successfully burning anthracite coal in a clayton furnace

pastor55 wrote:

gitrdonecoal wrote:how are all of our new hotblast and clayton owners doing so far? experiences? any problems? lets hear some feedback!

shes still burning well.

hope you got a baro

i couldn't wait any longer and fired up my clayton 1600m today. have it burning about as low as i dare to try. still need to hook up the dwyer and get a couple thermometers. i have the ash pan spinner 2 turns out and i am getting major heat out of it.

i had to wire a relay hooked up to my thermostat to keep the temp in the house under control. front door is open and i'm in shorts and sweating.

started it about noon today. if its is still burning when i get up at 4am i will be happy. just topped it off for the night.

gitrdonecoal wrote:

pastor55 wrote:

gitrdonecoal wrote:how are all of our new hotblast and clayton owners doing so far? experiences? any problems? lets hear some feedback!

shes still burning well.

hope you got a baro

have'nt gotten one yet.

hi everyone, started up my clayton 1800 and having the usual problems. i was on here last year and was supposed to talk to north candlewood but i couldn't get coal from anyone around here and switched to wood. i have switched from nut coal to stove,have a nice fire going. glowing coals and blue flames when i open the door. my problem now is that it's not putting heat into the house. it's 68 degrees and 30 outside. it's supposed to be in the 50's and sunny today so i imagine that it will be getting warmer in here soon. i have tried different settings. i have the spin closed now, because i thought all my heat was going up the chimney. the coals are glowing and there is heat when i open the door but it's just not getting into the house. also it seems to ash up really fast, which seems to choke the fire out.

A successful move of the clayton 1600 out of the house and up to the barn. It replaces a Wood Chuck that I had picked up a couple of years ago and how it is out on loan to a good friend who needed temp heat in a large building. It is good for wood, I never had much success with coal in it.

I fired up the clayton yesterday noon time in the normal manner as I have done in the past. Robust wood fire, load on some coal, load on more coal until it was just about full on 80#s. I added about another 20#s at about 5pm and let it just run till about 9am this morning. When I opened up the ash door and got it ripping and added 20#s more. I shook it a couple of times with little ash fall out until I could see the red hots dropping. There it sits warming up a barn that was about 40 yesterday and now reaching the 60's just idling along.

It is hooked into a masonry chimney 8x12, 30 feet tall, a big difference from the 7 inch insulated SS at about 21 feet. Now I find the 6 inch baro will not get the draft down below a .08. So now it looks as if I will be putting in a 8 inch baro to slow the draft down.

Well i guess I should go check on it, just an reason to go up top the barn really!

1howardo if you still have my number just call and I am sending you a PM with it again so you have it I'm around all day.
Charles

I have been burning my 1600m for about a week now. so far i am happy with the stove. i made the fire box smaller as it was making the house too hot with a full fire box and the air cut way back.

how do you deal with the ash that builds up in the front of the front of the fie box. i imagine when i burn a full fire box it will happen in the rear also. i have been trying to keep the bulk of the coal away from the sides and front hoping that will help.

finally, getting cold enough for coal. no more wood for me till spring. loaded up just now between hunting trips. made sure my manual stays open in my flu pipe and put the baro into the tee, all set. pastor 55, i really hope you got a baro for your clayton. can be dangerous without it

Ok, finally the cold seems to have arrived in my neck of the woods. Been burning wood in the 1557 since Thanksgiving. Definatlly would like to give coal a try. I figure soon as the temps stay in the 30's during the day regular, I might give it a go. When its 30 or below, if I can keep the stove temp(as measured on the front steel) no higher than 200 degrees or so, I can keep from running us out of the house pretty easily. The colder outside the better. I can dump alot of air into the unfinished side of the basement if needed, which helps alot. That stove temp is iffy with wood. Trying to keep a good clean fire puts me over that untill she starts to back down. Do you think I can run those temps with coal? I have a baro, which is at .08 now, can lower it when I switch over. I figure if the weather cooperates, I'll try coal sometime over my Christmas break, I have close to 2 weeks off, so I can give it what ever attention it needs. Nows the time to throw your two cents in...I'll take all I can get! Thanks
Mike

does anyone know what cfm the FAB blower is. I have some small blowers hanging around and i rather not do a trial and error thing.

gitrdonecoal wrote:finally, getting cold enough for coal. no more wood for me till spring. loaded up just now between hunting trips. made sure my manual stays open in my flu pipe and put the baro into the tee, all set. pastor 55, i really hope you got a baro for your clayton. can be dangerous without it

still havn't yet. still burning nice.

call me sometime

gitrdonecoal wrote:finally, getting cold enough for coal. no more wood for me till spring. loaded up just now between hunting trips. made sure my manual stays open in my flu pipe and put the baro into the tee, all set. pastor 55, i really hope you got a baro for your clayton. can be dangerous without it

hey pastor, just tried callin ya. think ur cell phone was off lol. call me back anytime after 7 toningt, sent a pm with my number. and make sure you read up on this:
Manual pipe dampers .. how, why, when
lots of good info in there. LSfarm really spells it out good. stay warm.
John

I'm attempting to burn anthracite coal in my woodchuck4000...getting the nice red coals ande blue flames but the furnace isn't putting out the btu's. its cold as hell here and the temp in the house last night was 56 until I came home from work and switched over to gas. can anyone help me out with whats going wrong? have been operating this furnace for a year and up until a week ago was burning wood successfully, just a lot more maintenance than i want right now. I've heard that coal is the way to go but I'm having trouble believing it.

50bigdog
This is my first year also and right up front I'll tell you there is a learning curve. I'm about a month into it and it is worth the effort to learn your stove and get up and going burning coal, it's way less work than wood. Actually being a wood burner is a bit of a handicap when it comes to learning to burn coal as things happen a lot slower with coal than wood. Like I said I'm a rookie but a couple of things that I found make a big difference, a good draft is a must with coal, and load as much coal in as you can, I load mine to the top of the fire brick and then mound it in the middle. I have a manometer on my stove and found I have to leave the door open to the garage or crack a window to get a good draft. With the window closed the best I could get was .03 with the window open I can get .05-.06 before the barometric damper opens. It doesn't seem like much but with my stove it's night and day. I actually got the supplies today to install a fresh air vent so I don't have to open a window.

Stick with it nothing in life worth having comes easy. Also read all you can on this forum the guys here are a wealth of knowledge.

George