successfully burning anthracite coal in a clayton furnace

DOUG wrote:Believe it or not, I have tried to burn wood pellets in my Clayton. Well, it did burn, but it produced a lot of gases that were very very sensitive to ignition when the feed door was open. I would be very careful if you do load the firebox with bags of pellets. I would use a good wood fire with a lot of charcoal embers before I would load any pellets up in the firebox and use the combustion blower wide open to help with the much needed air. They did burn hot, but burnt faster than split wood. I'd say you could burn pellets mixed with split wood, but don't expect the same results as split wood and they tended to fall through into the ash pan unburnt if the charcoal ember bed wasn't deep enough to prevent it from happening. See if you could sell the wood pellets, because it is a really costly way to get heat for the trouble of burning wood pellets in your Clayton.

My thoughts exactly! Sell the pellets, maybe in January after all the suppliers run out of their stock.

Thanks for the advise guys I think I'll put the pellets on craigslist.

George

hey george

how many 5/8" prongs does your asheater have? It sounds like a great idea. I wanted to try to make one this weekend. Is the 5/8" rod welded at a right angle to the shaft?

Just one welded to the bottom. It's welded like a T to the end of the long shaft you chuck in the drill. There is nothing magic about the sizes but for reference mine is about a 4 ft long 1/2" shaft with a piece of 5/8 x 2" long (just what I had laying around) welded to the bottom like a paint mixer. FWIW I was going to try a 3" long end this year to see if it works any better but it may be to hard to spin in the coal bed. Have fun and let me know how you like it.

I've been burning wood for the past month and switched over to coal last night. I got 4 ton delivered from Tri-County Coal in Carmel, NY and so far it seems to be burning good. Does anyone know who Tri-County uses for their bulk coal ?

George
Brookfield, CT

I got about three tons of nut coal this summer for FREE. Couldn't turn that Down! The problem I'm having is the coal has some small pieces (about the size of Pea). It's been around 25 here and can't seem to get the house warm. My blower fan runs maybe 2-4 minutes then it's off for 8-10. let it burn out today cleaned it out. Changes i've made tonight.
Adjusted draft to read between .07-.08. Currently have the ash door spinner out all the way (just started a fire). I changed my settings on my blower control from 155 high and 100 low to 140 high and 90 low. Any other tips would be great. I'll post with an update in an hour or so

Hey George
Tri County gets from Blashak and Reading in their bulk coal. Good to hear you got it up and running. I picked up a ton of rice and a ton of nut bagged last week. We run the clayton in the barn on wood and coal.

Eng11ine
How are you making out? Sounds high on your draft!

Well, it's 17 outside right now and according to the wife (I'm not home) the house is 73. the problem was user error. I didn't zero out my Mano. My draft was actualy only about .03. Set the Baro to .06-.07 and she's chugging away no problem. Once again, thanks everyone for all your help over the last couple of years. have a blessed and saffe holiday season


Chris

Thanks for the info North Candlewood. I thought it looked like Reading with the rust spots on some of the pieces. Last year I had bagged Blashack and I have noticed the Reading burns a little different. My observations on the Blashack - Less ash, virtually no klinkers but being bagged it was more like nut with a lot of fine chips mixed in. Reading Bulk - A little more ash, more prone to clinkers and nice uniform size.

I also burn wood when I have it in the beginning and end of the season (just long enough to remind me why I like coal so much). This year I'm out of wood so I was thinking of trying a couple bags of pea this spring to see if I can keep the oil furnace turned off. Do you know if anyone has been successful burning pea in a Clayton ? Burning nut I'm able to run with the ash door spinner 1 turn open. That's fine if it stays in the mid 40's the house will be 74-76 deg. When it gets to 50 deg the windows have to get opened.

George

Hi, I have a Clayton 1600 with its own blower. It goes into the main plenum of my oil furnace. When the temperature gets really cold say below 20F I can't seem to get enough heat into the house. Today it is really cold outside and the coal furnace fan has been running non stop all day and the house is only 64F. The fan is on high on the Clayton but since it goes into the plenum it just does not distrbute very well. My fan limit switch on my oil funace does not have a manual control so I can't turn that on to give things a boost. Is it possible to wire my oil furnace fan so that it comes on when my Clayton fan kicks on? If I can't get the house warmer than 64 I may have to switch back to oil

Sure it is possible. Run a wire from each of the fan limit switches to it's own relay coil. Then on the contact side of the relays, attach both contact sides to a common barrier strip terminal. Then from the barrier strip terminal connect it to the fan on the oil furnace.

I'd rethink your Clayton duct connection to your oil furnace plenum. It sounds like you need rework the connection to prevent back drafting of the Clayton fan into the oil furnace. There are a few ways of going about it. You could use a Y connection or spring dampers or motorized dampers in your connections of your furnaces to your plenum. I'd try this route first, unless you truly need the extra CFM. I would think that if the oil furnace does the job by itself, then the Clayton should do equally as well by itself. Using both fans not only increases your electric bill, but it may cause a cooler drafty feel in the house from the extra CFM's.

Hello, this is my second year w/ a 1602m clayton and still no luck w/ burning coal. I have a new stainless chimney and added the blower fan on the front. I read about the baro damper but the stove pipe that was installed is a telescopic pipe and dont know if it can be installed in that type of pipe. 2 layer thick. I printed the pages of the web about how to burn coal from usstove co. but no help. Thanks

Hi gus and welcome to the forum. There is a few things that you will need to do in order for you to burn coal successfully in your Clayton. A barometric draft regulator is a must. I would also purchase a manometer or draft gauge so you can properly dial in the barometric draft regulator.

You didn't state if you want to burn anthracite or bituminous coal. Here is link to firing anthracite which may help. Slow Blue Dancing with Red Dressed Ladies in a Clayton

Here is a link to firing the Clayton on hard wood. CLAYTON FURNACE FIRED ON WOOD

Bituminous coal fires more like wood and I haven't got around to making a thread yet on firing it.

Feel free to ask questions here and we all will try to answer them so you get going with successfully firing coal in your Clayton.

hello guys and ladys .... i to have a 1600G and last year i had some one from here help me and he got me on track .. this year i started up the same with left over coal from last year and no prob. till i added thie new coal from this year and just like starting over.got rid of the forced air blower and put the spinner on .. looked at my log and i cant seen to get to burn .04 draft and it wants ot go out . ( i might thve to much air going in the top spinner i got that about 1/2 inch open . the bottom at 4 spinnes out . if any of you guys have anything to help out that would be great . ( till your better payed ) lol thanks ..... eric .