stokermatic burning pellets after coal

The coal mine I work at is discontinuing stoker coal, and offering "house coal" after this summer. My dad has an old stokermatic he has used for years. He has quite a few tons stored up from last year but would like to stretch the old stoker coal pile as far as possible. Has anyone tried burning pellets in a stokermatic? He lost the old paperwork that came with the stove back around 1990, but thought he remembered reading the stokermatics would burn pellets with a few adjustments to get him through the rest of the winter after the coal pile runs dry. Just wondering if anyone has tried it.

Do you mean wood pellets or pelletized coal??

Greg L

I would think you would be awfully disappointed with wood pellets!

Isn't the cost of Bituminous coal in wyoming quite low,, around $50/ton? if so, why not screen your own to get the sizes you need?? Or put in a BIG coal bin while sized stoker coal is still available and stock up for a few years' worth .

Greg L

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I read someplace if you try to burn wood pellets in a coal stove you'll immediatly have a bin fire. Can someone veritfy that?

Or.... if you try....and do... let us know!

Wood pellets in a flat bed stoker, like an Alaska, Harman, Leisureline, Keystoker, would almost for sure create a hopper fire.. But the Stove that this thread is about has a stoker sort of like an EFM, with an auger feed, and an underfed firepot.. I think it might be made to burn pellets, but it would take a lot of adjusting and I'm not sure you would be able to reliably feed pellets either.. I think they might crumble too easily.

Greg L

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Thanks for the feedback everyone. I was asking about wood pellets, I know there is no way they would work as well as coal in a Stokermatic but my dad was hoping he could mix them with coal or just use them at the end of the winter. The coal is extremely cheap for employees, around 30 a ton. He can't stock up because they only offer coal sales from fall to spring, and the mine decided to quit stoker coal sales this summer. He doesn't want to go through the hassle of screening coal, but I think I might do it for him.

I'm thinking of buying a Harman forced air SF 1500 and could use all the larger chunks and give him the stoker and smaller size. Would work out well for us both. I have no experience with hand screening coal, although I have a lot of experience with the facility the stoker coal came from.

Any advice on hand screening coal, the Harman forced air SF 1500, or stokermatics using other fuel sources would be appreciated.

time to design a build a small scale - back yard screening plant

set up a small screening operation, perhaps an old loam screen can be purchased and modified, and buy a second Bobcat skid steer, and sell to the locals by the p/u truckload. Voila! sounds like you just discovered a niche market!!!

Hi, new here, this page turned up on a google search after I just purchased an old Stokermatic, and was looking for info about it. The unit I bought was half-full of wood pellets and very full of ash. The guy I bought it from was the first to bring wood pellets into the northeast, around 1980, before there were pellet stoves readily available. He simply ran the auger faster by changing the pulleys on the drive and sold them as pellet stoves! I'm thinking of turning it back into a coal burner, or making the speed variable and running it as a multifuel unit. so yes you can use pellets in some stokermatic models with minor modifications.

Visiting with a stoker builder from way back that said bit stokers were often used back east with wood pellets.