successfully burning anthracite coal in a clayton furnace

The Clayton 5.6 is the same as the 1600. This unit should be able to handle heating most houses like a champ. But it all depends on some factor I'm sure you are aware of, size of house, insulation, duct design, etc. Looks like you have your barometric draft regulator set too low. You draft flap is probably open pretty good, not to be able too fire the stove higher.Try a higher setting in order to get the firebox temperature up. What is the stovepipe temperature before the regulator? Depending on the demand for heat, it may be between 100 to 500 degrees. My house is 3700sq.ft., so my Clayton is usually good until around 10 degrees without any gas assistance. When it gets down to the single digits, it struggles to keep up and becomes very fuel hungry. Your operation may be different. I have two Claytons, one hand fired and one stoker fired. So, I don't have to use the gas unless I'm going to be away for more than a day or two. I don't think you need to put a manual damper in your stovepipe. The barometric draft regulator you have will do the job. Your ducting really plays an important function on heating your house. A lot can be lost if it is not sized correctly. Take some temperature readings of the stove, the stovepipe, duct, and air coming out of the vents and evaluate your system with relation to your house. See what the stove and stovepipe is reading. It should give you a good idea if the stove is functioning properly. DOUG

Thanks Doug, So when you say the baro is set to low then I sould move it to a high number? Also currently don't have a guage to measure the the stove temperature. Will pick one up this weekend. The house is now up to 71F so I guess it it is working. I started the fire at 11:00 this morning and now it's 7:30 and only had to put two small shovels of coal on all day. I hope it's not just beginers luck! Have read alot of posts where some folks have been pretty frustrated. This site has a wealth of info.

Thanks again

coal4U wrote:I started the fire at 11:00 this morning and now it's 7:30 and only had to put two small shovels of coal on all day. I hope it's not just beginers luck!

Patience with coal, you just started the fire this morning. Tomorrow your going to be posting you had to open the windows.

Hoping this topic is still open and maybe you guys can help me out.

I just installed a clayton 5700 hotblast furnace in the house, Thanks to the info from this site I have had some success burning coal. I am burning anthracite stove size coal and under right conditions heating well. But I seem to have trouble keeping it going at a constant, this morning it was out. I am pretty sure my problem is I don't have a borometric damper installed.Last night we had 40+ mph winds and this morning no fire. My chimney is a 2 1/2 story stone with terra liner.
I wondered if you guys could maybe give me some thoughts along with an explanation of the baro damper(how it works, what it does)
I am also wondering about the thermostat fan kit that they sell for these furnaces, they are supposed to come on at whatever temp you set it at and if it falls below it blows into the fire to stoke it up. My question is are these for wood only or do they work for coal, and are they worth the $160 to install?

One more question, has anyone else had problems with their back grill not shaking out as good as the front, I get twicce as much ash out of the front grate as the back and over the period of a week or two my fire will get weaker in the back of the furnace.
Thank you for any help you might be able to give

The objective of the barometric draft regulator is to limit the amount of air passing through the system in order to maintain high heat transfer efficiency. I limits the suction pulling air into the appliance. High draft does not blow out the flames but fans them in wood and coal burning equipment. It allows the fire to stay at a controlled burn. The draft kit that US Stove sells is a nice option but I only see the benefit for controlling a wood fire or obtaining draft when your chimney natural draft is insufficient. The burning of stove sized coal does not need as much draft through the fire due to the air space available because of its size. As for having more ash up front, it probably is a combination of a few things the way you are burning currently. The draft flow pattern through your fire regarding all your opening settings is part of the reason and no barometric draft regulator is the other reason. You are going to learn how to control the draft through the fire with the three draft controls you have on the 5700. The ash door spinner, the feed door lever, and the rear draft hole, where the blower attaches. Once you figure the set up that works, you will know how to load the coal. Pushing hot coals to the rear or front of the firebox or not moving them at all when reloading. I understand through reading other owners posts on the 5700, that it is a little bit different than burning in a Clayton 1600, 1800, 5.6, or a 7.1. So, search this forum for the 5700 topics and I know there is a few guys that use the 5700 on this forum and will be happy to assist you further.

wanted to make a correction, the furnace is a 1557m

What do you have to get to check your draft and flu temp, My furnace runs great when I first start it all clean(warm house and have to damper it back) but after a few days it seems like I have to nurse it more and give it more air to keep going and like I said before I can never get the back great down to where I can see it glowing from the ash pan door like I can the front

Thanks for your reply and help as my hair is getting thin and can't keep missing work to clean the stove out and restart it

Thanks doug for your reply

Do you open the air control in the load door at all, I have always had mine closed as I thought I read that is only for wood and it puts coal out?

hey charles, this is jerry from ny. im ready to cancel the coal i just ordered and get a load of wood. this piece of crap ran for two weeks after i spoke to you and then started going out, so i cleaned it and added two steel pipes behind the bricks to help with the ash build up. worked great for a day or two then just started going out all the time. so i ripped that out and went back to the way it was and now i can't seem to get this house above 65 degrees {for long anyways}. i come down in the morning and it 55 degrees in here. i really hate this thing. i also put a duct from the plenum over to the cold air return of the coal furnace, which helped a lot, i put a pan of water in front of it for humidity. ive been sitting here all morning and its 65 degrees right now. ill try to give you a call later if i can pry the phone away from my granddaughter.

Correction noted. I was talking about the 1557 clayton. I just didn't catch the error. Once again, having no barometric draft regulator makes it almost impossible to regulate the fire without over firing or going out. You measure draft with a monometer or draft gauge inserted into the stovepipe or chimney and the other end open to the atmosphere. The difference in the level is the draft measured in inches. As for keeping the fire going after awhile, other than the draft issue, I wonder whether you may be shaking the fire out or if you don't have the fire with a deep enough charge. You need to maintain a deep bed of coals and shake, with short choppy strokes, enough to see the fire in the ash pan or until you see the first glowing live coals fall into the ash pan. Coal takes patience, you'll get it, but it may take awhile learning how to use your stove. Don't give up and mark down what you do each time. That will give you a record of how to or not to repeat what is occurring.

Thanks Doug for your continued help
I am going to get a barometric damper tommorrow and get it installed and hopefully it helps, I deffinitely think that is one of my problems. As far as a hot enough fire I have it burning to the top of the fire bricks and can seeit glowing in the ash pan. there is 3-4" blue flames. But this in the front half, it's not burning so good in the back half and looking through the ash pan door it is pitch black in the back. When I first start a fire and for the following day or maybe two I can keep it going all the way through, but it steadily drops from there, I always shake it until I see it glowing in the ash pan, usually will get some small hot coals coming through. There are two seperate grates 1 in front and 1 in back and the the fire over the back grate is never as good as the front. And eventually not at all. I am not sure if the back grate is not shaking like the front or if like you said it could be the way I am burning. I guess the next step will be the baro damper and hopefully that will get me the next step closer. I will post after I install it and let you know how it goes. Thanks again for your support and Happy Holidays!

Hotblast 1557 grates where they join in the center have sloop in them,therefore not shaking down the back as well as the front. Reason for hotter fire in front and more ash. Options are shut it down take and shim the grates in the center with some have used hacksaw blade pieces,cut nails or metal of some sort. Others have drilled and pinned or used a set screw to tighten them up.
WORD TO THE WISE should it feel crunchy,hard and need to apply more pressure STOP!!!It is my belief that this is when they will break. And have! I 'm sure you who have know when that point is now! Also be careful as to how much you shake down getting to much hot coal on those grates will proably cause them to crack.
As for the 1557 FAD which mounts on the back you will see in the back of the fire box an inlet above the firebrick where the air is introduced,not what you need for coal. One of the members here have a set up on the ash door that would work like the 1600/1800 series from a tstat.
Jerry call me lets see whats going on!
My phone number available upon request!
Charles

Hi Charles, I have had great success using my 1600 for the past few weeks. The 1 or 2 times I had a problem I was able to figure out what I did wrong and was able to correct it.
Once I learned to open and close the dampers depending on the weather conditions I have been able to keep my house temp. down to a comfortable 71 degrees.
I also have cut my coal usage down a 1/3 simply by doing this. iIam now thinking I should shut it down and clean it out, any thoughts on cleaning it out this soon?

Have you been able to get Jerry A.K.A. "1Howardo" going yet? poor guy, I remember the frustration I had and fully understand what he's going through.
Good Luck

John

Picked up my baro damper today just wondered if anyone had any reccommendations on installing it?
Can I have both the baro and manual?
What should I set the gauge on the baro at for burning stove coal?
Any input would be appreciated

Thanks for the help north Candlewood I'm probably lucky I haven't already broke it off.

Let me throw another question at you guys if you don't mind, I know I've got a lot but this site is the only one that gives me any help, without it I wouldn't have been able to burn coal for 1 hour let alone make it through the night(which I couldn't until I found this site!)

My fans run off the thermodisc which kicks them on once the stove reaches a certain temp, my question is how often do yours run? When I first start a fire and fill it with coal my fans never shut off and my house is nice and warm, I have to damper it down and even screw in the air adjustment on the ash door. About two days later them days are gone, I have to have my spinner all the way out and my damper can't be shut too far. Plus my fans run on and off usually quite infrequently towards morning.

It could be due to the baro damper which I am going to install this weekend so I can be home to monitor it as I have to work all week . But I was just curious how often your fans run as I am curious as to how hot a fire has to be to keep them running, when I get it running right that is.

Hi jer9 your diminishing fire after a few days is probably an accumulation of ash on the grates.. the fire box has a 'v'shape to the firebrick,, this 'V' shape acts like a funnel to concentrate the ash onto the grate, and causing the grate to clogg up and have little or no air passageways.. If you look at the underside of the grate you will probably see lots of dark spots and only a few areas of red coals .. You should see all gaps in the grates showing red coals above..

Make yourself a poker, like the photo in the post several above this post.. use the poker to go into the gaps in the grates and aggitate the ash and get it to break up and fall down , then shake the fire again, you need to get the ash off the grate and into the ashpan.. Once you get the air passageways open again, then you should have more heat..

You may just have to clean the firebox out every week and start fresh,, this is what I had to do,, I kept getting sheets of clinkers,, melted together ash that would not break up and go down into the ash pan,, so I just let the fire go out every week, shoveled out the firebox and the clinkers and started over again..

The HotBlast firebox design works well withwood, but not very well with coal..because of the above issues.. a good coal firebox does not have tapered,
V' shaped firebricks.. and the grates are over the entire bottom of firebox..

Hope this helps
Greg L

The thermo disc on these furnaces are set way to high.Use an adjustable fan switch or run the fans 24/7.I put an adjusteble fan switch on mine but when you first reload coal It would shut off for 1/2 an hour so the new fan switch has a botton you can pull out so it runs 24/7.Works MUCH better.
DON