Pea Coal Vs. Chestnut Coal Vs. Stove Coal

the snowman wrote:I have been reading all of the post concerning the different sized coals and have decided to put my two cents in. This season I have been burning stove coal almost exclusively in my one Jotul, which I have bricked to the top of the stove, gaining a depth to the coal bed of almost six more inches. I have been burning nut in the other Jotul 507 with stock height brick and stock cast inserts above the brick. At first while burning the stove coal I was getting short burn times. As it has been stated the larger air spaces around the stove coal compared to the spaces around nut coal would account for the lowered burn time of the stove coal. One day while loading the stove with stove coal I was watching how the coal randomally fell and heaped in the stove. I decided to try something that goes against coal burning practices. I decided that after I loaded the stove I would take my fire place shovel and compact the coal bed. What I did was take the shovel and while pressing down on top of the coal bed I made short quick stokes across the top of the coal. I was creating a sort of rolling vibration to the coal. The entire coal bed compressed down about two inches. After several minutes the coal bed was a floor filled with dancing blue ladies. I kept an eye on the stove to make sure it was running ok. I would heap the coal up before compressing so when it was compressed the coal would be level with the top of the brick. I had been running the stove at a temp of 700 F for a week straight using my new technique when loading the stove coal. At 700 F and a full load of stove coal I am getting burn times of 16 hours before reloading the stove. Prior to using this technique I was getting burn times of only 10 hours between reloads. I did try stove coal in the stock lined stove as well and found that by compressing the coal bed I had similar results. When comparing the stove with nut to the stove with stove coal I found a few differences. With the stove coal I tend to get no unburnt coal in the ash pan after shaking compared to the stove with nut. I also found the coal bed of the stove coal dropped more evenly compared to the other stove (I have a revolving round grate). I found no difference in controlling the fire between the stove with nut compared to the stove coal. Both stoves take about the same amount of time to recover after reloading. I have in the past used range coal and have also tried the technuque of covering the nut coal with a thin layer of pea and have covered stove coal with both nut an pea. Nut seemed to work better with the stove coal. This is just my two cents on the differences and my technique of burning stove coal.

the snowman.

mof1964 wrote:I just installed a coal chubby and am burning nut coal and it is burning hot. I have to have the air cut back to about a 1/16 of an inch to keep the stove temp around 325. The manual pipe damper is closed also.
I am wondering if anyone has topped off the nut with buck coal( have this for my stoker) and it that would let me open the air vent more and still keep the temp and give me a longer slower burn?


Thanks,

Mitch