Anyone burning coal in a Biasi 3 Wood/Coal

I feel so dirty!

Wow, if you think this looks bad I should have posted the "before" picture!
The stove is about 3 years old. I have owned it for the past 3 months and have been burning only coal for the past 2 months. When I bought the house the stove was caked with creosote and the upper chamber was completely clogged. My new next door neighbor told me that the previous owner burnt unseasoned wet wood exclusively. That's where the nasty came from. I got most of the heavy creosote out by hand. Now that I have been burning coal for a few months I can see that the remaining creosote has puffed up. That should make it easier to wire brush off and vacuum out (as soon as I can get to it)

Any word on what that flue gas partition looks like? I found a piece of sheet metal that was left behind the stove when I bought the house. It's 4.5" X 19" and about 1/16" thick, and has 4 small oval holes near the corners. Could this be it? I was expecting a cast iron or plate steel piece.

Thanks for waking me up about the cleaning. I used a shop vac to carefully clean out that upper chamber with the stove running. There was easily 30 times more ash in there than I thought was in there. As I said, the old creosote that was in there puffed up from burning the coal and now comes off easily when poked. Still a little more to get out of there over the next few cleaning cycles. I guess I'll be on the monthly schedule for the cleanout. That ash certainly was hindering my heat output. Thanks again for the advice.

While I was in there I tried to fit that piece of sheet metal in that I thought was my missing flue gas partition. It's definitely not it. 4" is too tall to fit in there. I should have known better as that would have been too easy. I'll try to send an email off to QHT about a replacement.

Ive been burning coal since november with no problems maintaining 140 with draft door closed because of the warm winter i was able to shorten the firebox and use less fuel. I even went as far as fabricating a piece of stainless to shorten the chamber even more
it was working beautifully. Then I decided to shut down and clean when the temp outside was even warmer a couple of weeks ago.Since then I am having trouble maintaining temp and having a hot fire. I have a baro and a draft inducer that can regulate up to .13 of draft. Ive cleaned flu pipe and boiler that weren't even that dirty I've removed and then replaced the firebrick with same results i even placed a small fan in front of the boiler to give more air. If you read my other post i did have grates but was having similar problems. once i removed them no problem. I am going to shut down and restart. Any suggestions

Would it be possible to post some pictures of how you shortened the box and that stainless steel piece you mentioned?
My guess is that after shortening the box area and then cleaning out the stove that a new air passage(s) was opened up where the entire draft is no longer being drawn through the coal bed. Enough draft may be being diverted around the coal bed to affect the burn. Maybe the old ashes were helping to create a seal before the cleaning????

[quote="Bob B"]Maybe the old ashes were helping to create a seal before the cleaning????


Correct. I have shortened my firebox and after a day or two the ashes seal all the little air holes

Before i replaced the brick I tried using rock wool (roxul) which is a dense fire proof insulation to shorten my box In addition I took the ash pan out and stuffed the roxul the same distance that i shortened the box under the coal.When that didn't work i went back to the brick. After thinking about it I thought maybe the insulation was "Breathing" and allowing air to sneak by. I am going to use a combo of brick and insulation. Like I said before Ive been burning great since november. I should have left well enough alone
Thanks for the replies

So what is the deal on making the fire box area smaller? Why is it done ? Is it worth doing it? How would I do it?
I am also constantly finding myself saying " I should have left well enough alone". Is this going to fall into that catagory?

Hey everyone,
I have a Biasi wood 7. I am in my forth year using it primarily with wood. I have tried chestnut and stove coal(without the shakers) using a homemade grate. When I burn coal I get a good burn, however, I cannot seem to get all the ash down with a poking rod and they soon choke out the fire with ash and unburned coal. Any advise? Are the new grates the way to go?

Gunksguy,
I would suggest that you try burning without the home made grates. I'm a novice who lit my stove for the first time on Jan. and it has been burning ever since. No grates, no problem.
(PS I'm just down the road from the Brauhaus.)

Hello I am new to the forums and new to coal burning. Have been burning bituminous coal in my biasi for 4 days now.I am somewhat pleased but am having a hard time to keep heat up without filling furnace almost to the very top.I am heating 4500 square ft approx. it is warm here now around 2 c. It would normally be around -10 or -15 with high winds up to 90kph in winter. Any sugestions would be appricated for i am worried i may not get enough heat in colder months...Ps...my coal is mixed sizes from 1 inch to 6 inch and is #1 grade bituminous from Nova Scotia .

Seaman, welcome to the forum. I am not surprised that you have to run your boiler hard...you are heating a large building with severe wind exposure.

How did you heat the building before you installed the coal boiler?

I used same boiler using hard wood.

Do you use Coal Rob

Seaman wrote:Do you use Coal Rob

Yes, but my setup is different than yours. I burn a small size of anthracite called "rice" in an auger fed stoker boiler. Previously I heated with wood & coal in a hand-fed boiler.

Seaman wrote:I used same boiler using hard wood.

Did that "do the job"? Burn times must have been pretty short.