Can I Burn Hard Coal in My Stove?

I have an old Sun number 40 pot belly in really good shape but I have no experience burning coal. Can I burn hard nut coal in this stove? Thanks in advance. Bruce in PA

Welcome to NEPA crossroads.

I can't answer your question, but those who know will be along shortly.

Welcome to the forum!!!!

Yes you can burn hard coal in your #40. Up in the right hand corner of the screen is a custom search bar. Type in number 40 potbelly and you'll get a multitude of listings.

I have copied one for you to get you started in your reading and your journey. Burning black rocks can seem very daunting and it's nothing like wood burning. You will need to forget everything you know about burning wood to burn anthracite coal successfully.

Try the link and welcome. Ask any and all questions. We will help where we can.

Chiefster23 wrote:I have an old Sun number 40 pot belly in really good shape but I have no experience burning coal. Can I burn hard nut coal in this stove? Thanks in advance. Bruce in PA

Welcome chiefster23, I have a pot belly stove that I used 4 yrs ago and it did burn coal well almost too well. It was not air tight and it ran hot. Some folks have put gasket material around the ash door and the load door and tightened up the spin dampers on both doors as well. Pictures of your stove and grates will help us help you if not please tell us what you have. Have you been burning wood in it? I would also like to know about your flue pipe and chimney, please describe them, i.e. do you have a pipe damper, is the chimney clay lined etc. My stove got very hot and turned a dull red at one point so instead of lining it I got another stove. Do you have a C.O. detector. You may want to consider lining the bottom half of the belly with fire brick or refractory cement like many do with antique stoves. A bed of coal will burn hotter than a wood fire but will last much longer. Good luck, Mike.

This is a good read as well!
Potbelly Stove

michaelanthony wrote:

Chiefster23 wrote:I have an old Sun number 40 pot belly in really good shape but I have no experience burning coal. Can I burn hard nut coal in this stove? Thanks in advance. Bruce in PA

Welcome chiefster23, I have a pot belly stove that I used 4 yrs ago and it did burn coal well almost too well. It was not air tight and it ran hot. Some folks have put gasket material around the ash door and the load door and tightened up the spin dampers on both doors as well. ............................... Good luck, Mike.

Welcome.

I had the same problem with my small pot belly. Leaked air and ran hot until I sealed the ash door and the slide damper and loading door and secondary damper better. I got it used. Ran it for many years, then I gave it to a friend who burns wood in it. Tough little thing and still going strong.

Paul

I bought the stove used but it seems in very good shape as far as the grates and metal go. The doors are loose and the joints don't seem to be airtight. There is no refractory, bricks, or sealant of any kind inside the stove. I piped it into a disused oil furnace chimney (brick with clay chimney tile inside). I have no damper in the flue pipe. I am in the process of trying out the stove with soft coal right now. Seems to burn well with the small draft door closed so I guess air leakage is a problem. Bruce

Chiefster23 wrote:I bought the stove used but it seems in very good shape as far as the grates and metal go. The doors are loose and the joints don't seem to be airtight. There is no refractory, bricks, or sealant of any kind inside the stove. I piped it into a disused oil furnace chimney (brick with clay chimney tile inside). I have no damper in the flue pipe. I am in the process of trying out the stove with soft coal right now. Seems to burn well with the small draft door closed so I guess air leakage is a problem. Bruce

Without a damper in the flue pipe efficiency will not be in your vocabulary, but from what I gather soft coal is cheaper!

Soft coal here is 107 vs over $200 for hard coal. I' trying to get as long a burn time as possible between refills. Please bear with me as this is all new to me and I have no one around me that has experience with pot belly stoves. So, will hard coal burn longer than soft? If not then I have no desire to burn hard coal. Also, I have no idea how much coal constitutes a full load in this stove. Should I fill it up to the horizontal joint between the top and bottom halves of the main body? This is a very small stove. Is it reasonable to expect to get 8 to 10 hours burn time between refueling or should I expect less? Seems I need to install some type of damper in the flue. So many questions???

Chiefster23 wrote:Soft coal here is 107 vs over $200 for hard coal. I' trying to get as long a burn time as possible between refills. Please bear with me as this is all new to me and I have no one around me that has experience with pot belly stoves. So, will hard coal burn longer than soft? If not then I have no desire to burn hard coal. Also, I have no idea how much coal constitutes a full load in this stove. Should I fill it up to the horizontal joint between the top and bottom halves of the main body? This is a very small stove. Is it reasonable to expect to get 8 to 10 hours burn time between refueling or should I expect less? Seems I need to install some type of damper in the flue. So many questions???

I have never burned bit, use the search box, top right, many people burn it. Without the damper and knowing how much coal your stove will hold makes it very difficult to tell you how long of a burn you will get, don't worry this is because you a new to coal and we've all been there...well some folks grew up with it so they don't count
Again, it is probably a good idea to line the fire pot if you plan to use this stove to heat with this winter.

ive got a small potbelly I used some one winter with anthracite. I took it all apart and resealed it, all the joints. While apart, I put a refractory lining in it too. It only has an 8 inch diameter firepot, real small. Even sealed up as good as I could get it, I rarely got an 8 hour burn. 6 hours easy. I got it so it would sit at 300 degrees the whole time it burned.

You need a manual pipe damper for sure. then if it overfires itself with just that, add a barometric damper too. Every fancy word I used can be searched on the site to learn how to do it.