My first coal fire in my boiler

OK, I couldn't wait any longer. I needed to burn in the new paint so I opened the bulkhead and put a fan near the boiler to move the paint smoke and stink. Didn't smoke all that bad really but it is a little stinky. My CO2 monitor nearby never went off. I was actually a little uneasy loading in the coals worried about getting one of those explosions so I just took my time and kept adding a thin layer every few minutes. I had no idea that the coal snaps and pops so much when you first put it in. Well the water temp is maxed out still with the flapper closed but I left the 2 tiny secondary holes open for this first run. It caught quick and glows like a son of a gun with some dancing flames on top-gee just like its supposed to. I only loaded it up 3 or 4 inches deep cause I really don't need it dumping heat all day and night into one of the heating zones. My wife thinks I'm nuts-she may be right. I don't think it actually dumped any heat yet though but it may have one time momentarily but I've been outside washing the car and doing other stuff. Can't believe there is NO SMOKE at all out the chimney. I'm curious how long this load will burn and how well it will survive the extended period with the air inlet flapper shut. I'll see how it goes and if I have to adjust the flapper to always leave a small air path for idling I can do that. Although I still think I may add the holes in the front of the ash door. That way I can more easily shut off all air into the stove if I have to. That fire shure looked good to me. I think I'm gonna love this.

Looks great! Not a bad idea to give it a test run when it is easy to open the windows and let the paint smoke clear out. I have been getting my stovepipe all set up this weekend to get ready for a test burn.

Looks like a lot of fire for an August afternoon! *smile* Congrats on getting 'er all set to go.

Hey,that thing has the firebrick slanted out towards the top like my hotblast furnace.I thought thoes type of fireboxs didn't burn that well.It looks good to me.
Looks great DON
Good idea to "break it in" this time of the year but I bet your wife is rolling her eyes!

The brick does slant but is probably at about a 60 degree angle at least. Others I've seen have a much lower angle with a bigger taper than mine. I guess with the right system we can make most all of them work pretty good. The fire today lasted from about 11:00 am till 5:30 with about a 3 1/2 " depth in the firebox. However it could have burned longer if I didn't mess with it and end up killing it. What happened was the flapper door was closed ALL DAY because the water was already hot (about 210). So it idled all day and the only time it got any extra air was when I opened the door to have a look. So twice I left the ash door open for a few minutes till it started glowing real good. However, as the day got later I noticed that the rear 2/3 of the coal bed were burning but the front section was nearly dead. If I left it alone it may hyave continued to burn and work its way to the front. But being a former wood burner I had to go poking around. I tried raking some of the rear coals into the dead ones in front and vice versa. It wasn't long after that that the whole bed died out. I did prop the rear flapper door open a VERY VERY small amount in the afternoon and it did keep burning but not the whole bed. In this weather-it is hard because it needs to idle continuously. When it gets colder and something is actually calling for heat I think it will be a lot easier. As far as the firebox shape-It didn't seem to be a problem in any way at all. My wife washed a ton of stuff in the washing machine,washed dishes, my son was home and took a nice HOT shower and I don't think the flapper ever opened up. It stayed just a few degrees under the zone dump setting so at least we were not heating the house.I never shook the grates cause I hadn't really burned that much. So now there is still at least 1/3 of the coal I put in that is not burned. I think that was a lot of heat for about 6 1/2 hrs on a pretty small load of coal.

A deeper bed and a summer idle air hole and you should be good!
The bricks are at a steep angle on the Hitzer 503 insert also.
About half way through the picture set Hitzer 503 Arrives is the firebox.

Yeah, I had noticed that they were on a little angle. They are almost vertical and it is obviously a really good unit. I wondered why they weren't at 90 degrees though. Did they do that so you can burn wood in it easier? Doubt it would make much difference either way-for improving the burning of wood or coal. The angle is so steep and you have a wide grate area unlike the narrow trough of some units. Mine is pretty wide at the bottom,too. You are gonna love that this winter. It seems kinda nutty to me but I had a lot of fun yesterday with that coal fire. I hate the end of summer, shorter days, cold winds, etc. but maybe this will make winter more enjoyable. At least I won't be depending upon foreign oil so much. Time to begin experimenting with my coal car.

The instructions also mention burning bituminous coal. The 503 is hopper fed for anthracite. No mention of wood.
Wood burners have the narrow grate area.
I will experiment and see how the 503 differs from the Mark II!

Yeah that thing has 2 side by side grates.Nice set up.The hotblast has 2 grates one in front of the other.Your firebox is also more square, where mine is long and thin.I can see now that the hitzer is set up more for anthracite.Nice unit good luck.
DON

Congrats Man! Enjoy your cheap heat & hot water..............