To Pea or Not to Pea, That Is the Question

 
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grizzly2
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Post by grizzly2 » Thu. Nov. 20, 2008 8:14 pm

Floydman89 wrote:Last Friday we had installed a Hitzer 30-95, We live in Central NY, near Lake ontario. We took the advise from the local Coal supplier, He sells a lot of stoves & coal, he must know what he's doing.. right? He told us also, to get some of both and try them for ourselves. He said PEA works best for him, in the shop and at home.. So we went that route, Got 3 tons. He told us to shake every 12 hours, but waiting that long, the fire seems to die down too much. It also took a LOT of shaking .. to get any sparks to drop in the ash pan. We shake with the ash door open.. and look underneath the fire.. once we get a good ORANGE glow, and just a few small hot coals to drop. Seems we are shaking every 8 hours too.. We are starting to get ash buildup in the front.. near the glass door.. Not sure if its just ash.. or unburned coal?? Its NOT black so it could be ash.. seems to look like rock still?? Also, we took his word that a Baro Damper was NOT needed.. but in reading on this board.. I have decided to order one, and Install it myself.. I don't think we have a problem with draft, because the fire has been burning non-stop since Friday.. and we don't get any smoke when we open the doors on the stove.... but I wonder if we'll save on coal????
I got my stove from M&M Coal. They don't use a baro on the same model stove we both have. I added a baro. over the summer. I don't notice any difference but an still glad I have it to limit draft in high winds. The gray on the front bricks in my stove is a layer of ash laying on top of unburned coal. That coal won't burn because the air can't get to it from underneath. Just ignore it for now and push it into the fire when you are letting it burn out next spring. The Hitzer 30-95 is a darn nice stove isn't it? :)

 
rberq
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Post by rberq » Thu. Nov. 20, 2008 8:50 pm

I see that the Hitzers have a thermostatic air inlet on the back. How well does that work at keeping a constant stove temperature?

 
dbev
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Post by dbev » Fri. Nov. 21, 2008 7:31 am

I have a Hitzer 30-95 too, between the barometric damper and the thermostatic air control it's like cruise control for your stove! The control is pretty sensitive, when I turn on the blower on low, the stove cools, the air inlet opens and the stove burns hotter. Simple is good. I'm very happy with my Hitzer.

Dave

 
rberq
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: DS Machine 1300 with hopper
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Post by rberq » Fri. Nov. 21, 2008 6:36 pm

Thanks, Dave. I used to have the old Wonderwood circulator stove with the same type of thermostatic air control. It worked very well, and it is the one thing I have missed the most on my intervening wood stove and my current coal stove. (What I DON'T miss about the Wonderwood is the amount of creosote it produced -- that was the tradeoff for being able to load it and get hours of steady heat without any further tending.)

 
sharkman8810
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Post by sharkman8810 » Fri. Nov. 21, 2008 8:14 pm

The thermostatic control on the hitzer is very good. It keeps a steady temp for hours and hours on end. The baro keeps the draft regulated, and that combined with thermostat, makes for an excellent combination.


 
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grizzly2
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Post by grizzly2 » Sat. Nov. 22, 2008 7:48 pm

dbev wrote:I have a Hitzer 30-95 too, between the barometric damper and the thermostatic air control it's like cruise control for your stove! The control is pretty sensitive, when I turn on the blower on low, the stove cools, the air inlet opens and the stove burns hotter. Simple is good. I'm very happy with my Hitzer.

Dave
I couldn't have said it any better than Dave has. My 30-95 will hold temperature in my living room within 1degree + or - as long as the outdoor temp stays constant. If the temp outdoors drops, say 10 degrees, then I have to reset the temp control for a hotter stove. The temp control senses temp of the stove and the room air about 2 inches from the stove. Basicaly the temp control senses stove temp not room temp (at any appreciable distance away from the stove) so I am manually adjusting to maintain room temp in changing outdoor temp conditions. :?

 
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eelhc
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Post by eelhc » Sat. Nov. 22, 2008 8:29 pm

I find that Reading nut is much more inconsistent in size than Blaschak. In fact, I've found pieces the length of a beer can in a bag of Reading nut. The Blaschak is much more consistent. I also find Blaschak pea smaller and more consistent than the Reading. Both burn fine but I did have a couple of instances of the Reading nut getting jammed stuck in the hopper and not feeding down smoothly.

 
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dtzackus
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Post by dtzackus » Mon. Nov. 24, 2008 8:07 am

I have been playing with the pea that I got from here, I am not sure where it came from but, when I burn straight Harmony Nut, I have no issues what so ever. When I added even just a shovel of the pea I get a lot more ash and lower temp. So I am thinking that just straight nut from Harmony for me. I have also noticed that when I picked up the pea, it was outside and I got a lot of sticks, grass clippings, etc... that are probably not helping much. O well, free is still free.

Dan

 
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SuperBeetle
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Post by SuperBeetle » Mon. Nov. 24, 2008 10:20 am

I have been playing with pea, nut, and stove for the past few weeks. To my surprise the pea has done very well. I had burned it years ago and didn't like it at all. Now, I do. I just bought some more this morning.
I guess you need to experiment some and see what your perferences are. Right now, I'm perfering pea. :?

 
mrpete64
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Post by mrpete64 » Wed. Nov. 26, 2008 3:43 am

I have the Vermont casting coal stove. I have been burning pea coal and it is a pain-in-the-ass! Went out and purchased a bag of nut coal. It seems to burn much hotter. With pea coal I could not get my stove to burn above 400F...with nut...around 500f and it makes all the difference in the world in my house.
Mr. Pete--->


 
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grizzly2
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Post by grizzly2 » Wed. Nov. 26, 2008 5:31 pm

It sounds like we've got 4 variables going on here; stove model, coal brand, operator and chimney draft. Hey this is part of the fun of burning coal! It certainly is a lot less work than burning wood, so what would we have to do if we didn't have some puzzels to solve? :discuss:

 
Tomos
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Post by Tomos » Sat. Nov. 29, 2008 11:00 pm

mrpete64 wrote:I have the Vermont casting coal stove. I have been burning pea coal and it is a pain-in-the-ass! Went out and purchased a bag of nut coal. It seems to burn much hotter. With pea coal I could not get my stove to burn above 400F...with nut...around 500f and it makes all the difference in the world in my house.
Mr. Pete--->
have a glacier bay and have tried pea and nut from the same supplier and have had no difference in high end temp which I can get 750F out of both but the pea coal didn't last nearly as long as nut to the tune of 25% less per 90lb load on average burning in the same temps outside 40-20F and inside stack temps of 175-200F.

 
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grizzly2
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Post by grizzly2 » Sat. Dec. 06, 2008 6:53 pm

Well, I learned something new recently from one of the posts in another thread. That shaking the grates too often can compact the pea coal and cause it not to breath as well. With the cooler weather, I have been able to burn the fire a little hotter. The pea does perform better than it did. I am now back to shaking and stoking at 7am and 7pm only istead of the every 8 hours I had to do at low fire to keep the ashes from choking the fire. :)

 
Tomos
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Post by Tomos » Tue. Dec. 09, 2008 4:43 pm

grizzly2 wrote:Well, I learned something new recently from one of the posts in another thread. That shaking the grates too often can compact the pea coal and cause it not to breath as well. With the cooler weather, I have been able to burn the fire a little hotter. The pea does perform better than it did. I am now back to shaking and stoking at 7am and 7pm only istead of the every 8 hours I had to do at low fire to keep the ashes from choking the fire. :)
makes sense to me since I have had mine I have only shook once in the am and once in the pm until I see several hot coals in the ash pan then i'm good.

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