How to Light a Hand Fired Coal Stove

titleist1 wrote:Reese's at RT 372 & Church Road is one place to get coal in Quarryville.

..yes, that's the post I remember seeing..thank you titleist 1..

..ok..thanks for that as well..I thought it was strange when I Google mapped it and saw it was in town..thanks again..Bud

Budster--
My current supply of coal (Blaschak nut) is from Reese's. I had Superior last year, but I like the Blaschak just as much or more in my setup. Best decision I made beyond that was to spend $2 per ton to have it oiled at delivery--almost no black dust, as compared to my un-oiled Superior last year.

The Reese's seem like very nice folks. They also deal Sherman coal which is hard to find around here. I tried a few hundred pounds at end of last burn season, but it was a little too "soft" for me, and burned out quicker than Blaschak or Superior. They do a lot of business--Ben Reese told me at delivery that in their busiest weeks/months, they deliver a tri-axle load per day--about 22 tons.

The other place to get coal in Quarryville is at David Stolzfus's Hillside Acres Stove Outlet--he has only Blaschak in 40 lb bags. Also very nice to do business with him. He is a dealer for Hitzer and DS Stove.

..thanks for that too ashcat..yes, I'm buying my stove from Dave at Hillside,hopefully next week..my intent is to take the cap off my Dodge Dakota, let Dave load the stove on my pickup, then go over to Reese's and pick up some coal in my 5' by 10' utility trailer at the same time..

http://nepacrossroads.com/about17768.html

I decided it's time to put these here. To see how to start a fire from scratch. Please click on the link above. There are 3 short videos showing how to start and Anthracite fire.

Here's a simpler and guaranteed to work every time method.

1) Cover the bottom of the grate with wood that is a little bigger than kindling
2) Dump on top of it - 2 shovels of white hot coals from your other stove
3) add a little more wood on top
4) open the air intake wide till roaring
5) dump fresh coal on top
6) wait for it so get going strong
7) adjust intake

yer good 2 go

Ive been doing this and it works every time. Never failed to light the stove.

Put a bunch of newspaper all scrunched up in the bottom [pot bellied stove]
Criss cross kindling no bigger than a pencil in the bottom
Add larger kindling also criss cross fashion
Open bottom damper wide
Open stack damper wide [if you have one]
Shut rotating damper in stove
Light the paper and when the wood starts to roar
Add three shovel fulls of small coal - smaller than nut
When coal starts you'll see blue flames and bottom coal glows orange
Add three more shovel fulls in the middle. Watch for the blue flames
Add more coal - heap it in the middle
When the coal glows orange to white hot add more coal in the middle and around the sides.
Adjust stack and bottom damper to a comfort level.

First time coal burner here. Inherited a Hitzer 30-95 in my house purchased in the spring. It was built in 1900 and the stove is supposed to be supplemental heat. I've tried a few things trying to get it lit the past few weeks including using charcoal with a heat gun with limited success. I used Devil505's advice getting a good fire going and adding coal a bit at a time into the flames.
I let it run wide open while I added a layer of nut coal letting each layer get going before adding another. I have it loaded to the level of the firebrick and it has been running beautifully for several hours now with lovely blue flame standing guard all over the coals.
I am interested to see where it is before I go to bed. I expect that it will be time to shake it by that time. That is the next step in my tutorial, how long to let it go before shaking it and reloading to the top of the firebrick.
I guess I need to determine how much my normal temp drops and how low the level of coal drops below the firebrick.
My magnetic gauge on the chimney reads about 400 with the back flue closed and the ash pan slider 3/4 closed. I will check the temp before I go to bed and if it is getting low and the coals are looking dim I will open the ash pan door, let the fire liven up and add more coal and get it back to what I've had cooking all afternoon and dampen it down to what I had running all day and hope it performs the same all night.
This is my first night having this running... I'm excited!

sorry for the really long first post
I have been lurking these forums for a week or so and would like to thank everyone for getting me to this point.

drum wrote:I guess I need to determine how much my normal temp drops and how low the level of coal drops below the firebrick.
My magnetic gauge on the chimney reads about 400 with the back flue closed and the ash pan slider 3/4 closed. I will check the temp before I go to bed and if it is getting low and the coals are looking dim I will open the ash pan door, let the fire liven up and add more coal and get it back to what I've had cooking all afternoon and dampen it down to what I had running all day and hope it performs the same all night.
This is my first night having this running... I'm excited!

Drum, What have you got as far as a baro or MPD? 400 sounds hot to me for the chimney. You are sending a lot of heat out the stack instead if into your house. I'm not familiar with your particular stove, but my stove runs the chimney a lot cooler than 400....

dj

Here's some information about starting and maintaining your coal stove. I've had this sheet tacked to the wall for years and refer to it when I screw up and need to regroup. Remember these are general instructions. You might want to print these and keep them for reference. Check the attachments.

Nice thanks!

Hope it helps!

I love those old advertising materials. Cool that it's from close to my old neck of the woods in Springfield Mass. It's funny that they trade marked Reading Antracite with red dots! I guess they don't bother doing that any more!

i guess i never really did anything as involved as what some people are listing here for a fire. The only thing that has ever mattered in my little stove is to use extremely dry wood. I generally stick to hardwood and use small splits a foot long and 3-6" in diameter. Place ~3 of them on top of some crumpled newspaper and it is off and running. about 30 minutes later when it's roaring, i slide the coal chute in and slowly dump a full hopper full on top of the healthy fire and don't touch it again for another 10-12 hours.

Lately i have had it even easier. I've been installing hardwood floors throughout the house and all the scraps from cutoffs have been collected for disposal. I tear up 2ft worth of a cardboard box that they came in and a dozen small scraps of floor and i am adding coal within 15-20 minutes. Never had an easier time starting a fire than i have this winter.