning to use a clear plastic comtainer to make sure there was no water in it.

People just don't want to read manuals and/or heed the warnings. On the other hand its hard to blame them when you get a lot of products with some of the dumbest warnings whose only purpose is to prevent lawsuits