Coal Stoves???

[JimR]

Yesterday I just picked up an older Warm Morning coal stove for the old farm for free. It is about 2 ffet square and about 40 inches tall. It is bricklined with hollow bricks on the 4 corners (air flow maybe). There is a large door and small damper cover on the bottom where the ash pan is. There is a lever inside there for shaking the coal ash. On top in front there is another large door with a sliding grate on it for air I would assume. I installed this stove in place of a rotted out wood stove in the boiler room. How the heck do you run these crazy things. I have no information on it and have no clue. I do have it running now. But not sure if it is right. I started it by burning a wood fire than adding a good layer of coal on top of the wood coals. Then I put about a gallon of coal on top of that once it lit. This morning the coals were burned down to the bottom and red hot. So I shook it down a bit and added more coal. I checked the fire 2 hours later and it was just about dead. I relit it using my propane torch from underneath as the stove was full of unburned coal. What am I missing here to keep this thing running? I have the lower door closed and the swinging cover closed. I have the top sliding air door half open. TIA, Jim

 

[Wannafish]

I don't think you're missing anything...except coal!

Gotta put lots in to keep it burning. Was a cheap source of heat when coal was inexpensive, but quite dirty.

 

[JimR]

How often do you need to shake these things down? How do you know when it is shaken down enough?

 

[Himself]

I have two coal stoves, a Haas + Sohn and a Franco Belge. I have a little experience.
They are both hopper fed, that is you fill the hopper and the coal subsides and feed the fire as gravity pulls the hopper material down onto the fire box.
The hopper has a hinged lid at the top of the unit. You just pour the coal in.
From empty each take about 80 pounds to fill and that will burn about 48 hours, so every day they take about 40 pounds to top off.
I shake 'em in the morning around 5am then about 6pm then about 10pm.
Take the ashes out and bring the coal in. They are a bit of work.
The exhaust will eat the average metal chimney in two years. When it's not burning the ash will collect moisture and become highly acidic. The stove manufacturer recommends washing the pipe with a baking soda solution. I never have. The internal flue passages within the stove must be vacuumed out at the end of each heating season, quite a bit of ash builds up in there.
They must be air tight or you cannot requlate the fire.
I no longer use them, I stopped when oil dropped to .79 / gal and anthracite pea coal was $139 / ton. (a while ago). We keep them around for emergency. With both running they will keep the pipes from freezing if we lose electric for a long time. I have about a half ton of coal stored in trash cans just in case.
Small stoves usually take pea coal. The ash grate will have about 1/2 inch slots.
Light them using match light charcoal, much easier than wood. Get the charcoal going and when nice and red add a few shovels of coal. When that gets going add some more and so on till tou have a 4 inch fire bed then just fill the hopper.
My take on any stove is if you get the fuel for free than it is a fair deal.

All the best,
Martin