Anyone burning coal in a Biasi 3 Wood/Coal

Thanks for the info I will send him a message...darn my furnace was out again this morning,had to clean her out again but hand picking the big coal works much better I just didnt put enough in, I will load her good tonight prob 60 or 90 lbs that will keep her going.

wow tried to send norcan a message but i dont think it sent the pm doesnt seem to be working this morning.

Hi Seaman, yes you have to fill the firebox, the deeper the better, Coal likes company,, a 'community fire' each piece radiates heat to it's neighbor, and visa versa, the whole coal bed works together to burn at it's best.. If you take a shovel full of happily burning coal out of the fire, it will soon die.. It needs the coal bed to burn well..

Many people will not only fill the firebox to the top of the firebrick, but mound the coal in the center to get as deep a fire as possible. Unlike wood, this will NOT cause a runnaway fire from too much fuel.. coal's burn rate and heat output is easily controled with the combustion air draft controls..

Greg L

Lots of coal + plenty of air available to the boiler room = happy fire

It does seem that if i put around 75 to 90 lbs in it works much better so from now on i will fill her, the few times i did fill her the controls seemed to work excellent definately much better than when full of wood it seems the reaction time to the auto draft controle is much slower and smother when using coal..
Last night i lit her up when house was cool and flue temp got up to 600 deg for about half hour, it really cleaned out the furnace an flue lol..it has not been that clean since it was new.

Ok so I am thinking winter and using coal in my Biasi wood 7. I purchased the coal grates from QHT. Anyone out there burning coal in a similar unit with luck?

Gunksguy,
Can you give me some info on where/how you purchased the grates? Did you get them shipped or go somewhere to get them? How much do they cost?
I burned coal in my Biasi last winter without the grates with no problems.
I am in Gardiner NY, same gunks?
Thaks
Bob B

Bob b

I got my grates from a local plumber, They are not the best but i think they make shaking down easier. I have tried burning both ways with and without, it is easier to shake down with the grates, it takes a little less time. This is the second year for me with grates in my 3 wood 5 and i think it works great. Its almost time for me to get it started for the season, for some reason it really has to be 35 deg or below for me to run it. Otherwise i have to open windows to cool the house down. I dont recall what i paid for them but i do believe they are worth it.

Thank you Spidey,
I guess that because I don't know how much easier the grates are I don't mind poking. Ingorance is bliss.

I have had my stove lit for the past few weeks. Here in the Hudson Valley it has been in the mid 20°s overnight and high 40°s in the daytime. 72° inside and all the hot water you want!

Hi all, I'm new to the forum and burning wood, I am interested in trying to burn coal to get rid of creosote in my boiler. i am confused on something, do i need to buy grates to burn coal? The only grate i have is the water cooled lower grate. Can i burn coal on it our should i buy the shaker grates.

Thanks for the help

gtacs,
You can certainly burn the coal without the grates, right on the lower water cooled grate, as I do. Use at least chestnut or stove size coal so it doesn't just pour out through holes in the grate. Burning coal will loosen up all that creosote but it does not happen overnight and will take a little while. Maybe a week or so of burning coal 24/7.
When you burn coal without the shakers you will also need to use a metal rod to clear the bottom grate of ash, to keep the air supply flowing through the bottom of the coal bed.

Thanks for the reply. I am going to try burning coal this weekend, if it works out Im going to add this to my wood burning routine. Right now the wood is free (as I cut and process it myself off my own property), but burning coal for a week out of the month to get rid of the cresote makes sense to me. This is my first experience burning anything, Ive always lived places that had natural gas, do all boilers generate this much cresote? I am burning seasoned wood, but my issue seems to be my boiler gets to temp pretty fast and the damper is closed most of the time. I've tried putting less wood in it, but then you have to be right there to stoke it up every hour or two.

How much coal do you put in at a time? Do you start with a good bed of coals from a wood fire then dump the coal onto it all at once? How often do you rake the coals? Did you modify your fire box any?

Thanks for the help

Up until last winter, I was also a gas furnace only guy. For 30 years I would flip on the switch when it started to get cold out and turn it off in the summer. I also never burned anything for heat until moving to the Hudson Valley NY. The house I bought had a 3wood6 already installed and I had to figure out how to use it. I got help from the members of this site so I'm glad if I can help.

The few times that I have burnt wood, the creosote was dripping out of the damper door. You are right. This stove gets hot quick and when the door closes the creosote is quick to build up. That's what scares me the most about burning wood in this thing. The last thing we need is a chimney fire. That's why I am sticking to coal.

So anyway, to burn the coal I get a good wood fire going and start to add the coal a few scoops at a time. Give it a chance to light and add some more, until the coal is even with the bottom of the loading door opening. As I said, I have a 6 section model (3wood6) and that load will burn for over 12 hours. I tend to my stove 2 x a day, at 10am and 10pm. Take the ashes out, poke the new ash down and fill it up again and forget about it. That produces enough hot water to heat my home at a 71 degree thermostat setting and domestic hot water.

One thing that I learned and would pass on is that when you refill the stove with coal, leave an open exposed spot burning. Don't bury the entire old fire! You need to leave an open spot where the gasses from the heating of the new coal can burn off. Otherwise there could be a mini-explosion when those gasses light.

Thanks

Bob,
What temp (according to the guage on the front of the boiler) does a full load of coal maintain? Do you use you auto damper the same as you would for a wood fire i.e. at ~212*F of water temp my damper is completely closed. I have put in about 125 lbs of coal and am almost full, if the temp get low i just throw in some wood to get the coals burning again. I have been raking the coals and pushing a rod thru to knock the ashes down. I am almost full and my water temp is ~176*F (which is ~150*F as it circulates thru my oil boiler). When you stoke you boiler after 12 hrs how much coal do you usually put in?

Thanks again