Bitimious coal & Wood to gether?

Hi,
I was wondering if it was ok to mix both in a wood stove?

I've tried to do the same. My wood stove did not have a grate, so the coal did not burn well. Air must be coming up from underneath of the coal to burn it correctly and get any heat off of it. I would just throw chunks of coal on top of the wood. What it did for me was get me through the night so I had something to start with in the morning - enough that I didn't have to use a match to get some kindling and paper burning, and the stove was still warm instead of stone cold. If I was still burning wood, I would buy some coal anyway and mix it in, as it was nice to have some of the coal heat and all-night fires too.

But to get any amount of heat out of the coal, you need grates to do a good job. Then, if you have a grate/underair setup, you can just forget the wood and burn coal only. I built my own stove after the wood/coal experiment. I'm glad I did. I don't miss wood.

Good luck,

Steinke

Mine was designed to burn either and I regularly throw a couple chunks of wood on top of the coal (that is resting on a bed of wood coals) to stop the bridging

I don't use bit coal, but I would think that would help burn off the volatiles of the coal, maybe burn a little cleaner?

I used to put a row of bitum. coal between two oak splits, as the wood burnt away it lit the volitiles, and reduced the swelling and sticking together. This was over the top of an existing coal fire.

Ktm rider tosses a piece of wood on top of the fire, the last I heard, to help reduce the swelling/sticking/bridging.
Bitum. is cheaper to buy, if you are in the right area, but it does require more attention to the fire.

Greg L

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Thanks,
Steinke, Lsfarm, york bear and bud for your help! The first thing I am going to do is get a grate. I would like to learn how to make this happen. I can get all the bitimious coal prety cheap. I have been burning wood for the last 8 years. I have to pay for the wood now so it's getting rather exspensive after you put your time into it as well. It's a very fine coal to boot! That makes it tough.I have found it in the past to just clump up in a big hard chunk and not throw that much heat. I here coal should burn alot hotter than wood. I don't know. Well thanks again. I hope I here from yea again soon. I am goint to work on perfecting this.

Jaytow

Don't know what type of stove you have, but keep in mind that it's not enough just to put an elevated grate in the stove, like some fireplaces use. You actually have to have air coming up thru the grates and not able to bypass around the grates sides. And you need a mechanism to shake the ashes out several times a day, usually before loading fresh coal.

On my bit. coal, I can get by with quite a bit of secondary air entering above the fire to help burn the volatiles. But I still need the majority of the air coming up thru the coals.

You'll need something like the pic below. Look at some stoves at the harman dealer or other stove shops for ideas too.

http://nepacrossroads.com/download/file.php?id=1381

Good luck,

Steinke

Thanks again Steinke,
My stove has a ash clean out underneath the burn box. It's about a foot round. I was going to put a cast grate right obove the opening. I have a wicked draft in the stove. When I burn wood, the hot spot is always obove that ash drop area.The grate will sit about a inch from the ash drop area. I was hoping that the draft from the stove would pull up through the grate in result burning the coal! Also reading in this forum I read that you can wrap the bitimious coal in plastic (round small log lengh) and from the heat it will keep its shape and prevent it from smothering the fire.Where I work I can get these cardboard tubes about two ft long and three inch in diamiter, and half inch thick walls. I used these to get a fire going and burn very well. I am going to pack them with the bitimious coal and try burning the coal that way. If true and hold there shape they would look like logs in the burn box. I don't know that much about burning coal. I'm just trying different things and maybe have a little sucsess. like I said I can get the coal next to nothing so I think it's worth exsperimenting with. Let me know what you think of this! Thanks for your help.

Jaytow

Sounds like your stove is designed to burn coal then. Depending on your coal, it may stick together. My Wyoming Bit. coal will not stick, but others on the forum sat the eastern bit. does swell and stick together.

Even if you grate openings are fairly large, usually after a few hours of burn, the ash accumulates enough to keep coal from falling through the grates unless you are shaking them. You may not need the tubes unless the coal is very fine. I burn 1/4" to 6" chunks, and it works well. I lose some finer coal on the initial load, and some when I shake, but not much.

Steinke