Holes in Coal Drums and Buckets

Last time I had coal delivered I had 1 ton put in drums and the other ton on the ground (coal chute is my summer project). I burned through the loose ton and started using the drums. I got to the bottom of the drum and dumped it into pails instead of scooping it out. The last pail must have had a lot of water because when I added it to the hopper POOF steam cloud and fire went out. God watches over fools and drunks so no steam burns or damage to the stove. I was sober so God must be trying to tell me I'm a fool. For everyone else on the planet it is probably a no brainer to have holes in the bottom to drain the water but just in case I'm not alone you can learn from my mistake. In my defense the first 2 tons I got this year was mostly dry and since the drums were in the house for a while I assumed the water would have evaporated by the time I reached the bottom.

There was another post about putting holes in the bucket due to wet coal and draining......

There you go God was right I am a fool because the information was available here and I didn't research enough. Great forum if you use it correctly.

Even my bagged coal is pretty wet, I offload into buckets or my bin before dumping in the the hopper. It happens.!! Glad you are okay.

refer..
I Just Got Steam-Cleaned!

Or a good cover on the barrels.
You may have an ant condo if you're not careful!

I had a lot of wet bagged coal last year, and one steam cloud like you describe. Also some bags of coal that I could not use until a warm spell because they were frozen in big clumps. So I bought this year's coal last Spring (remind you of firewood?), and undid the pallet wrapping, and it dried out over the summer.

My coal has been drying out since 1950 I think...