Pea Coal in Direct Draft Vs. Baseburners
- BPatrick
- Member
- Posts: 349
- Joined: Wed. Jan. 25, 2012 5:29 pm
- Location: Cassopolis, MI
- Baseburners & Antiques: 2 Crawford 40 Baseheaters
- Coal Size/Type: Stove Coal
- Other Heating: Herald Oak No. 18
Well as I ran out of stove coal and have a lot of pea coal I decided to use it up in the shoulder months. I like a lot of things about the pea coal I just had to be careful using it on my direct draft as if I shook the stove down too much I'd loose coal. It burned fine and put out as much or little heat as I wanted but I'd have really bad clinkers, so much that I decided to just go back to nut and stove and dial the stove in more. With my Crawford, I have to be really careful when shaking the stove down as it's set up to run stove best and then nut, pea without an ash layer is almost impossible as it wants to fall through the larger openings. Well I'm burning in the shoulder months so I don't need to shake down too much and have figured out how to balance the shaking along with the lower stove temps. Well I'm thinking we're going to have the real bad clinkers again. The Crawford 40 burns the pea coal so much more completely that we don't have any clinkers at all. I used to get them really bad in the Herald # 16 and although it burned really well the clinkers were a big pain in the but. It's amazing how much different coal size burns with a baseheater. We still have to watch not to shake it too much but we've been heating with pea coal for 2 1/2 weeks now and working great. I'd rather just use one size but since I already paid for it I might as well use it. It's a great lesson that if we cannot find one source, we can make another size work.
- michaelanthony
- Member
- Posts: 4550
- Joined: Sat. Nov. 22, 2008 10:42 pm
- Location: millinocket,me.
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Vigilant 2310, gold marc box stove
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Gold Marc Independence
- Baseburners & Antiques: Home Sparkle 12
- Coal Size/Type: 'nut
- Other Heating: Fujitsu mini split, FHA oil furnace
I have had great success with pea size during the cold weather in the Vigilant 2310, the grates are close together and the air is controlled with the bi metal damper. I did notice some clinkers when I tried to slow it down even more by adding some ash when the temps got into the 40's I guess some nut mixed in but I didn't want to buy any more coal this year.
- BPatrick
- Member
- Posts: 349
- Joined: Wed. Jan. 25, 2012 5:29 pm
- Location: Cassopolis, MI
- Baseburners & Antiques: 2 Crawford 40 Baseheaters
- Coal Size/Type: Stove Coal
- Other Heating: Herald Oak No. 18
It would be much easier if the grates in the Crawford 40 were closer together. That's the challenge, shaking enough to keep enough airflow, but not too much to loose good coal. As I get better at using the check dampener, I'll have little issue in warm weather.
- michaelanthony
- Member
- Posts: 4550
- Joined: Sat. Nov. 22, 2008 10:42 pm
- Location: millinocket,me.
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Vigilant 2310, gold marc box stove
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Gold Marc Independence
- Baseburners & Antiques: Home Sparkle 12
- Coal Size/Type: 'nut
- Other Heating: Fujitsu mini split, FHA oil furnace
Good luck bro, I love your stove and I want one for Christmas but I know I'll have to settle for just the coal!