Fire Chief Wood/coal Furnace

How many of the 4 bags did you put in your furnace on this first coal fire?

TimV wrote:How many of the 4 bags did you put in your furnace on this first coal fire?

Tim ..about 3/4 of a bag in apx 3 hours..it seems to burn better in the front of the furnace.RC

To get your coal to burn properly in a stove or furnace you need to fill the firebox so it completely covers the grates and it also needs to be deep at least near top of bricks.
My inital filling takes 190 lbs. almost 4 full bags of coal.
Once this is filled and its burning good the whole bed will be glowing. Then you add whats needed to refill about 2 times a day.
I suspect you getting it to burn because you have the forced draft fan.
Curious to hear what kind of results you got overnight.
That sure looks like a very well made unit!

Why can't you just close the window on the draft blower?

RC you can close it but draft still pulls up from the bottom of ash pan and through the holes there is a gap above the roller grate in the front and back.
The plates are made with an air gap in them the one in front allows some of the draft to go into ash pan and some to come through holes for the over the fire draft.
For the holes in the back plate I took some fiberglass insulation and my poker and plugged the gap by opening ash pan and stuffing it from from the bottom to block draft in the back if you have been burning for a while it may have plugged itself off with ash.
For the front I took a 1/4 inch plate and cut it to fit over the front plate of furnace that has the holes in it and then drilled and taped it so the bolts line up with existing holes and used 2 bolts to hang plate by sticking bolts through the existing holes. I did this thinking I could switch back and forth from coal to wood if need should arise. I started furnace up in october and have had it going on coal from that time on I did try to burn wood but like the coal so much better.
I had same problem with my furnace til I made these 2 modifications now I have no problem with getting fire the length of grate sometimes the back will burn up before the front.
Draft will take to path of least resistance so it will flow up through the gaps in the front and back rather than through the coal bed.
I had to add a draft inducer to my chimney pipe due large flue on and outside wall which caused poor draft.
I hope you have CO monitors installed.
Stove size coal is approx. the size of a baseball and some as large as a softball.
Hope this helps you out.
Jim

Congrats on getting the coal to burn! If you have free wood, $5 a bag for coal may seem expensive, but if you're buying oil you'll find that coal is a lot less.
Couple things.... go...today...and buy two CO detectors. It's a rarity to have troubles, but every year a handful of people die from CO poisoning. It's a stupid way to die when $30 would have warned you. If you can't afford two, get one for now & ask for another for your birthday. If you can't afford one, stop burning coal. The other thing, coal is so unlike wood, it's a brain hurdle to get over the idea of filling the stove. Fill 'er up! Lot's of coal does not mean lot's of heat, it means lot's of time before it needs refilling. Controlling the air totally controls the heat. Coal likes depth. It will burn much better if it's 12" deep rather than 4" deep.

stove sized coal from Kimmels most is size pictured has some smaller mixed in.

Ok, about three this morning the fire was out....so much for trying to burn coal....next weekend i have off so i will try again and filler up...i am only doing this to see what it is like....i have lots of free ash, oak and maple to burn and i guess i ned the exercise...i do nor have a baro damper, no damper in pipe at all...when burning wood the draft blower works so sweet...just in reverse to burning coal...leave the draft blower window opened about half or a bit more and shut down the bottom draft to one quarter turn....I have it down pat...maybe some day it might be the same with coal...I do not want to modify my furnace...according to the manufacture you should not have to do that and they say they have lots of folk burning coal...oh well...I dug out all the coal and there is a lot...I will try to burn coal one more time...THANX TO ALL for your suggestions and it has been fun..I will report back next week or maybe quicker.
RC

When the manufacturer says lots of owners are burning coal.. my question is WHAT KIND of coal?? Bituminous will burn more like wood, it can tollerate, and even needs some over the fire air, especially right after a fresh load of coal is added..
Anthracite is very different,, ALL the combustion air must come from underneath the fire, and NO leaks or passages around the fire are allowed, or you will have fires going out, poor heat output etc..

Keep at it, if you can figure out a way to block the 'wrong' air passageways, you will probably get to burn Anthracite well,,

But free wood is hard to compete with. Just time and work, no $$ outlay for the fuel. It's the time and work that I'm short on, so I buy and burn anthracite..in a stoker boiler,, just about like an oil or gas boiler, it's so automatic.

Greg L

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I have a slightly used FireChief 700 for sale,Will come with full transferable Factory Warranty, Call 410-808-4994 Thanks

BIG BEAM wrote:Hi redcoals
How do you like those roller grates in your furnace and how do they work? Do you just rotate them or do you rotate them and when they get stuck you change direction?I'm thinking about trying to fit a set of them in my hotblast furnace.
DON

I've also wonder if there is another grate system that would fit. I have a Clayton 1537G. Just about the sa 1me as your Hot Blast.