New and Looking for Advice

We have sold Heatmors since 1991 - Blaschak anthracite last 2 yrs and now Keystokers .
Here is my experience burning anthracite in a Heatmor Model 400-( 4 1/2 ft firebox ). We have heated solely with stove or nut sized anthracite- Blaschak- for the last 2 years- prefer nut . We did manufacture and use a steel, firebrick lined "hot box" ( 18 inches high- holds 300 pounds of anthracite ) for anthracite that goes over the grates and yes it does help, but it does deteriorate after 1 yr of continuous use ( private message me if you like plans for box and pics ) . We have had customers install firebricks and the like, to burn anthracite, but really I don't think they are needed. Now we are simply using our 1996 Heatmor Model 400 with shaker grates and by and large get along pretty well . Our trick to keep efficiency up is to use natural draft as much as possible- don't laugh- we stick a screw driver between the ash tube and the ash tube cover plate to leave a gap about 1/8 inch at the top for air to seep in continuously - we have a rheostat on our front fan so that even if the fan comes on to top up our water temp it does not make a huge fire ( where a lot of heat would go up the stack ) . We have only had 1 minor boil in 2 yrs and are amazed at how little the fan runs - we have the coal piled deep- right up to the level of the bottom of the door frame- sometimes higher- we throw in a 40 pound bag ( bag and all ) - usually 1 in the morning and 1 at night to heat our 4,000 sq ft house and 1,000 sq ft shop - on average for 180 day heating season we use 100 pounds per day . We run our water temp at 165 degrees down to 155 degrees ( to give us less chance of a boil should the natural draft be too great .) We seem to need to clean out ashes every 2 days faithfully - but here is the rub - it is tricky to know how much to shake the shaker grates- we do that 2 x per day, until we seen some red coals in the ash tube - but - the odd time the shaker grates will stick because of a chunk of hard clinker- sometimes we can clear that by shaking but sometimes even after " dumping " the shakers stay jammed and we have to let the Heatmor go out, take everything out- ( a big job ) , clear the clinker and away we go again . We sell 40 pound bags of Blaschak anthracite for $8 per bag by the 3 skids, less for trailer loads . Have installed 4 Keystokers boilers this year to date and more to go . Hope all this helps

I did hear of that bag and all trick from someone else who burned coal in a OWB.

I don't think our OWB guy here has located any hard coal.

We threw 4 bags in ours with plenty of room to spare,it just did not work well with coal tho.,but that is now in a former life.

Thanks Wallyp. That's a lot of good information. I can get kimmel coal at tractor supply but I don't know how that stacks up to the coal you have. I have read on here about it and some people are not happy with the quality of kimmel.

Different appliances behave differently to the same coal...hard to say it's not for yours till you try it.

Coal in an OWB can be a bit tricky. I have been using in mine for about a year now. Best results are with red ash ant stove size mixed with bit nut. I say nut because its the only size I can get locally. Last ton I tried was supposed to be red ash but I think it was white. It was hard to keep going without some wood mixed in. I didn't mix with bit. That ton lasted 6 weeks in moderate weather, just a couple 20° or lower days.

Make sure your differential is set nice and tight. Mine is at 2° right now with a water temp set point of 175°. I tried the constant air idea mentioned above but it always overfired and it really needed monitoring. The tight diff gives you almost the same thing.

Shaking is critical. Make sure you have good air flow from below. I also leave a small section of grate open to provide some overfire air; probably not necessary but I do it.

Forgot to mention in my previous post - we are located 1/2 way between Detroit and Toronto near London Ontario Canada . We need to sell our bagged anthracite at this price because on top of the US $$ we need to add 16% for $$ value difference plus freight from Blaschak, about 10 hrs away solid driving .
For folks who don't have access to natural gas or "free" wood for an outdoor boiler and want to save some money in exchange for a little work- anthracite is our next best option .
Just paid our last electricity bill- October 15, 2014 to Nov 13, 2014 -== 2,119 kilo watt hours- with all taxes and other services in- cost $407.00 Canadian $$ - that is almost 20 cents per kilo watt hour and they are predicting 10% increase each yr for next 3 yrs . And that cost is after we do a few things to save money by using power in off peak times .
How does that compare to your electricity costs .

We pay $.08/kwh here.

Wallyp wrote: Just paid our last electricity bill- October 15, 2014 to Nov 13, 2014 -== 2,119 kilo watt hours- with all taxes and other services in- cost $407.00 Canadian $$ - that is almost 20 cents per kilo watt hour and they are predicting 10% increase each yr for next 3 yrs . And that cost is after we do a few things to save money by using power in off peak times .
How does that compare to your electricity costs .

About half of what we pay in CT.

coaledsweat,are you saying .40 or .16 in Ct.?

McGiever wrote:Stoker coal is too small for a hand fired Outdoor Wood Boiler

He needs football size and bigger.

WV lump house coal - $75 (Dunbar)

Good burning lump house coal for sale. Cut your heating bill by banking your wood stove overnight and keeping your fire burning with some hot burning wv coal. 75.00 per ton + delivery charge. Delivery charge depends on distance traveled.. Delivery only no pick up. Please call or text for a specific delivery quote. 3o4-2o6-8476

windyhill4.2 wrote:coaledsweat,are you saying .40 or .16 in Ct.?

I'll look for a bill but IIRC it's .37-.38. Wallingford has its own power company owned by the city and it is cheap there but everywhere else it is insane. When they deregulated, tbey made the power companies divest themselves from the generating side and it just about doubled the cost.

So the stove has been up and running for about 2 weeks. I am going this weekend to get 2 tons of bit. house coal for 90.00 a ton. I guess we will see how it goes this weekend after I get done modifing the firebox.

Last I looked about 2 months ago .226 from CL%P in SE CT.