Crane 404 - Our First Coal Burner

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Wed. Dec. 17, 2014 8:28 pm

Coalvet,it works !! I filled the fire pot full of coal,closed the loading door,waited a few minutes for a few long vertical flames to appear ,closed the ash door & done. Takes less time than the other dribbling coal & wait & repeat procedure.I love simplicity in a stoves operation.

coalvet · Post by **coalvet** » Thu. Dec. 18, 2014 7:49 am

Glad it worked for you. I have used this method for all of my stoves!

blrman07 · Post by **blrman07** » Thu. Dec. 18, 2014 8:00 am

Dribble, wait, repeat works if you went too long and your losing the fire. Dumping a whole load or even a 1/2 load on an anemic fire will probably snuff it out. I also dump and run when the fire is in good shape. Works for my stove the VC 2310. Looks similar to the 404 insidewise.

coalvet · Post by **coalvet** » Thu. Dec. 18, 2014 8:16 am

Yes not recommended with a weak fire!

ddahlgren · Post by **ddahlgren** » Sat. Dec. 20, 2014 1:11 am

I am still a bit nervous about filling the whole firebox with no exposed burning coal but do half with ash pan door open when it takes off the other side. I shake the grates though not sure why other than some exercise but the odds of asjes falling slim to none. Without the poker clearing the grates is impossible. The weight of the new coal does compress things and makes the poker useful.

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Sat. Dec. 20, 2014 6:38 am

I am still a bit nervous about filling it all at once. If I fill it all at once & it takes a lot of coal I will poke a hole down thru the coal at each end of the fire pot.Then with the loading door closed & the ash door open it takes so little time for flames to rush up thru & get firing strong.

blrman07 · Post by **blrman07** » Sat. Dec. 20, 2014 6:44 am

coalvet wrote:Yes not recommended with a weak fire!

Correctamundo.......dump and run will kill an anemic fire most of the time. With a weak fire you gotta use the dribble, clear a LITTLE bit of ash, dribble, let it catch, clear, dribble, let it catch....then dump and run when the fire is strong.

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Mon. Dec. 22, 2014 8:45 pm

This evening my wife & I went to our local coal yard & filled a bunch of buckets ,about 600# of Reading nut @ $11/100# or $220/ton. When scaling out he did say that at this time of yr the nut is closer to pea-nut as nut is so much in demand now that the breakers are mixing pea in with nut. I loaded the stove with the Reading tonite & compared it with the nut that we have been using. The Reading has lots of pea but overall is much cleaner & more consistently sized than the bagged stuff from another brand that we have been using.

Post by **Rob R.** » Mon. Dec. 22, 2014 8:58 pm

Your stove would probably burn pea just fine. I used to burn it in my Hitzer - aside from a slower recovery after loading it burned fine.

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Mon. Dec. 22, 2014 9:07 pm

Rob,I've been thinking about this ever since I saw that its smaller coal,i don't think that pea size can fall thru the grates on the 404,it will take some getting used to setting the draft a bit different tho. As you said the recovery time may be slower which will mean we just load a partial load & do that more times per day,not a big deal for us. I am very happy with how consistent the sizing is ,it looks like 2 sizes mixed together instead of many sizes in the bags.

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Tue. Dec. 23, 2014 8:44 pm

Well, it looks like we have used 34# per day so far since lighting this stove on Nov 1. This has kept us very warm in our living area & has even cut the use of electric for some of the cooking (no data on that tho)

Now I am trying to learn the needed settings for burning the Reading pea-nut coal we just picked up. Merry CHRISTmas to all , I'm looking forward to another special day to celebrate when God gave mankind THE GREATEST GIFT.... JESUS is the reason for the season,it truly is a wonderful time of the yr. Enjoy the family time !

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Tue. Jan. 06, 2015 8:16 pm

Our Crane just keeps radiating its heat,warming our bones & our cats. Caught some blue flames in action & decided to share. One disadvantage of owning a Crane stove is that the Company reps are difficult to get a hold of ... Just teasing,DCRANE

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Fri. Jan. 09, 2015 10:32 pm

Last evening I went to our local coal yard, F& H coal & had him dump coal on the flat bed of our F250 SD..1280# of Reading nut. We then shoveled into buckets ,some last nite,some this evening. This should take us to the end of Jan or maybe into Feb.

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Sun. Feb. 15, 2015 10:49 pm

-1* this a/m with BRUTAL WINDS up to 50 mph,this extreme cold really seeps into the concrete slab our living room is on top of. We ran the 404 harder than we have b4 to maintain the WARM feel we are now used to in this normally cold room.We managed to warm the outside up to 10* despite the strong winds

,but without the sun helping the temps are falling towards the forecasted -2*.I should have weighed the coal we used but I would guess around 50# . Sure is nice having this WARM room thanks to this little coal burner.

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Sun. Mar. 15, 2015 7:41 pm

I haven't added all the coal figures up lately ,but I had taken some pics that I thought might bring someone some late season warmth

This stove has kept our living room very warm,it has also cooked a lot of our food,baked potatoes inside,lots of different food in kettles on the top.

Crane 404 - Our First Coal Burner

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