Hello Everybody, New Here and Hoping to Be Burning Soon!

 
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MrsSouthy
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Location: Portsmouth, Ohio
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Chubby Coal Stove
Other Heating: Natural gas furnace

Post by MrsSouthy » Wed. Jan. 08, 2014 11:51 pm

SMITTY wrote:Don't waste your money on stainless steel .. or any other liner for that matter, if you plan on burning coal. That $600 could be vaporized in a year ... or 5. It's a crapshoot. Moisture + flyash = sulfuric acid. Even stainless will give up the ghost to sulfuric. Guess how I know that one? :D

Don't let the chimney sweep sell that to you. Trust me on that one - Save your money!

The first pic is 2 stainless steel hot water coils I installed in my stove, the second is a closeup of what was under all that crud,, and the third is my stainless chimney connector pipe:

Yikes!! So what if we find out the chimney isn't lined with clay tiles?? Then what? I'm guessing paying to have it lined with tiles would cost us way more than the SS but if the SS is gonna do that then its pointless!! How can they lifetime warranty something like that?? They would have to lose money on it unless they try to worm their way out of the warranty somehow. Can we burn in our chimney without any lining or will it destroy the brick too?


 
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MrsSouthy
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Location: Portsmouth, Ohio
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Chubby Coal Stove
Other Heating: Natural gas furnace

Post by MrsSouthy » Wed. Jan. 08, 2014 11:54 pm

I would seriously love nothing more than to save that money. We are operating on one income and I'm in college so heaven knows we don't need to throw money around. What should we do????

 
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SMITTY
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Location: West-Central Mass
Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520 Highboy
Coal Size/Type: Rice / Blaschak anthracite
Other Heating: Oil fired Burnham boiler

Post by SMITTY » Wed. Jan. 08, 2014 11:59 pm

I've been burning in a unlined brick chimney for 8 years now. Never cleaned it either - cleaned it for the first time in April '12. The mortar is soft enough to scrape out with a fingernail - been that way since we moved in. I had to rebuild the top half when we moved in, because it collapsed, and all the bricks hurtled down the chimney and blocked the oil boiler flue. :shock:

Your fine burning in any masonry chimney. It'll out last you.

In addition to my poor chimney condition, it also has 2 jogs headed 2 different directions .... & never had a problem with CO leaking through it. Just rain water ... but that was fixed with a chimney cap. A stainless one .. because the black metal one hurled off the roof into the driveway in rusty pieces after one season.

Oh, and my oil boiler is hooked to this too. Totally not to code .. but I do what I have to do to stay warm. So long as it's safe, and it works.

 
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Carbon12
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Location: Harrisburg, PA
Stoker Coal Boiler: Keystoker KA-6
Coal Size/Type: Rice/Anthracite
Other Heating: Heat Pump/Forced Hot Air Oil Furnace

Post by Carbon12 » Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 12:19 am

Said can of worms has been opened. :shock: there really should be one place someone can go to get honest, real world information about one of the most important things that can be done for a family,..namely,....keeping it warm and safe and dry.......oh wait,...this is the place!

 
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MrsSouthy
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Location: Portsmouth, Ohio
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Chubby Coal Stove
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Post by MrsSouthy » Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 12:44 am

Carbon12 wrote:Said can of worms has been opened. :shock: there really should be one place someone can go to get honest, real world information about one of the most important things that can be done for a family,..namely,....keeping it warm and safe and dry.......oh wait,...this is the place!
Lol :) it's ok...i like worms of they help me get to the bottom on this and find out what we need to do! :)

 
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MrsSouthy
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Location: Portsmouth, Ohio
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Chubby Coal Stove
Other Heating: Natural gas furnace

Post by MrsSouthy » Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 12:46 am

So is the consensus to just use the chimney, unlined, as long as it's ok structurally?

 
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Berlin
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Post by Berlin » Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 2:39 am

MrsSouthy wrote:So is the consensus to just use the chimney, unlined, as long as it's ok structurally?
Yup.

Do you have a flue from the basement? Is your forced air furnace in the basement? Being in southern ohio and having NG available (already an inexpensive fuel source) I'm going to suggest a combustioneer bituminous stoker "stove" (add-on furnace) set it next to your existing furnace and pipe it in.

With bituminous pea stoker coal used in an underfeed type furnace (the same device that heats my 100+ yr old poorly insulated house in Buffalo, NY) you'll beat NG prices with available $100/ton bituminous pea stoker coal. And in a stoker, bituminous coal burns almost completely smoke free from the chimney - similar to anthracite. The comments about bituminous coal and neighbors are related to bituminous coal use in a hand-fired stove where there will be some smoke from the stack, with a stoker this is NOT so.


 
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Sunny Boy
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Location: Central NY
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Anthracite Industrial, domestic hot water heater
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood range 208, # 6 base heater, 2 Modern Oak 118.
Coal Size/Type: Nuts !
Other Heating: Oil &electric plenum furnace

Post by Sunny Boy » Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 7:29 am

My coal kitchen range is hooked into the same thimble of the unlined brick chimney that was built for the original coal kitchen range in 1890's of this old house. Like Smitty's, some of the old bricks weren't fired as well and you can dig into them with a finger nail.

I just have to clean out a small bucket worth of fly ash in the bottom and look up with a mirror to check it for squirrel nests at the beginning of every heat season. Draws very well.

Paul

 
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Sunny Boy
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Location: Central NY
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Anthracite Industrial, domestic hot water heater
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood range 208, # 6 base heater, 2 Modern Oak 118.
Coal Size/Type: Nuts !
Other Heating: Oil &electric plenum furnace

Post by Sunny Boy » Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 7:44 am

And, if your worried about not having a liner, just don't burn wood - stick with coal.

If you have to, only burn well dried hardwood, and only enough to get the coal fire going. Plus, keep the wood fire hot so it's less likely to build up creosote in the chimney.

If you can get a lot of cheap, or free, hardwood then put the savings into a clay liner. It will help reduce creosote build-up and be easier to clean.

But don't expect that the metal liner's lifetime warrantee guarantees that it will hold up to many years of coal. As has been discussed in other threads on here, and just said, how long the metal liners last with coal is a crap shoot.

Paul

 
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McGiever
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: Warm Morning 414A
Coal Size/Type: PEA,NUT,STOVE /ANTHRACITE
Other Heating: Ground Source Heat Pump and some Solar

Post by McGiever » Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 7:58 am

Believe in the warranty when someone tells you they were satisfied w/ a claim.
There is too much "wiggle room" for the seller to not honor the warranty. And remember, best one could ever get is only the liner...never any labor or accessories. :mad:

 
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SMITTY
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Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520 Highboy
Coal Size/Type: Rice / Blaschak anthracite
Other Heating: Oil fired Burnham boiler

Post by SMITTY » Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 9:38 am

Yeah - the only use for a stainless liner is if you are burning WOOD 100%, & have actual air gaps in the mortar, which would allow sparks through to burn the house down. That is the main reason liners are pushed - no chimney sweep wants the liability of missing a gap, saying your good to go, then get served with a lawsuit because someone's house got leveled by fire.

With ANY type of coal, this is a NON-ISSUE. No sparks, NO flammable creosote, and MUCH LESS HEAT.

 
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Carbon12
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Post by Carbon12 » Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 9:41 am

Much less heat in the chimney,...that is! :D

 
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SMITTY
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Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520 Highboy
Coal Size/Type: Rice / Blaschak anthracite
Other Heating: Oil fired Burnham boiler

Post by SMITTY » Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 9:42 am

Yeah, you knew what I meant - sorry about that!! :lol:

 
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michaelanthony
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Coal Size/Type: 'nut
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Post by michaelanthony » Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 10:07 am

I commend you MrsSouthy, your due diligence is filtering out some excellent results. I would like to add one item and I think now is a good time to bring it up. Uploading pictures will, if not already, come up and I am surprised no one has asked to see the chimney in question and the rusted damper. Our first and foremost issue is SAFETY and this means everyone. Starting out properly is important. Someone mentioned C.O. monitors because of the gas log fireplace and I have not heard a response for that. If you are standing strong on coal then a manometer will be recommended as well as flue draft controls. More homework but worth every penny and time. All the folks on this thread have one thing in mind and that is SAFELY warming yourself and family and the savings is your reward! Keep up the good fight. as HB would say :clap:

 
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MrsSouthy
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Location: Portsmouth, Ohio
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Other Heating: Natural gas furnace

Post by MrsSouthy » Thu. Jan. 09, 2014 10:09 am

Ok. So it sounds like we will be skipping the liner. (Yay for saving $600!!!!) But just to make sure I'm 100% clear...its ok to burn coal even if we find out that the chimney has no clay liner? And in that case, how far do we need to run a pipe up out of the insert? I mean, I'm assuming you don't just shove the insert in and not run some pipe to direct the smoke up the chimney, like up past the smoke shelf?? but I could be wrong! This is all new to me :D


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