Anyone burning coal in a Biasi 3 Wood/Coal

Wondering if anyone is burning coal in a Biasi 3 Wood. I have just started burning coal in it recently and have been learning a lot about burning coal from this forum and by making mistakes on my own. I would like share some thoughts about this particular boiler and its features. Things have been better than I thought they would be so far.

[quote="l40knocker"]Wondering if anyone is burning coal in a Biasi 3 Wood.
Must be not. I am glad you were able to get some useful information from this site. Perhaps if you posted a pic of your stove someone with a simmilar stove could share info with you. Coal is great. I learned most of what I know about burning coal from these fourums.

Very interesting piece I must say. It says bituminous only, are you burning anthracite in it and if so how is it working?

http://yaunco.com/featprods/biasi/yc_biasi3wood.php

http://yaunco.com/pdfs/biasi_3wood_spec.pdf

http://yaunco.com/pdfs/biasi_3wood_inst.pdf

I contacted the company about the hard coal and they said that it burns hard coal but you will have to rake the ash till they get the appliance listed as a hard coal burner and that they will have the shakers for it soon. These are their replies when I asked them if i could burn the hard coal.

"You are correct, we have to list soft coal do to the code of our listing, we have had people burning hard coal in the units and having no problems just make sure you rake the coals. Also our shaker grate is in process of being listed for use in the boiler and that will officially allow us to list hard coal to be burned in the boiler."

And when I asked about getting the shakers, they responded:

"Once the grates are available, you will be able to purchase it through the supplier that you purchased the boiler through. On the left hand side of your boiler looking at the loading door, there is a circle knock out in the casing and goes through the casting, that is where the lever for the grates go into the boiler and you can actually connect it to a set of grates
that we will supply."

I have been using a pc of threaded rod to slide in and out of the front grille of the ash door and it seems to work fine. It take a little doing but it works out the ash quite well. It will be much easier when the grates come out.

I have been getting used to the stages of a coal burn and have been able to get on a bit of a schedule. The draft control seems to work very well once you know the setting that will keep the boiler hot but not overheat. This forum has helped me become a decent coal burner in a short period of time. The information on this site is priceless and all of the members seem to be very helpful.

Having a lot of experience with oil fired and gas fired boiler systems, this coal burning boiler seems like a very good fit for a parallel system and will burn for long periods of time with a good load of coal.

I would not hesitate to recommend this boiler to a beginner as long as they do a little research on this site for a quicker learning curve.

Interesting. I am researching wood/coal boilers and after reading all the literature stating soft coal only I took the Biassi of my list . Did they give you a time frame whent the shakers will be availible.

They did not give me a time frame but I am going to have my supplier contact them and see what kind of info he can get from them. I would contact them yourself, they respond very quickly and are very nice. Let me know if you get any responses. I even went on the Italian website to do a little poking around and they do have a coal grate option listed in the manual (I am Polish, Czech and Hungarian ) couldnt read a word of the Italian manual!!!! There is a knockout on the left side of the boiler that lines up with the location for the shaker handle as he says in his email to me. With my short experience of using this boiler, I am very happy with it and think once the grates are available it will be even better. I would like to install some of these in my area and wanted to try it for myself first.

I just received an email from QHT and he said that the grates will probably not be out until Fall 2009. UUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH
I will fabricate something up to shake it down with.

As of November 1 the Biasi 3Wood boiler will be listed for burning anthracite and will have shaker grates available.
This will make my life a whole lot easier this Winter. I will now be able to shake down the boiler quicker and hopefully
easier. Now I would definitely recommend this boiler for burning coal. You will not be able to beat the price for a nice coal burning boiler.

My supply house told me the same thing. They had six sitting there and all but one buyer wanted coal grates. They have been sold and installed and they are having good reports coming back. When oil went below 2.00/gallon this spring, lots of folks bought another 330 tank and topped off. Can't blame them, but I wouldn't bank on that happening again.

I looked over the boilers as I use a few Biasi 3 pass boilers from QHT. I'm impressed, and the efficiency number on dry wood look remarkable. Coal is a no-brainer to me, however. You can have your cake, and eat it too with this boiler.

Any updates on the Coal grates? I have a Biasi 3wood5 and was curious if anyone is using the grates, i would like to give them a try this fall/winter, i just want to be sure its worth the investment in the grates and the coal.

just installed grates on mine last week and I am having trouble getting up to temp Wheni burned without grates i had no problem reaching 180
Plus it seems like more work now Ater i use shaker i have to clean the bottom section of boiler and then emptyash pan

Gee, I noticed your bio still says you are a new member although you joined in 2008. Can you post any pictures? Maybe someone could help you get a better burn out of the stove. Lisa

here are the stats
Biasi 3wood7 140,000 btu
house 100,000 btu 6 zone
indirect water heater 40,000 with priority control
the boiler is sized to handle tube heat exchanger for pool in summer 140,000 BtU
Draft @ .3 to .5
outside temp 30 degrees
Boiler will not maintain 140 or above
cleaned boiler and vent connector before installed grates burned wood and some coal this season
no problem maintaining 180 degree in colder weather without grates
Coal depth around 10"
the big difference is that the coal is now elevated off the bottom of the boiler base

Also stack temp around 250 to 300

My experience with this boiler is that if I load it up as much as I can fit in the firebox without it rolling onto the floor, it runs the best.
If I keep the air setting at about 70 i will maintain about 160 degrees. That would still leave plenty of room to move the air setting up higher if I wanted to get it hotter.

Are you setting the air adjustment higher and closing the air shutters on the front of the door?