Pea in a Dsm Basement #4?

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franco b
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Location: Kent CT
Hand Fed Coal Stove: V ermont Castings 2310, Franco Belge 262
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood Modern Oak 114
Coal Size/Type: nut and pea

Post by franco b » Fri. Feb. 07, 2014 8:18 pm

Don't make the bed as deep, about 6 to 7 inches and be careful shaking and it should be fine. Try a few bags.

 
07roadstar
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Joined: Wed. Jan. 25, 2012 8:40 pm
Location: Keeseville, Ny
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Had DS basement stove
Coal Size/Type: Nut
Other Heating: Burnham oil burner boiler

Post by 07roadstar » Fri. Feb. 07, 2014 8:33 pm

I'm burning it right now because the store were I get bagged nut was out and was not going to get anymore until the following week so I went with 10 bags of pea. It will burn but it takes awhile to get the coal hot before shaking it and to load it back up. Just be careful of shaking, little shakes is all you want or you WILL dump the fire box right into the ash pan. Ask how I know!! :mad: .I shake mine every 24 hours because pea burns real slow and you want to get as much BTU's out of every coal. You will have to turn your dial up a little because it does burn slow and not as hot as nut. I have mine set at 4.5 and that gives me a temperature of 450* right behind the hopper door, plus after loading I open my over the fire vents to get the flames to burn much of the volatiles gasses as well as the ash pan door. After 40 minutes of watching the flames and temperature I start to close thing down a little at a time until I know it will continue on by it self with out the flames going out. Just be careful because it really does take a little bit more work but it will burn.
Side note: I just hooked a manometer and found my draft was at -.25 :shock: but by barometric was sat at -.06. I moved it to -.02 or all the way open and my draft is now reading -1.0. Guess I have to install a the manual damper to help out with the turbo draft I have. This is with no wind but my chimney is in the middle of the house and goes through 4 floors before going outside.
Brett

 
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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 » Fri. Feb. 07, 2014 8:36 pm

Rent or borrow a pickup and get some bulk nut.


 
CapeCoaler
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Joined: Sun. Feb. 10, 2008 3:48 pm
Location: Cape Cod, MA
Stoker Coal Boiler: want AA130
Hand Fed Coal Stove: DS Machine BS#4, Harman MKII, Hitzer 503,...
Coal Size/Type: Pea/Nut/Stove

Post by CapeCoaler » Fri. Feb. 07, 2014 10:31 pm

Pea in spring and fall...
Nut in winter...
The pea will tend to fuse and bridge if you run hard...
I have used pea to slow down the burn in warm spells during the winter...

 
AlmostThere
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Post by AlmostThere » Tue. Feb. 11, 2014 7:41 pm

After a couple of years of digging/searching for information from fellow members, I figured I would help out with some input from my experiences on this topic. Upon noticing the headline of this post, I figured I would buy some PEA Coal the next time I needed it. After purchasing a half of a ton and figured it couldn't hurt to practice some and hopefully help someone along the way. Anyhow, here are my experiences so far with burning pea coal in my DS Basement #4 stove.

Overall thoughts ;) .... So far I am not a huge fan because of the following reasons:

1. I do not think I am achieving the same amount of heat as nut coal (kind of figured this).
2. I am using more pea coal compared to nut so far on a daily basis.
3. The shaking process took roughly 50% more shakes to remove the ash build up compared to nut coal.

Just so everyone knows I do not think I am an expert in burning coal by any means. I have realized over the three years of doing this process I will never "master" the technique but I figured I would help out.

Maybe someone can add some more information to this post to help us fellow DS Basement #4 users out.

Attachments

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After 12 hours without a shake down the edges were nothing but ashes.

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Up close picture of the burnout on the edges.

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To get rid of this excessive ash build up I used my metal rod and pushed the ashes down around the edges so I could shake it out.

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Simple picture of the ashes in the tray.

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