Sweet Pea!

After using Reading nut coal in my Hitzer 50-93 since I got the stove, wasnt real happy with the quality and sizing of the coal. So I tried Reading pea. What a difference!! Way more even heat. Hardly any unburnt coal in the pan, ash is much finer and can easily go 24+ hrs @ 350-400 unattended. And seems to burn as hot as the nut did. Really liking it!!

Stoker6268 wrote:After using Reading nut coal in my Hitzer 50-93 since I got the stove, wasnt real happy with the quality and sizing of the coal. So I tried Reading pea. What a difference!! Way more even heat. Hardly any unburnt coal in the pan, ash is much finer and can easily go 24+ hrs @ 350-400 unattended. And seems to burn as hot as the nut did. Really liking it!!

Do you find that unburned pea drops through the grates when you are shaking down the ash?

A bunch sure falls through on the 2 times I tried it straight--as long as your happy with it, good deal

This year I came into quite a bit of pea coal for a good deal so I had to try it, it worked great in my hand fed furnace, when I lit I started with a good layer of nut first then switched too pea and just watched how I shook, once I ashes up I never had a problem with it falling through, was able to idle right along for the past month at 130-180 over the load door temps, I switched to nut for the cold only because it reacts faster and makes my tend times shorter.

lsayre wrote:

Stoker6268 wrote:After using Reading nut coal in my Hitzer 50-93 since I got the stove, wasnt real happy with the quality and sizing of the coal. So I tried Reading pea. What a difference!! Way more even heat. Hardly any unburnt coal in the pan, ash is much finer and can easily go 24+ hrs @ 350-400 unattended. And seems to burn as hot as the nut did. Really liking it!!

Do you find that unburned pea drops through the grates when you are shaking down the ash?

No. Havent had any issues with it falling through or jamming the grates. I also notice with the pea it feeds out of the hopper better giving a much more uniform bed of coal.

Update- still loving the pea. Also, since switching to pea I have had no "back puffs" like I was with nut.

I burned pea last season and loved the even heat and the constant BIG blue wave rolling up the back of the Vigilant. If I can get pea size from Tractor Supply I will, I loved it!
And like previously stated a nice bed of ash will help keep the pea in the pod

I've been burning pea in the Marks Brothers for the last year or so. The slower burn is reducing the times I have to empty the ash pans; every other day for the Mark II and every 3 or 4 days for the Mark I. That's with a twice daily thorough shaking. I don't have a problem with the coal slipping between the grates and refreshing the fire is easy. Generally, I haven't had any puff backs either.

Granted, I don't need a really hot fire most of the time since my average daily temperature is 28* but when I do it's an easy matter to add a layer of nut and bring the fire up. Sadly, I don't see a lot of the "blue ladies" with pea coal but since it's producing the heat I want for less time and effort who really cares.

I switched to pea when that was all my supplier had. I was leery but now I'm glad; I burn pea 99% of the time.

Ive witnessed the opposite. Nice dancing blues with pea, not much with nut. Weird...

I liked it in my MKII a lot!

I've got 5 bags left from early last winter...I think I'll throw some on top my stove coal in the Crawford and see how she goes

Guess I'm a PEA burner myself. Tried Stove, Nut, Range, and Pea and found that the Pea is for me. Longer burns and same amount of heat out of the Buck Model 24 stove. Very happy with the results.