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archbolter
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Hand Fed Coal Furnace: HOTBLAST1537

Post by archbolter » Sat. Nov. 02, 2013 11:38 pm

ive been lurking around here for awhile. finally decided to post.

I replaced my grandmas huge old coal furnace that had seen its better days, with a hotblast 1537 about a month ago. I cant quite get the handle on burning coal in it. I grew up burning wood and have no problem getting a good wood fire burning for 7 to 10 hours in the stove.

i either get all or nothing. its either 600 and rising or a 200 degree fizzle. wood I can get rolling between 350 or 400 steady. what am I doing wrong? and what temp is to much for the furnace? it was 650 and rising so I poured ashes on it to calm it down. got a little nervous.

I have a 34 block high chimney and a barometric damper inline.

anybody have any tips?

 
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Short Bus
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Location: Cantwell Alaska
Stoker Coal Boiler: Kewanee boiler with Anchor stoker
Coal Size/Type: Chestnut / Sub-bituminous C
Other Heating: Propane wall furnace back up only

Post by Short Bus » Sun. Nov. 03, 2013 1:21 am

We are going to need a little more information:

What kind of coal do you have?
What size coal do you have?
Where are you? In general, to help with what coal options you have.
Do you have any way to check draft? To much draft could make a fire hard to throttle.
Is your chimney on an exterior wall or centrally located in the house? Two story house? how tall are these chimney blocks?
Where are you measuring this 600 degrees, face of fire door, top of fire box, exterior of chimney pipe, air temperature leaving furnace in duct?

Probably should cover the basics first,

Are the air control devices working properly?
If the doors require rope gaskets to seal and are they in good shape?
Are the door latches set such that they put some pressure on the gaskets, if you have them?

I notice you are posting in the Bituminous section, if you have bituminous coal, it can flame on start up as initial volatiles burn off then it should settle down.
600 and climbing would not bother me, old cook stoves had ovens that went to 500 degrees, so you know the gasses around them where probably much hotter.

I'm sure someone with a Hotblast will chime in soon. Some of this information will help narrow in on a solution much quicker.

 
archbolter
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Hand Fed Coal Furnace: HOTBLAST1537

Post by archbolter » Sun. Nov. 03, 2013 1:00 am

bit coal.
lump to 1inch mix.
north central wv. plenty of both type of coal. $110 ton for bit.$ 299 a ton for ant.
no way too really check draft.
exterior wall, 2 story, not sure. over 25 feet.
i measure the temp from about 6 inches above the door on furnace face.

everything on the stove working as supposed to. as far as I can tell. stove brand new.


 
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Short Bus
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Posts: 510
Joined: Sun. Jan. 10, 2010 12:22 am
Location: Cantwell Alaska
Stoker Coal Boiler: Kewanee boiler with Anchor stoker
Coal Size/Type: Chestnut / Sub-bituminous C
Other Heating: Propane wall furnace back up only

Post by Short Bus » Sun. Nov. 03, 2013 1:35 am

Time for the Hot Blast owners to chime in, I'm sure a solution is at hand.

I burn Sub-Bituminous C coal mined in Healy Alaska.

I think, without ever having run a hot blast on WY bituminous that the initial volatiles created when this coal is initially heated are probably flaming off and causing this concern. Try loading less coal at a time and leave some over fire air open and a minimum of under fire air as this is the air that creates the heat that forms those vapors that burn wildly, or even explosively. try to keep some flame showing in your fire box after loading as this will help heat and ignite the gases from the new load of coal. As you learn the stove and the situation bigger loads and more stable fires will probably become the norm. These white gasses that form when this coal is initially heated can become explosive in the correct conditions, search puff backs is you want to gain respect for your fire.

This forum operates on a eastern time zone as far as contributor volume.

600 and rising would not bother me, I'm also not sure if any temp would bother me, I ran my cook stove the first winter I was here with a dull red glow, about 1000 degrees, believe it or not in the dead of winter I was still cool in a 16x12 room.

This thread may help as it grows. Help Burning Bituminous Coal
Last edited by Short Bus on Sun. Nov. 03, 2013 2:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
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Hambden Bob
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Location: Hambden Twp. Geauga County,Ohio
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Harman 1998 Magnum Stoker
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Blower Model Coal Chubby 1982-Serial#0097
Coal Size/Type: Rice-A-Roni ! / Nut
Other Heating: Pro-Pain Forced Air

Post by Hambden Bob » Sun. Nov. 03, 2013 1:56 pm

HotBlast Heads-Unite ! Help this guy out,and I don't mean send him a case of beer via UPMS either ! :doh:

 
archbolter
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Hand Fed Coal Furnace: HOTBLAST1537

Post by archbolter » Mon. Nov. 04, 2013 12:42 pm

Hambden Bob wrote:HotBlast Heads-Unite ! Help this guy out,and I don't mean send him a case of beer via UPMS either ! :doh:
would really like the advice. working 6 days a week I cant play with stove as much as I should to try every method. just trying the best ones first.

Btw, the beer wouldn't hurt either. lol.


 
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Lightning
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Modified AA 130
Coal Size/Type: Pea Size - Anthracite

Post by Lightning » Mon. Nov. 04, 2013 1:49 pm

Trying the Bitty Coal Again

I wish I had better news but it seemed when I tried bit it would go nuclear for the first hour or so then finally calm down to lower heat output. Here's a thread I started last year to document my experience
Last edited by Lightning on Tue. Nov. 05, 2013 3:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

 
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Berlin
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Post by Berlin » Mon. Nov. 04, 2013 8:41 pm

Lightning wrote: Trying the Bitty Coal Again

I wish s had better news but it seemed when I tried bit it would go nuclear for the first hour or so then finally calm down to lower heat output. Here's a thread I started last year to document my experience
Here's the thing about bit, trying one size from one source is TOTALLY different from a different size from a different source (different bituminous coal - i.e. Kentucky lump vs. pittsburgh lump vs. ohio #4 stoker and on and on).

It's hard for the anthracite guys to understand that, they're used to burning anthracite (or even former woodburners) which has little variability. Common anthracite sources that retail coal have very insignificant differences between coals. bituminous coal is NOT this way. In hand-fired appliances, one coal differs from the next spectacularly in it's performance - even when it may look "good" or "bad" on paper.

In addition to this, most appliances are not designed for bituminous coal, don't (won't) work well with bituminous coal, and, add to that, most people "try" the wrong size, type etc. of bit coal, leading to a poor experience with bituminous coal.

If you want to have good probability of success, use a large lump coal, don't use an agglommerating coal, bank the fire, and keep the overfire air cracked open. If that doesn't work, try a different coal or a different appliance.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Tue. Nov. 05, 2013 3:29 am

Berlin wrote:Here's the thing about bit, trying one size from one source is TOTALLY different from a different size from a different source (different bituminous coal - i.e. Kentucky lump vs. pittsburgh lump vs. ohio #4 stoker and on and on).
Berlin knows his bitty coal. I didn't take the opportunity to try other bit coals. Its most likely I could have had a better experience with it if I tried other coals.. :D

 
archbolter
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Hand Fed Coal Furnace: HOTBLAST1537

Post by archbolter » Thu. Nov. 14, 2013 10:50 am

ok. I think I got something going now. I installed a manual damper inline before the barometric damper. I think my problem wasnt the coal or the stove. just too much and too inconsistant draft. with the winds up on this hill that baro damper flaps like a flag. with the manual damper I can set it where I want and leave it.

I think that with so much draft I was haveing to shut the air down too low to burn right. with the manual damper I can close it about 3/4, set the ash door at about 2 to 3 turn and just crack the top door air a very lil. with that I hold 300 to 400 degrees for 9 to 11 hours. when I got home from work today ( around 14 hours gone) the stove was 150. shook it, threw some scrap wood in it and then loaded the coal. right now cruiseing at around 350.

now I think I can be happy with it. gotta go tomorrow and get some more coal. found some pittsburgh seam clean coal for $65 a ton.guys got about 4 ton left.

thank for all the help guys!

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