Asthma Concerns

We have ordered a Koker furnace. My daugter has asthma. Will the dust effect the air quality or cause asthma problems?

If you take a few precautions you should have very little dust in your house. There are many threads on how to keep dust minimal.

You mentioned it's a furnace. I assume it will be in the cellar, so there really shouldn't be a dust concern.

What do you mean by precautions?

My son has asthma and does not have a problem with me burning coal. I am very careful to not make any dust when filling the hopper or emptying the ash pan in my stove that is in my dining room. But I am sure I make some minimal dust but it does not bother my sons asthma.

katezack wrote:What do you mean by precautions?

He means don't be a slob.

My youngest had asthma pretty bad years ago, no troubles with coal. I have yet to hear of it being a problem for an asthmatic.

katezack wrote:What do you mean by precautions?

There are lots of ideas from wetting the coal b4 loading it & dumping your ash outdoors, having 2 ash pans, etc. I suggest you do a search for these threads

I've had asthma since I was a kid, I just got my boiler running 2 weeks ago and haven't noticed anything at all. I bought an extra ash pan and keep the coal wet when dumping it into the hopper to keep the dust down.

Dave

I am pretty much allergic to the world and have asthma to boot, I burn coal with no issues. Best thing to do is be careful with the ash pan, I empty mine outside.

Burning coal is a relief for my asthma compared to wood and all the dirt/mold that comes with it.

markviii wrote:Best thing to do is be careful with the ash pan, I empty mine outside.

I always dump my ash pan outside into a metal trash can. (I can just imagine the dust in the house if I did it indoors since there is always a cloud of dust created when I dump the ash pan & I have learned to slam the barrel cover down to stop the cloud!)
I have a walk-out basement door a few feet away from the stove so it works out great for me.
(I also fill the coal hod outside from the 40lb bags the Blaschak comes in....No dust inside)

Another lifelong asthmatic here.

One thing I learned with the hand-fired Harman is to shake the grates with the ash door closed (always kept it open while shaking to watch for embers -- makes a bit of dust in house over the season). With the door shut there is hardly any.

Instead of shoveling the piles that happen on the sides & back of ash pan, you could use a vacuum -- that would virtually eliminate all dust. Unless, of course, you fall up the stairs while carrying a heaping ash pan.

About 8 years ago, a doctor put me on Flovent inhalers -- BEST thing that ever happened to me. I used to go thru 1 albuterol inhaler every 2 weeks!! And they say it's bad if you use 1 every 6 weeks!

I wouldn't be able to keep my current job without it -- waaaay too physical -- requires ALOT of air...

SMITTY wrote:One thing I learned with the hand-fired Harman is to shake the grates with the ash door closed (always kept it open while shaking to watch for embers -- makes a bit of dust in house over the season). With the door shut there is hardly any.

I've done it both ways with my Harman smitty but went back to shaking with the ash door open. I find that as long as I open the ash door & wait a minute or so for the fire/draw to increase, that I can keep the ash door open while shaking & the dust is sucked into the stove. (Just makes it easier to spot the embers falling....real time)

The dust will be caused from two sources, either from moving the coal to the stoker or from taking the ashes out. As far as the coal goes if you buy in bulk and need to move it to the stove get a small garden sprayer that you pump up with water in it. Lightly dampen the coal before moving it. If you're getting it in bags place the bag directly in the hopper then open it with a razor from top to bottom. Lift the bag up and most if not all of the coal will remain in the hopper with little disturbance.

With the ashes you just have to be careful and of course empty them outside. Another member mentioned that the ash pans for his burner were the same size as larger cake pans and he purchased a few with lids so he could slide the lid over before moving it.

If you're getting bulk delivery be sure to lightly hose down the inside of your bin before delivery especially if its the second load. There will be a lot of dust inside the bin that will kick up if you don't. Also be sure the coal is at least damp going into the cellar.

Lastly the coal itself can be clean or dirty... There's really not much you can do about that but if you're getting bulk delivery you may want to mention it to the person bringing it. For example over Hudson Anthracite they have pockets with spray bars for the rice but generally you don't use them for rice because its clean enough and you're just adding a lot of water. In your case that extra amount of dust removal may make sense. The easiest way to tell how clean it is would be to check the chute during delivery. If it's all clean and sparkly then you'll have a very clean product. Note that you have to check before they push the las pieces out as that is where a the dirt and dust will accumulate.

My local coal guy sells oiled coal for an extra $5 a ton, supposedly there's no dust. You just have to worry about the ashes, which if you're careful with and dump outside shouldn't be an issue.

Are you hooking this koker into ductwork? If so I would utilize a cold air return, so you're not blasting basement air through the ducts.

That's a low grade vegetable based oil they use, they buy it in 55 gallon drums.