Is There Any Stove Made With a Hopper That Can Use BIT Coal?

Everything I've heard is that if you have a hand fired stove with a hopper and you burn bit the fire will go right up into the hopper. Conventional hand fed (designed to burn anthracite) stoves with hoppers and bituminous coal are a very dangerous combination. If your hopper is removable you can try bit.

lsayre wrote:Everything I've heard is that if you have a hand fired stove with a hopper and you burn bit the fire will go right up into the hopper. Conventional hand fed (designed to burn anthracite) stoves with hoppers and bituminous coal are a very dangerous combination. If your hopper is removable you can try bit.

Yes, you are correct. Not only does the fire creep back up into the magazine, many varieties of Bituminous cake together when heated so you get this fused mass of coal which won't drop.
You have to knock it down from the top with a poker. Not a good practice if you have any white painted walls.

Here is an example of a hot blast fire pot. This is from a Globe Hot Blast. Notice the little holes all around the top of the fire pot. These are the ports for the secondary air which is heated via tubes cast into the fire pot. This is most effective in the proper combustion of high volatile Bituminous Coal. I wished I had one of these when I used to burn it.

And on the hotblast stoves with the pipe going down to the fire from the top, how close does the pipe get to the fire and whats the diameter of the pipe?

I am currently burning WV Bituminous in my Glenwood #6 Baseburner. This is only the second day, but so far it is doing very well. My air settings are basically the exact same as it was for Anthracite with just a touch of secondary air at the door added. It has the heated air ring at the top of the fire-pot A little smoke but nothing major. I was paying $360 a ton for Anthracite here in KY. I can get this for $75 a ton.

Nice looking fire, is the stove ur using not made anymore or still in use

Jared43758 wrote:Nice looking fire, is the stove ur using not made anymore or still in use

Looks like about a 100 year old Glenwood #6.

That looks like good coal, If you haven't yet, post the supplier in the bituminous coal sources page to help others in the area.

lsayre wrote:

Jared43758 wrote:Nice looking fire, is the stove ur using not made anymore or still in use

Looks like about a 100 year old Glenwood #6.

Yes, it is. But not all the #6 (and #8) still have the gas ring. A lot of the ones I looked at before finding mine were missing theirs.

And those that do still have the gas ring, the air is fed to that ring through small series of holes in the front of the stove, just below the loading door. Not from down round the sides of the firepot as William mentioned.

I would imagine there is a big difference between the two designs, in the secondary air temperature delivered to over the fire.'' Many anthracite stoves can preheat the secondary air, but I'm pretty sure that what William is talking about is bit coal needing "super heated " secondary air to burn clean.

Paul

It's true that the hot blast designs with the supply tubes cast into the fire pot deliver really hot air. It is probably near the proper temperature for the ignition of hydrocarbons which is really hot. Around 1,500 to 1,800 degrees. It's really hard to get those temperatures in a non forced draft appliance, but; you can get close.
Now the Glenwood design doesn't deliver air that is that hot, however; it gets plenty hot enough to ignite hydrocarbon gas instantly on contact. Here, see these photographs from my Glenwood which show conclusively that the secondary air ring works as advertised.
I have no doubt that the Glenwood Base Heater properly equipped with its secondary air ring will do a very credible job of burning Bituminous.
In fact, half-pint who just posted about his Glenwood told me he wanted a picture of his chimney belching black smoke to irritate some environmentalists. He said he couldn't make the stove smoke enough to get the picture he wanted. Once the stove gets up to temperature the secondary ring does its job well.

That's true. I actually had to force it to give off the smoke in the pictures. I had to put some fresh coal on the fire and choke it way down on it's air supply and have my wife open the air back up after I got outside to get any smoke at all.

It ran with just a very light blue/grey haze under normal conditions. Once the volatiles had burned off completely it actually ran with a clear stack just like with anthracite. I could throw a couple of scoops in, shut the door, and walk away once I had found the air settings the stove was happy with. It's secondary air ring, while not the preferred style such as on a Florence Hot Blast does a very very good job.

Now there was more smoke when getting the stove going of course, but once I finished getting the stove up to temperature the smoke went away. I'm very cautious with my Glenwood #6. ( I monitor it with a handheld thermometer, exhaust gas temperature thermometer, and 4 placed on the stove and it's pipe) Being over 100 years old it is a "Real" coal stove and not a sheet metal box. I normally take 90 minutes at minimum slowly warming it up and letting the metal expand so it lessens the stress on the stove.

I found the coal on Lexington, KY Craigslist. It's advertised at $75 per ton but there is a delivery fee for fuel. I got 6 tons delivered to my home in central KY from West Virginia for $950.

Thanks for sharing about your Glenwood. It looks like there is another good candidate for Bituminous Burning as well. I suspected that it should be able to do just fine with the secondary air ring.