Lehigh

All.....I'm kind of answering my own post re Lehigh availability

was scumbagging around the local Tractor Supply ( Enfield, CT) recently......saw that they had nut coal, in Lehigh bags ........so I got a bag for grins, just to see what it was like

have not opened it yet, as I'm still having issues with my stove

but here is a question: as I've tried to get a local dealer to carry Lehigh, I've also been in touch with Lehigh. They do not know of anyone selling Lehigh in this neck of the woods. As I understand it, they only "do" the loose coal......they do not sell it as bagged. Maybe they have authorized someone else to bag it for them, but the bag I have does not say as much. ......I would expect the bag to indicate this.

Does anyone have any pertinent information here ?????

as needed, I can open the bag to see what it looks like. If it is not looking good, then this raises some obvious questions ..?????

They sell their coal to at least one bagging company, Coopersburg Bagging Company. I have purchased several loads from them, great service. Not sure that is where the coal you found at TSC came from, but it is a possibility.

Rob.......Thanks for the input............will see if I can connect the dots from this point

I see where you have a Hitzer 50-93

Can you provide some feedback as to how you like it ????? My Franco may have seen its last days, and have been thinking about a Hitzer. While I do not need the capability of the 50-93 ( have been thinking about the 30-95), the larger unit does not cost much more than the smaller one.

Specifically, does the larger unit "idle" well at, say, the 30,000 BTU range ?????

Any other feedback here would also be appreciated

thanks/ Bill D

Bill D wrote: but here is a question: as I've tried to get a local dealer to carry Lehigh, I've also been in touch with Lehigh. They do not know of anyone selling Lehigh in this neck of the woods. As I understand it, they only "do" the loose coal......they do not sell it as bagged. Maybe they have authorized someone else to bag it for them, but the bag I have does not say as much. ......I would expect the bag to indicate this.

Does anyone have any pertinent information here ?????

Bill,

I was heading through that area back in October. I thought it would be nice to stop by and pick up some of there coal to try out but I was driving my car and not my truck. I called, I was surprised when they said they DO have bagged coal! I drove up to scale house 2, got checked in and then drove up near the top to a big building where they stored the bagged coal. I got twelve 50 pound bags.
I had no problems with burning it in my Gentleman Janitor/EFM. Same hardness and consistency as my bulk Blaschak with less fines.

-Don

Don

I guess I stand corrected..............Lehigh DOES DO bagged, at the mine site, straight from the Horse's mouth......so much for what I know

the photos of the bags you have exactly match what I got at TSC

what price, pray tell, did you have to pay for getting the stuff in bags there at the site?

I'm a sissy, so am not into dealing with the loose stuff, even if I was close to the mine

they sell the loose stuff to "civilians" on Sat AM, at $160 a ton

anything bagged , almost anywhere, seems to go at $300 a ton, + or - as they say

( maybe I should go into the bagging business ???????............can work out of the kitchen, as the wife will certainly not mind due to the profit margin?????)

seriously...........does bagging it add this much to the cost???? sure looks that way

thanks/ Bill D

Yes, the bagged is more expensive, a lot more. I don't remember exactly, I only remember the sticker shock. I think it was $7.50 a bag. That's $300 a ton, WOW! That is expensive! Especially when they sell bulk for $160. And you get all the added fun of dealing with 40 wet bags and the wet coal that rusts up your stoker.

I have never understood peoples fascination with bagged coal. 3 sheets of 3/4" plywood, about eight, 10 foot 2x4's, a bunch of screws and in an afternoon you have a 3+ ton coal bin. If you put it in the right place, the coal man just dumps it right in and that's it, ready to burn. No nasty bags to deal with and if it's Lehigh, about half the price.

-Don

Dan

am guessing you live in " coal country", where you can get the stuff trucked to your house, loose, and then shoot it into a basement window/into a bin

no such luck here in N central CT..............years ago, you could do this here, but not ( to my knowledge) anymore

for me: bags are the only option..............driving to a mine is about 400 miles round trip, and then would have to struggle to get as much as a ton of the loose stuff.......then deal with the loose stuff once I get back home

from a dealer's perspective, here in this area, : he can get the stuff trucked to his yard for $176.50 a ton ( $150 for the coal, plus $26.50 a ton to ship, if he buys as much as 22 tons a pop ............these numbers from Lehigh themselves)............so he marks up his cost by a very typical retail markup of 50%, plus the cost to bag............next thing you know we have $300 a ton. Nothing wrong here............just a business model that works. Eliminating the middle man works under some circumstances, but not for those of us living where I do. No way for Ebay or Amazon to come to the rescue here.

Bill,

No, I don't live in coal country, I live further South where heat demand in general is less important than AC. That being said, I count myself very lucky to have an excellent coal supplier, variety isn't very good, no Barley or Buckwheat but the service and the price are great. I dread the day he retires!

So, your saying your coal supplier doesn't deliver bulk? That's strange.

-Don

Don

interesting............

what do you pay per ton, loose, delivered ( lot of , say, 3 tons), decent quality ?????

where are you ????? ( how far " south " of coal country" ????)

maybe it is a culture thing.........most of the coal up here is bagged, not loose...........one guy I know has a small dump truck, etc.......but the one dealer I know with a pile of loose in his yard has already marked up the cost, so that getting several tons loose is not really an option, all things considered. The cost of labor up here adds a lot more to overall costs than you might think. May be a much different set of economics where you are , where your long term supplier will do 3 tons loose at a very fair cost, and he can still make a buck at the same time.

Bill D

You might be surprised at how much the pallet, bags, and shrink wrap cost...nevermind the labor to assemble it all.

StokerDon wrote:I have never understood peoples fascination with bagged coal. 3 sheets of 3/4" plywood, about eight, 10 foot 2x4's, a bunch of screws and in an afternoon you have a 3+ ton coal bin. If you put it in the right place, the coal man just dumps it right in and that's it, ready to burn. No nasty bags to deal with and if it's Lehigh, about half the price.

The key words in that statement are "coal man". Many people live in an area with no bulk delivery options. As for half the price, this year my cost for bagged Lehigh coal was $203 per ton. That was for 18 2500 lb pallets, picked up in PA. Trucking was another $40 per ton. I could have gotten bulk rice from Lehigh for $160 per ton, but then the trucking jumps 30-40% because no one can find a backhaul with a dump trailer.

OK.......you paid $203 a ton, bagged/wrapped, and on a pallet,.......... but you had to buy 22 tons of it, and you had to pay $40 a ton for trucking...............total cost = $243 a ton. .......all this with no middle man, I think...............and you have to have a place for 18 pallets. ..........and you had to manage/engineer all of it yourself, including the cash flow and a fork lift to unload with.

$300 a ton at a local dealer, in small lots as needed, does not look all that bad now. Caveat : need to get the good stuff, which is getting harder & harder to do.

question : as a 22 ton type of guy : what do you do with this much????? are you a dealer ( gasp !!!!!), are you heating a gymnasium, are you saving it for when the greenies shut it all down, are you looking down the road for a handful of years at a time ?????

good posts, guys...................keep it up

Bill D

Why don't you just hire that Justin guy? 10 tons at a fair price. He has delivered for me and it worked!

Bill D wrote:Rob.......Thanks for the input............will see if I can connect the dots from this point

I see where you have a Hitzer 50-93

Can you provide some feedback as to how you like it ????? My Franco may have seen its last days, and have been thinking about a Hitzer. While I do not need the capability of the 50-93 ( have been thinking about the 30-95), the larger unit does not cost much more than the smaller one.

Specifically, does the larger unit "idle" well at, say, the 30,000 BTU range ?????

Any other feedback here would also be appreciated

thanks/ Bill D

I went with the 50-93 because it was only $200 more and i'll never be sorry. I have absolutly no trouble idling the stove way way down. I ran it at 150-175 on the stove body for four days (shaking once a day) it would have gone much longer but was bored of the stove doing all this work and I just sit back and watch. It doesnt get any easier than with this stove