Whats the Worst Coal You Ever Got

 
paulsferg
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Post by paulsferg » Fri. Jan. 24, 2014 7:46 pm

everyone always has their favorite coal on here.how about a listing of the worst coal?


 
KLook
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Post by KLook » Fri. Jan. 24, 2014 7:56 pm

Bagged Kimmels, TT load. Had sticks and rocks and rope and cloth in it. Supposed to be rice. I picked out pieces as big as hockey pucks. Not good for a stoker!

Kevin

 
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Scottscoaled
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Post by Scottscoaled » Fri. Jan. 24, 2014 8:24 pm

The INFAMOUS Newport aggregate coal. I had an 18" burning red clinker standing staight up from my EFM 700's rotating pot. In between clinkers, it would produce more ash than possible, and mostly go out. The ash was figured to be over 50% several times. I leveled half the bottom of my driveway in a couple weeks time. :mad:

 
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dcrane
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Post by dcrane » Fri. Jan. 24, 2014 8:50 pm

some no name crap from little peach... bad coal is just horrible and makes something thats so easy, so good, so reliable into a big cluster *censored* of frustration

 
paulsferg
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Post by paulsferg » Fri. Jan. 24, 2014 9:28 pm

i;ve burned blashack,kimmels,reading no problems with any of them all good.my supplier dried up.bought some rice from earth and fire supply in tomoqua,the worst.very little heat output.the ash content is UNBELEIVABLE,every 2 to 2.5 bags a full ashcan.when its cold, 24 hours.double the ash I ever got.

 
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anthony7812
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Post by anthony7812 » Fri. Jan. 24, 2014 9:34 pm

I'll second the Newport aggregate junk. Don't wanna gripe too much, I was warned to try some first but the mighty low cost just clouded my judgement. Lesson learned.

 
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CoalHeat
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Post by CoalHeat » Fri. Jan. 24, 2014 10:36 pm

When I first started burning coal I got a bulk delivery from a local dealer, it was unburnable. I still have a little bit of it. Dave Vig II has a photo of a piece I gave him...had it in his stove for three days and it still retained it's shape. Never bought from them again.


 
GA cracker
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Post by GA cracker » Sat. Jan. 25, 2014 7:21 am

Reading, last year hands down the worst I've had. Got some from the Hagins (spelling) this year. I like a lot. and cheaper to boot.
C.

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sat. Jan. 25, 2014 7:34 am

I have honestly never gotten a bad load...but the load I got last year had a handful of nut coal mixed in, and one piece that was rather large... ;) The coal itself was excellent, so I think it averaged out.
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Beer can is just for a size reference, it wasn't found in the coal. :lol:

 
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davidmcbeth3
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Coal Size/Type: nut/pea/anthra

Post by davidmcbeth3 » Sat. Jan. 25, 2014 8:20 am

the coal I got for Christmas of course !

 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Sat. Jan. 25, 2014 1:26 pm

Got a half ton one time with a lot of car parts in it. Chevy voltage regulator, wires and some drum brake parts. That said the coal wasnt bad itself, just a lot of junk in it.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sat. Jan. 25, 2014 1:44 pm

I had some red ash last year that was saturated with fines. The burns were unpredictable and produced huge clinkers. I dunno what mine or breaker it came from.

 
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SMITTY
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Coal Size/Type: Rice / Blaschak anthracite
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Post by SMITTY » Sat. Jan. 25, 2014 2:02 pm

Kimmel's bagged for me, about 5-6 years ago. Mud balls, rocks, BOULDERS, wire, plastic, netting, tree branches, root systems .... all in a 50lb. bag! What a mess. I don't like paying for crap that don't burn, so I wasn't too happy. The first year I burned was the worst. Plus, the amount of ash limited me to 12-15 hour max. burn times. Lighting it off gave smoke with a bituminous smell at first. Plenty of heat, but everything else about it totally sucked.

Blaschak back in '09 was a dream come true - powdery ash, no unburnable junk, with instant 24 hour burn times or longer. The past couple seasons I ran into camouflaged rocks that jammed my grates wide open at just about every shakedown. I was ready to take a sledgehammer to my stove! SOOO AGGRAVATING!! I bent the crap out of my shaker handle from kicking it. Was hit or miss - sometimes I could bust it free ... and other times (usually at midnight when I wanted to SLEEP) I'd have to dump the fire and start from scratch. Was getting sick and tire of that crap! Must've burned 4 tons of it like that. I was at the end of my rope with the hand fired before the season even started. Luckily towards the end of that batch, that problem went away.

This year is my first with at stoker. So far I've only run into a few small pieces of wood, and 3 stove coal sized chunks mixed into a few bags out of 2.26 tons of their rice. Those were easy enough to smash into pea/rice size to burn. Glad I caught them before they did any damage to the stoker motor. They were so big that they just spun around endlessly on top of the paddle. Night and day difference in effort over running the hand fired though. Don't miss shaking a fire one bit!

 
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lewis
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Post by lewis » Sat. Jan. 25, 2014 3:28 pm

Thats not really a fair question almost any breaker I've bought from for an extended period of time has had a bad run or so. Most catch it from a customer complaint or the area they are stripping is done and they move on.
Coal is a raw material when it is sold and although sorted and washed it is subject to nature it is not sent to a refinery to make a standardized product. So you take the good with the bad,, UAE Harmony for all its heat & low ash was the filthiest most labor intensive coal I ever burned the bin constantly needed the fines removed I even had to build a screener for the coal when the bin got low and the delivery guy had a screening rig for his chute it was that bad. Ive been burning coal 20+ years and live where it comes from and plan to continue. I could go on and on about the ups and downs of breakers Mines stripping operations delivery guys and brokers.
I will say this anybody buying bulk in quantity over 2 tons or bagged over a pallet full has Big Balls.

 
steveyrock
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Post by steveyrock » Sat. Jan. 25, 2014 4:46 pm

Bravo Lewis,you nailed it. :D


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