Warm Morning Firebrick Chimneys

CoalKracker · Post by **CoalKracker** » Wed. Oct. 28, 2015 10:08 pm

Thanks for help guys! I'm loving this stove so far, it gives off much more heat then I exoexted. I'm headed to blaschaks Saturday to pick up some stove coal to give that a try and see how it heats compared to the nut I've been using.

Post by **Lightning** » Wed. Oct. 28, 2015 10:13 pm

I think you'll like the stove size. I'm using it this year in my hand fed furnace. It recovers after loading much quicker than nut size and it's easier to evacuate ash with the bigger spaces between the coal pieces.

It is a little more challenging to idle down though.

CoalKracker · Post by **CoalKracker** » Wed. Oct. 28, 2015 11:11 pm

My stove is extremely tight so hopefully that will work to my advantage. I also have nut and pea so if it gets out of hand I can get it under control with tge smaller size.

Smokeyja · Post by **Smokeyja** » Wed. Oct. 28, 2015 11:51 pm

I believe pea will fall through the grates ? My experience with stove coal in a WM was that you can't get as long of burn times with it . More air gaps = less coal capacity. But give it a wirl and see how it does for you!

buck24 · Post by **buck24** » Thu. Oct. 29, 2015 12:21 am

Try mixing chestnut and pea 50-50 which would give you range coal. The WM 523 liked that mix for 29 years and never complained.

warminmn · Post by **warminmn** » Thu. Oct. 29, 2015 12:27 am

CoalKracker wrote:My stove is extremely tight so hopefully that will work to my advantage. I also have nut and pea so if it gets out of hand I can get it under control with tge smaller size.

Ive read on here about other members putting some pea or nut on top of the stove coal to slow it down. Keep in mind every stove and user is different and yours may work fine with just stove. For whatever its worth, I like the stove coal too, for the exact reasons mentioned. Its easy to mix together with nut if you have a bin by buying bagged coal and dumping it in together, which is one of the things I do as I like the mix. Some dealers will deliver a mix.

edit: buck24 mentioned another mix members like. Try them all and see what works the best for you. It sounds like the pea-nut mix worked great for buck.

CoalKracker · Post by **CoalKracker** » Thu. Oct. 29, 2015 10:35 pm

buck24 wrote:Try mixing chestnut and pea 50-50 which would give you range coal. The WM 523 liked that mix for 29 years and never complained.

How long of a burn time were you getting from the 50/50 mix? So far I'm getting about 48 hours out of mine with nut size. And that's with it idling most of the time except from late afternoon into the evening and then idling it down until the afternoon the following day. I'm new with my warm morning and I'm trying to find that "sweet spot" with what type of coal to run.

CoalKracker · Post by **CoalKracker** » Thu. Oct. 29, 2015 10:37 pm

Would it make any sense to mix stove nut and pea together to try?

buck24 · Post by **buck24** » Thu. Oct. 29, 2015 11:45 pm

Play around with the mixes until you get it right. When I had the WM 523 burning I would fill her up to the top of the firebrick and 12 hrs later I would shake her down and fill her up to top again. This was the cycle I used from start up to the end of the season. The 523 holds 100#s of coal so she can burn for a while. I was heating 2500 square ft. so she never really idled. Good luck with her.

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Fri. Oct. 30, 2015 9:22 am

Instead of burning nut coal,you take a bigger size,mix it with a smaller size (50/50) = nut size ??

Wouldn't it be easier to just burn the nut coal ??

or is that too simple ??

Are the fire brick chimneys partial to 1 size vs another ? Wouldn't intake air adjustment accomplish the same thing ... less air would result from smaller coal vs more air from the larger coal ,so just adjust the intake accordingly.

Post by **Lightning** » Fri. Oct. 30, 2015 2:29 pm

CoalKracker wrote:Would it make any sense to mix stove nut and pea together to try?

If you wanna experiment with coal sizes, I would suggest trying a particular mix for a period of time, like lets say a week or so. Then try another mix, or one size vs another size. Yer gonna need about a week (or more) with each size (or blend) to really make honest comparisons between them.

The first 3 years I ran exclusively nut size. Then the forth year I ran a 50/50 mix of nut and stove. Now this year I'm pretty much all stove size. The stove size I'm using this year is pretty big. Most of it is the size of my fist.

Here's what I've noticed with the Clayton.

Idling during warm weather burns
Nut size - idles very good
Nut/stove blend - had to close primary air further to get the same idle
Stove size - more challenging to idle, I need the window stats open if it gets above 60 outside

Recovery after loading
Nut size - some recoveries were quite long, up to an hour if the fire got weak before loading
Nut/stove blend - faster/easier recovery
Stove size - I don't even have time to get a quick shower lol

Heat output
Nut size - adequate during the coldest of times
Nut/stove blend - burns hotter/faster easier, and more responsive
Stove size - will go nuclear quickly, responds almost immediately to primary air adjustments

Ash evacuation
Nut size - quite challenging with my appliance
Nut/stove mix - easier
Stove size - easier yet, with more room for ash to fall between the pieces

So you see, each size/blend has its attributes. In my opinion, a big factor is how your stove is sized for it's heat demand. If your stove is too big for the area being heated, you probably wanna stick with the nut size since it idles well and heats good when you need it to. If you have a small stove for the area you need to heat, I think it would be wise to use at least the nut/stove blend or strictly stove size.. And of course it depends on how the stove handles the different sizes too..

Personally, I'm liking the stove size the best, not because my appliance is sized small for it's heat demand but because it's easier to clear ash and the recovery after loading is faster. The "V" shaped fireboxes in appliances like mine are prone to choking on ash thru the burn cycle and are challenging to shake out. So it seems the stove size coal is most forgiving with these handicaps.

warminmn · Post by **warminmn** » Fri. Oct. 30, 2015 3:00 pm

I agree with your thoughts on stove size. Recovery time is much better. it gets hot quick. That wouldnt matter much with a hopper stove but for us that are "free ballin" without one, it helps. I do think a deep bed is more important with the stove sized too. cuz more air is going thru it, unless topped with some smaller coal.

Post by **Lightning** » Fri. Oct. 30, 2015 3:06 pm

warminmn wrote:I do think a deep bed is more important with the stove sized too. cuz more air is going thru it

Definitely. A shallow bed with stove size burns unevenly to the point that some spots in the fuel bed go extinguished, I've noticed. Nut size burns more evenly with shallow beds.

CoalKracker · Post by **CoalKracker** » Fri. Oct. 30, 2015 10:04 pm

I'd love to try straight nut but the bags I buy from agel in scranton isn't very consistent. It's nut mixed with pea mixed with rice and a ton of fines.

Smokeyja · Post by **Smokeyja** » Sun. Nov. 01, 2015 6:50 pm

CoalKracker wrote:I'd love to try straight nut but the bags I buy from agel in scranton isn't very consistent. It's nut mixed with pea mixed with rice and a ton of fines.

Kimmels and Blashak both are consistent but sized bags . I'm sure you could get a hold of some in your area . Try it out . I burned straight Blashak nut in my WM . Worked great .