nut coal in a franco belge ?

ive been burning pea coal in it and i was wondering if i could burn a mix of nut and pea for a hotter burn and longer burn time ?

first-timer wrote:ive been burning pea coal in it and i was wondering if i could burn a mix of nut and pea for a hotter burn and longer burn time ?

I will not discourage you, but i tried it & was not that successful. Nut was just to big to shake down in the grates.If you want more heat turn up the draft and shake three times a day if possible. if you do try the mix , move your hopper up to the highest settings on the rests.I never tried removing the hopper & hand loading maybe that would work. Possibly somebody else may weigh in on this topic. Good luck Stan! P.s. Make sure you have good hard coal.

I used a F-B for 14 years. I started out with nut and it didn't work very well. The coal hung up in the hopper and the ash didn't break up and fall thru the grates easily. I found that the pea coal work much better.

I tried to burn without the hopper in place but the fire pot wasn't deep enough to keep a good bed of coals. Then I had to keep adding coal by the "handful" to keep the fire going. That got old pretty quick and the hopper went back in.

The F-B is a good stove, but I was ready for a change.