Anyone burning coal in a Biasi 3 Wood/Coal

Once you get your coal bed going you will most likely have to let that draft door close almost completely shut or the fire will get going too fast. Coal needs a deep bed to burn so make sure it is as deep as you can get it. Make sure all the grates are completely covered so all the air has to come up through the coal bed. Close the small air shutters on the front of the door. Make sure you have a barometric damper in the fluepipe or you will have a LOT of headaches, mine is set approx .04 and works great. Make sure your dump zone is working correctly, i am not sure what type of system you have hooked up. Your flue damper in the back can be closed down a little after the fire gets going also. Good luck.

Thanks for the info, i took the barometric out with wood i can put it back in easily and i will try your settings. as far as my dump zone goes my house is only 1200 sq ft so my house is the dump zone. Again i appricate all the info hopefully this will make all go much smoother. I cant wait to try it Saturday.

Tried coal for the first time thrusday night, took me a while to get the feel for how to get it started and build up the bed requires alot of air more that wood. I slowly added layer after layer untill i had shoveled in a whole 50 lb bag. I set the aquastat a little lower than with wood and let it do its thing. When i burned wood i would have to get up a couple times at night to keep the boiler going so on that same routine i would go down and check the boiler, I would look in the peek hole and i could see the blue guys dancing and glowing red below them every time i went down. the temp stayed consistant at 165 to 175 all night. I got up the next morning knocked down the ash added about 20lbs of coal let it get a good glow going and went to work. I stopped home at noon and the same thing dancing blue flames and red glow still going strong. When i came home at 5p.m. i knocked down the ash added about 50lbs. Went down at 8a.m. the next morning boiler temp still 175 glowing red. The house has been consistantly 72 deg. I have to say i believe im sold on coal. I dont have to tend it or fuss with it just add it and walk away. I think i will get the shaker grates to help knock down the ash. It is a bit of a pain to knock it down with a piece of threaded rod but it does work. l40knocker you are right this stove is best suited for burning coal. After burning wood in it for a little over a year i have to agree. And i really like the one match a year thing..

also temps thursday night were -9 deg. friday the low was 15 deg. Today sat. a.m. the temp is right around 40 deg. im letting the coal go out.

I'm going to chime in and take credit for this conversion.

Kevin

I did notice that when you shake it down with the piece of threaded rod that you get a fair amount of unburned coal in the ashpan. Do you get as much with the grates? I was curious, I could put a piece of hardware cloth over the metal trash can i put my ash in and screen out the unburned pieces so i can add them back into the stove.

Even if you have the shaker grates you will get that same amount or more. The space on the shakers is probably a little bigger than the lower grates. I made up a whole ash sifter system that I would be willing to actually give away if someone wants it. It was not worth my time and effort but someone else may want to do it consistently. I probably dump approx 3-4 bags of unburnt coal out with the ash most of which is partially burnt. 7 dollars a bag wasn't worth the 30 bucks to mess with. I shut down the boiler for the season because its getting warmer and also because I ran out of coal. 3 1/2 ton this season.

i picked up a piece of 1/4" hardware cloth i will build a 2x4 frame to place over a 30 gal. steel trash can strain out the unburned coal and dump directly back into the stove. I have been picking up a few items like that i will use this winter. Hopefully i get pretty much everything i need this summer to ready myself for the first season of coal for me.

I noticed you on the Maine forum also, and thanks for sharing. I also found the ash separation to be very helpful. Tin Knocker has the grates in his, but is unimpressed....a great hand fed boiler.....except for the burning platform. 815 lbs....It isn't on a cast iron diet! Now if you could retro a small 110 K stoker and forget all the rest...... Where in ME?

PM me if you want....I'm up there frequently Mid-State. I need to bump into Kevin and a couple others.

I live in Machias not too far from KevinL, My name is Kevin too. I have a 3wood-5 i believe it weighs about 695lbs. KevinL actually installed it for me, he has a little more plumbing experience than myself.

Update on the grates.. I purchased 4 ton of nut coal this summer and i did get the grates for the stove. I burned for a week the beginning of Nov. just because i had the week off to fine tune, i think it was still a little warm but i wanted to get the feel of it. I think the grates are worth the effort, unlike earlier posts in here i have no problem getting up to temp and keeping the temp in the 165 to 180 range. I have a baro and a MPD when running "CAUTION" i close the MPD about 1/2 to 3/4 and yes i do have a CO2 detector installed near the boiler in the basement. According to the number of bags in the basement i am burning about 1 bag per day. I was hoping to fine tune that a bit by messing with it a little more. This is my first season burning coal so i have alot to learn. I'm open to any and all suggestions, thoughts ect. l40knocker you are correct about the grates being a little large i do get a bunch of unburned coal through them so i did the same thing i made a screen that goes over a metal garbage can and screen out the unburned coal, i keep it in a coal hod until im ready to burn it. I would like to thank everyone for their input and thoughts to help me make a decision to convert.

Greetings and HELP!
We just moved into a new home which has a Biasi 3wood5 in tandem with a conventional oil boiler heating system. I am looking to burn anthracite coal but all I have to work with is the instruction book that came with the stove. I really need some help to pull this off.
From what I have read on the internet, it seems that it is not necessary to have the grates to burn coal. Is this correct?
If so, how much coal do (can) you load in (before it starts to fall out of the door)?
Do you bank it up to the rear/sides of the stove?
Any support would be greatly appreciated.

Bob B wrote:Greetings and HELP!
We just moved into a new home which has a Biasi 3wood5 in tandem with a conventional oil boiler heating system. I am looking to burn anthracite coal but all I have to work with is the instruction book that came with the stove. I really need some help to pull this off.
From what I have read on the internet, it seems that it is not necessary to have the grates to burn coal. Is this correct?
If so, how much coal do (can) you load in (before it starts to fall out of the door)?
Do you bank it up to the rear/sides of the stove?
Any support would be greatly appreciated.

Bob,

I think you need grates. Don't know how you would shake the ash out without them.... If the Biasi you have doesn't have grates, then I'd think you have a wood only set-up in it. I don't know anything about these stoves, pictures help a lot... You might be able to install grates in it...

dj

Bob

I have successfully burned anthracite coal in this boiler for a whole 2 seasons before I got the shaker grates for it.

It can be done for sure.

Do you have any experience with burning coal at all or are you new to coal?

You will need Nut size coal, a barometric damper, some pieces of threaded rod for shaking down and definitely a CO detector

I can help you with any questions at all. I now have the shaker grates and still shake it much like I had to without the grates.

It is a great boiler to burn coal in and a not so good boiler to burn wood in.

I have a 2200 ft2 2 story colonial and I burn 3-4 tons a season for all the heat and hot water we want.

You can message me if you want or post here if you want.

Thanks so much for the offer to help. I am totally new to burning anything, let alone coal. But I am ready, willing and able. Going through your checklist of what I'll need...
1)Nut size coal. Is this the same as chestnut size. When I explained the stove to the coal distributor he said that I should get the chestnut. Are we talking about the same thing?
2) Barometric damper. Don't have or know what it is. I'll look it up on the internet.
3) Threaded rod. Easy one. What diameter and how long? Where do you put it for shaking?
4) Co Detector. Got it.

I was looking at the stove today and pretty much understand what I'm looking at. Previous owner has a dump zone installed to a modine heater in a garage. I have quite a chore of cleaning this thing out before I fire it up. The upper chamber is almost completely filled with ash and creosote from burning wet wood. Nothing that can't be cleaned with a little elbow grease.

It looks like you can load about 10 inches of coal to the bottom of the loading door and I'm sure you can pile an couple of inched above that comfortably. What is considered a deep bed of coal? How much coal do you put in when you load it up?
Are you happy with the grates? Would you recommend getting them in the future?
Thanks again.