Heating With Coal. How to Start a Coal Fire
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- Our wood stove can burn either wood or coal. In this video Kevin will teach you our method for starting and maintaining an anthracite coal fire.
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I just bought a bag of coal. I'm glad I watched this video. I think I will buy more coal.
Hey I'm from Pennsylvania! Coal is king here ! I see that bag of coal is from our area !!! Am in Williamsport PA
here in ky our saying is "Coal Keeps The Lights On!"
We still have a coal bin that we get deliveries for in the Pocono hills
I think coal is one of the most overlooked heating options for the home. But it sure seems like it works wonderfully.
3 million individual users in Poland
I grew up with Granny burning coal! She would add coal first thing in the morning after she shook down the ashes from the coals of the night fire! Then about lunch time she would shake it down and add more coal if needed. Her stove was a tall round stove that opened on top and had a little for at the bottom with adjustable vents. She would go get coal by the pickup bed full and kept it on the back porch end that was closed in on three sides and every evening she would bring big chunks that would fit thru the top lid and a few smaller pieces that would catch fire easily! It smelled so good burning! Good memories!
We had coal at home until a couple of years after I moved out in 1979. The biggest problem was getting residential delivery, so my parents switched to gas. I remember warming up frozen feet by the stove after being out skating.
What does coal smell like when it burns?
It smells like a coal fired freight train.😂
My dad was born in 1910 and he lived with his grandparents he use to tell us stories about walking the railroad tracks with a bucket to pick up coal that had fallen off the coal trains on the sides of the tracks
@@mitchdenner9743 as long as it burning there is relatively no smell but it has a sulphur smell if the draft is low or if it get warm outside and it will let you know that is a sign of CO forming
I swear I thought he was gonna say "The weather outside is frightful"
Sounded like he was gonna say it alright....
LOL I thought so too. I think he thought about it and at the last minute didn't. Sarah could have been behind the camera shaking her head mouthing, "Don't say it"
totally missed that opportunity...
The weather outside is weather
especially with Santa on the bag!
thanks my dad kelp warm with coal as a kid .back in the 40 s they were so poor they had to jump trains to throw off coal to keep warm over night.and ate peanut butter for 8 weeks to stay alive.
Geez thats insane my grandmas dad did the same thing he used to paint the numbers on the side of the trains and would sneak a few pieces in his sack to take home everyday aswell, you never will hear of that style of life no more
I still have my dads old pot belly stove that we used to burn coal in. Haven't used it in 40 years or more. Back then we used to be able to buy coal in bulk at any hardware store. Times have changed.
Having been in the coal industry since 1972 and having burned coal in my living room stove since 1987 you can say I know a thing or two about coal. I also live about 120 miles from the anthracite coal fields of eastern PA. We have a "Russo Coal / Wood Stove", (the EPA will now not allow the manufacturer to state both wood and coal but either coal or wood, though the design is still the same). We supplement our domestic space heating with coal and wood. About the only thing that #2 oil is used for is domestic hot water for personal washing and showering; we burn wood from onset of cold weather, usually late September, until about Thanksgiving then we use coal until about St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) when we switch back to wood until the end of the heating season. Our stove takes about an initial 20 pound charge (load) and can run for 24 hours with the addition of another 20 lbs. over that period. If I "bank" the coals frugally I can get as much as a 36 hour burn on 40lbs.
At any rate the difference with burning with coal is coal needs a bottom draft that comes up through the grates an into the coals this forms a bottom layer of thin ash, then the burning coal, then the addition of additional charges as the coal burns. Leaving a corner empty does not help the fire since coal burns from below, so it is best to start with a few well burnt logs, then adding coal in layers until you see the fire coming up through the new layers of black coal. The flames will start off blue as it is burning off methane and other flammable gases; it will then turn purple as the yellow flames begin to take over; then the entire load-bed will begin to glow as the flames die away. This is the hottest part of the burn. It takes me less than an hour to reach this point and it is a delight to watch. At this time it is almost pure carbon burning, hence, the lack of smoke with anthracite coal. Bituminous coal is a much younger coal and hence has more impurities therefore smokes more, thus the name bituminous, as bitumin is Latin for smoke.
Coal burns with an even heat and requires less tending than wood heat. In my opinion, coal is best. I've also burned bituminous coal, which does smoke but its about the same as wood smoke; and I've also burned coke, which is a pure carbon product by which bituminous coal is baked to form what is comparable to wood charcoal but much, much hotter; this is called coke. All burn well and provide much needed heat at a much better cost than #2 heating oil or gas. We use between 1 and 2 tons of coal per year and approximately 1 cord of hardwood.
Very informative thanks
What do you pay for a 40 lb bag? In 1986, the last time I operated coal fired boilers in Minneapolis, it was $105.00 a ton delivered in 20 ton loads. Kentucky Derby, was a very hard, very hot burning Virginia coal. With automatic draft mechanical stokers KD coal produced 14kbtu per pound.
Richardofdanbury coke is toxic as shit. Don’t bring that into your home
I'm not sure you understand the coke I'm speaking of is nothing more than processed coal, which consolidates it into almost pure carbon. As to toxic it is no more toxic than other carbon products including vehicle exhausts, wood burning, gas combustion, anthracite and bituminous coal combustion.
Individually, the cost in Lower New England is about $6.50 pre 40# bag. We burn about 1.5 tons per winter and the cost has consistently increased the last delivery in November, 2018 was about $400 including delivery. 14kbtu is exceptional as most coal is between 12,000 to 12,500 btu/lb.
Looking in from England - I love my multi fuel stove and burnt wood for a few years and then I discovered coal - so much better and much more heat.
That’s what I love about my neck of the woods. When my old relatives used coal we would just hike up the hill and pick some out of the ridge lol
We have a coal furnace that heats our 7000 square feet house. Best heat ever and super cheap compared to natural gas in our area. Takes a bit of daily maintenance to fill the stoker and empty the clinkers from the firebox but it’s no big deal.
I've used coal for a lot of my 68 years. In a cook stove, in open grates and wood/coal stoves. It seems easy, if you grew up doing it. But it is something you have to learn. My earliest memory and the first way I started fires and the method I still use today is this. I have a container with a lid. Fill it full of dry corn cobs; in the absence of corn cobs use a good quality natural charcoal. I pour the container about half full of coal oil; that is kerosene NOT gasoline NOT diesel NOT lighter fluid. The corn cobs soak it up. Clean out your stove. Lay 2 or 3 corn cobs down in the grate of the stove. Put a half dozen or so smaller pieces of coal around and on top. Put a couple of larger pieces on it or snugged up close. Light the corn cobs. In a few minutes you can slowly add more coal until it is as big a mound of coal as you want. At night, we put a few scoops of ashes on the fire to bank it down. All we have to do the next day is shake out most of the ashes and feed the fire.
For those in the UK "coal oil" and kerosene is "paraffin" not to be confused with the liquid wax the US has.
Thank you for that!
I’m going to try it.
I was living aboard an old 50' wooden boat and we went from Florida to Boston one year, and stayed until October. It got very cold. The little ship actually had a little fireplace, and we got the great idea to burn coal in it. I found a source of anthracite and went and bought a bag. I did pretty much as in this video, got the coal started, it burned very nicely. No idea if the fireplace was designed to burn coal! A built-in fan blew air from around the firebox into the cabins, very nice, warm all night. The next morning: soot all over the boat and boats next to us. No one was living on the boats, but the dock master and marina staff weren't very happy with us. I know it was anthracite, just like my grandpa used in Long Island.
This was almost 40 years ago, but I think I remember having trouble getting the initial bed of coals going, and adding more wood. That might account for the soot, but the stuff was kind of sticky, I remember it all over the charley noble (fitting over the top of the stovepipe). The fire did last all night, even though the firebox was rather small.
Thanks for this video! 3/4 of the videos I see the people are lighting charcoal, not actual mineral coal fires. Thanks for showing us the real deal!
those old stoves really bring me back to my childhood. My Aunt and Uncle up in Pennsylvania had one basement where Me and my cousin would play and sleep when i visited. On those cold winter nights, we were soooo toasty warm with a nice coal fire down there with us.
you just brought me some nice nostalgia, sir..
My inlaws lived in the Lehigh Valley in PA until 2003. They used to have a dump truck full of coal delivered to their coal bin in the back yard every september. Said it was abt $800 a year.
Wow!! That is more than I paid for oil in my 3000 square foot house around that time.
I think that by keeping one corner free of coal you allow air to come up into the stove, above the coal to form sort of a secondary burn. My coal furnace, a Holland, has little "chimneys" cast into the fire pot to allow air to come up above the coal. You can see the gases burn when the air comes in contact with it. It creates a more efficient burn.
Allowing once corner to be exposed for burning makes sure gasses coming from the new coal piled on top will burn. It keeps explosions from happening where a huge puff of gas above the coal will suddenly ignite and shoot out your chimney (and backfire into your house).
We bought a house with an old wood/coal stove. Have really struggled with using coal, but when it gets going... Wow. Will try again with these tips.
England here.
What you have there (the bucket), is called a coal scuttle here in England. Maybe it is in America too?
The trick is - learning to take the bucket by the swinging handle (left hand if you're right-handed) and the rim of the base with your dominant hand and tossing a whole bucket full (scuttle-full) into the gaping jaws of the fire - when the doors are swung fully open of course.
You have to do that and empty a full bucket onto the fire and not spill a single piece!
If you get that right you also get a nice sloping pile of coal rising up from front to back.
Almost everyone used to burn coal here in England, even up to as recently as the 1970s or even 80s. As kids we had to learn how to build coal fires and toss buckets of coal on there ... and negotiate the way to the yard with screaming-hot metal pans full of hot ashes. It was regularly a chore for small boys.
Anthracite is good stuff. Burns virtually smokeless once it gets going. It does need a continuous air draft, though not an excessively strong one, to keep burning compared to non-anthracite coals (including modern 'smokeless' coal) which can self-sustain a burn with almost minimal draft. Anthracite burns hot and lasts longer than regular coals.
When we lit fires we didn't really wait long at all (or not at all) before putting the coal on. We would scrunch up into tight(ish) balls, individual sheets of newspaper, about 20 in all ( a full newspaper?), then cover the newspaper with about at least a dozen sticks of kindling wood - say 1 inch square section sticks - a good couple of handfuls laid cross-weave on top of the newspaper. Then you can put a good shovelful of coal on top, even before lighting the newspaper at the bottom, peeping out through the sticks.
Alternatively, light the newspaper and wait for the sticks to begin to crackle, then toss a full scuttle-full of coal on top. Don't spill a single piece - your Mum will tick you off for that.
I agree that anthracite might need a bit more burn on the sticks to get some red embers forming before adding it.
Good stuff anyway.
Excellent post, thank you.
Very interesting! My grandparents and parents have burned their share of coal over the years. Our family has burned wood due to the fact that we bought land that had a surplus of timber. Unfortunately, we are moving to a new property that has few trees and wondered how we could maintain our stoves and fireplaces without electric or propane. This is a great idea! Thanks!
Go pay a company to deliver wood to your property. Ez
I just bought my bag of coal I honestly didn't know where to buy it but Tractor Supply carries coal. Thanks for the video be good on those cold nights and I won't have to keep getting up all night to put a log on the fire. Thanks for the video.
No problem 👍
We use a Hitzer with the 30- pound hopper. Even though we are literally sitting on millions of tons of Wyoming coal, we burn anthracite from Tractor Supply. I start a few pounds of Match Light charcoal and when it’s cherry red, start loading coal.
we burn about 20 tonnes of coal a year heating our 2000 sq ft house and 2000 sq ft shop here in Saskatchewan. we have an automatic stoker outside coal fired hot water heating system and circulate the 90 degree C water to the house and shop. We only light the fire once, with a big propane torch, in early November and shut it down mid April. A lot of nights in the last 3 weeks were down to -38C with daytime temps maybe -18C wind chills were near -50 at times.
I grew up in a house with a Rayburn coal fire, and like yours, it had a glass door but it also had a back boiler for the radiators and hot water. It was about half the size of yours and 2 cwt, (224lb)of coal lasted us a week.
It never went out from early Sept to the end of April. We just took a little ash out everyday, and kept topping up the coals.
One big difference is the size of our coals, most were fist sized. We lit it with firelighter blocks, and it only took 10 min to get a good fire started.
It's good to see how folks do things in different parts of the world. We've come a long way from holding a sheet of newspaper in front of an open fire so that it would draw. If you left it a few seconds too long you were holding a burning sheet of newspaper in the middle of your lounge 🤣
Very interesting. We live in the mountains of Mongolia which is one of the coldest inhabitable places on Earth. -45C/-50F is about the lowest it goes in Dec/Jan. We heat with semi-coke briquettes which is the only legal coal product we're legally allowed to use. It's subsidized and rationed. We can buy 175kg (385lbs) per week from mid-Sept to mid-May which costs $7 per load (or roughly $38 per ton).
The way we start our furnace/boiler is very different but it seems to work. It's also a lot less work. We fill the stove with coal (it's a top loader) then put some firewood on top. We set light to the wood then when that's burned and the top layer of coal is glowing, we can reduce the airflow most of the way. One load takes about 20 minutes to light and requires no more attention. It burns for 16 hours. Then we clean it all out and repeat. It's a sunny winter with little wind. So we generally don't need heat in the sunny part of the day.
It seems like everybody else lights from the bottom but we light from the top. I was worried at first but it works so it's hard to argue with success.
That final look at the glowing coals was beautiful. Very nice video.
When I was a kid, our house was heated by a big coal furnace down in the basement. Great heat, long lasting fire. We had an automatic coal feeder that used small pieces of coal that were fed into the furnace via an auger. Unfortunately, the fire box developed cracks in it....and coal smoke and soot would get into the heat jacket and then into the heat ducts....the house smelled like sulfur and coat dust. The old furnace was replaced with a large wood/coal stove in the living room. It's been many a year since I left home....pushing 4 decades I guess...and to this day, the smell of coal smoke turns my stomach. Wood smoke however....love it.
My 1929 house in Cleveland Ohio still has the big cast iron coal door into the basement. I think here it was used in boilers for radiators not a center stove. Yea it basically was dumped into a big corner box in your basement by the coal man by the Ton.
Finally gets to the part you WANT to see at 4:59 minutes into the video. Good and informative after that. Thumbs up!
I'm a fireman on a steam locomotive. This is a ritual every 7 days or after a mandatory inspection. We use bitimous (hopefully I spelled that right) which is very messy even when wet and it produces alot of thick black smoke, we could use anthracite but the expense would be out the roof. Great video
Erick Wardwell It’s like burning an oil soaked rag isn’t it 😂
Coal gets a bad rap these days, but in reality, it is absolutely lovely.
Keep a bucket of ashes handy so if the coal starts burning too hot, you can shovel ashes over the coal to slow the burning.
Great tip! Never heard of that but will make sure I try it next time we have a coal fire going. Thanks!
Jim Holmes , isn't that called "banking the fire?"
Diana Nore I read my Father's book after he had passed away. He wrote of this back in the Great Depression, To save on the cost of coal. In the 1930's a ton of coal cost about $3. but in 1930 $3 was A Lot of money.
Jim Holmes Correct, my Pop worked the WPA for $1 a day during the Depression/Dust Bowl years = 3 days labor to heat their home for a month plus. I'm 70 & have been burning wood for quite some time & am thinking about going back to using coal bc it is readily available from some of the old independent miners around here in S CO
Hmm, ok, but I think that's why you should have a barometric damper. My stove manufacturer (Penn something) warns about this. If the fire gets too hot, a properly adjusted damper will open and automatically cool down the flue, reduce the draft, and cool down the burn. Mine works great, but it sticks open sometimes, so check it before you lose your burn.
We use to buy the larger chunks of coal and broke it up with the back of an ax. Kept the same fire going all winter. Just covered the burning coal with ashes. Used a poker to shake the ashes off in the morning added more coal and it fired right back up.
Heated with coal + wood growing up ,dont need any practice but thanks for the offer ,allways hot +dry you cant beat it..cant beat it.
I've been burning wood and coal for over 30 years. I have a combination wood/coal boiler that was given to me for the work of removing it from where it had been installed. The owner over heated it and was so panicked that he just wanted it out! I had a barrel stove before hand and wasn't sure if I wanted to go through all of the work to get it over and connected. Being a plumber by trade, I only needed the help with moving it. Some years I've only burned wood. Other years I might have a few wood fires then switch to coal. I can get that same exact brand at a coal supplier here in southern NY state 50 miles north of NYC. I use Stove size or chesnut if I can't get stove. Someone gave me a couple tons of rice coal, but I had to give up on trying to get it to burn. The yard had been closed except Saturdays for the last few years until a new owner bought it. I was paying $8 per bag for years and $6 way back. It's $10 now but with the cost of fuel oil it makes it more of an advantage to burn coal. A couple things I've learned about coal is that it's like an art form to get it to burn the way you want even after 30 years! And it's dirty! I bring the pan of ash & dump it outside pouring it in a steel can. Even loading it carefully, you'll find a fine black dust far from the stove. If oil is reasonable in price, I probably won't bother with the coal and just have a few wood fires on the coldest nights. I would caution people about the sulfer fumes which will give you a headache if you don't open the door slightly then wait for them to clear. That hole you leave to help it keep going is to allow air to get through! Some other channels claim that having a combo cumbustion chamber as I do make it much harder to burn coal properly. Mine is V shaped with bricks tapered on either side of the grate which runs front to back. I'm still checking peoples experiences with coal even after all these years! 😊
Thanks for the Video years before it became a popular trend in America I ve had the dream of living off grid and being self sufficient Unfortunately health issues changed my life significantly in my 40s that. Has caused me a fair share of life changing events i have not given up on my dreams and i had always figured that i would use Wood and Coal as my heat source I just found a pretty nice peice of property about 100 acres of land off the beaten path ! It is not completely off grid and has a few buildings on the property that would require Wood and Coal heating so. I turned to You Tube to find out more about Coal heating BTW the property is in a area that was known for its Abundancy of Coal a few years ago and Mining did make up the primary Income of the small towns in the Area It is still a pretty Rural Area the property is located but. There are some modern conveniences like Banks, some stores , and even a local Hardware Store with in a short distance from the land that interests me
Good job on your video. If you want your stove to heat up quicker, leave the ash pan door open for more air while layering. Once the fire is established, you can shut it. 80 lbs of anthy will burn a long time. DS makes some nice stoves.
40 lbs of this type of coal is $84 on Amazon. Spending $168 for 12 hours of heating a 1400 sf house sounds rather expensive to me.
@@vanessashimoni6548 Funny stuff. Amazon? Tell them to pound sand. 40lb bags here in New England, (an expensive area) costs $10 a bag. and that's horrible compared to the past 10 yrs when it was 6 bucks a bag. Coal when used correctly will outheat any other medium. The automatic furnaces are easier, but also costlier too. As for pellets? Ha, don't make me laugh.
My grandfather lived in Connecticut. He bought anthracite by the ton by truck and had it dumped in his back yard.
Thanks for sharing! I remember my Mam maw having a pot belly stove, but too young to remember the details. This will come in handy when we finally get to Missouri next month! Thanks for great content! Blessings.
Here in Eastern Europe, heating with coal is still very popular. The best way to burn is from the top. First, the necessary amount of coal is loaded, then wood and lit from the top, the length of heating can be long and is determined by the amount of coal. After burnout, the same procedure. It is a gentle, economical and comfortable way of heating. Our coal-fired stoves and boilers are structurally made for this and have a secondary air supply, so that the combustion is of high quality.
Save on coal by putting a thin layer of ash on top of the coal when you go to bed. Slows down the burn. Called banking the fire.
We always banked the coal before going bed. We get some 5 block coal that burns good for heat
I thought banking was pushing to coal to the back and up the wall of the stove, then filling in the front?
Banking a coal fire has nothing to do with ash. Your more on target
@@libertyanunion Thank you for confirming that.
Thanks for the interesting video 👍
We're thinking about getting a stove to burn either wood or coal for our small cinder block building/garage so this video helps demonstrate what to expect. My question is for anyone who knows: How do you heat an entire house with a stove such as this unless it has blowers and can blow warm air throughout? Convection from the stove alone will pretty much only heat things in the same room for the most part I'm thinking. IDK, someone help me to understand this better please.
Jeff, I've never used coal but I have seen little fans that are powered by heat. As long as that stove top is hot, that fan will spin. Some sold are called Eco fans.
I live in a small house made in 1904 and my backyard has so much coal in it! I wanted to know how to get it to burn and now I know. Thanks!!
That needs to be dried and seasoned well before you do that. And not all coal burns.
A few days ago we were train spotting and noticed some lumps of coal along the tracks, which had presumably fallen off of a coal train. We decided to make a fire. Took some pieces of scrap wood and some tumbleweeds, got it all going, and added our couple bits of coal. The coal never did light off, but it did violently shatter into high-speed shrapnel. Then we tried taking a single piece and just holding the propane torch on it. After about a minute, it never caught on fire, but again, it exploded so hard that it left a little crater in the gravel like a good powerful firecracker. At that point we decided that we were just too West Coast to understand this coal business.
Thank you so much for making this video. Very informative and well explained. I just bought a vintage coal laundry stove. Not sure how I'll be using it, but this video takes the mystery out of using coal. I checked prices on anthracite coal, by the bag, and it's $3.25 for a 40 lb bag. If it is delivered by truck it costs $97.91 per ton, in 2015. That's 2000 lbs of anthracite coal for $97.91. 2000 lbs divided by 40 lb bag = 50 bags. A ton of coal = 50 bags at a total cost of $97.91 ($1.96/bag X 30 days = $58.80/mo). 50 bags purchased from Lowe's = $162.50 ($3.25/bag X 30 days = $97.50/mo). So, you save $38.70/mo by having it delivered by the ton. Based on using 1 bag per 24 hours.
Thank You breaking the cost down for us. My only other question is regarding the smell of the coal burning. OK or objectionable?
@@victoreous626 I haven't burned any coal, yet. In addition, that price breakdown is off old prices, just so you know. Anthracite nut coal should burn clean without much odor. Bituminous nut coal will be dirty and stinky.
Wow, here in Belgium we pay $480 per ton for anthracite coal !!! ... I''ll just stick with wood :)
@@gratien69 I don't blame you, especially, if wood is free.
Good luck finding a supplier any more as most have shut down when natural gas became popular in the 50 and 60’s
We had a huge coal burning furnace in the 60's , still love the smell.
Great video. Coal really burns beautifully. People would be wise to maker certain any insert or stove they purchase is multi-fuel and can burn coal. The past two years has shown the world what can happen to gas supplies when one person goes stupid.
awesome! glad people are doing this still.
This takes me back to my childhood. I can smell the coal burning in the big ole stove that stood in my Grandma and Grandpa’s house when I was a little girl. The cold air had the smell of coal smoke. Thank you for the memories. I am Not far from you in Southern Illinois.
I live in central pa. Right in the middle of coal country. Bag coal is a lot more expensive than pulling your truck up to the conveyer belt.
I use match light charcoal to start my coal stove. It is quick and easy. Just put a nice size mound of charcoal in the center and pile coal all around it and light her up. Start sprinkling coal on top after the charcoal starts dying down. I have a D&S 1500 circulator. Best stove I ever bought! Running it at 425 and uses 5 gallon bucket a day.
Great video and info! This certainly would be great for airbnb rental units where user error or inexperience could make a wood fire dangerous.
No, not great for "newbies" at all. A coal stove can get SO HOT if too much air is allowed in, the house can go to 80 degrees and the stove can crack.
I just wanted to thank you for this very helpful video. We heat with rice coal, with a feeder coal stove, but are considering going to a coal stove that doesn't require electricity. I really enjoy watching you two as you make your videos. Loved the greenhouse vid too! May God bless you as you help others with your videos!
Rice coal?
When my dad was alive, my parents heated mostly with coal. Dad knew where to get kindling, and most people he knew would save newspaper for him. Emptying the ashes was always a dirty job, but in cold northeast ohio weather, coal is necessary if you are trying to heat your house without a furnace.
You all rock. I miss the midwest.
I miss the Iron stove, to quick cooking, to the kettle of hot water... for everything,... everything from hot tea, to cleaning to bathing.... to just sitting and watching the fire. Nothing more wonderful than sitting, getting warm and watching the fire in winter.
I live in central Appalachia and was about to laugh my ass off when you said it was only available by the bag. I can get entire truck or train loads. lol
I grew up in a home in Kansas City that had a coal chute to the basement from the driveway. The coal chute dumped into a coal bin where you would shovel coal into a coal fired furnace. It was delivered within one day of ordering. Our next door neighbor had coal and block ice delivered. He still had an ice box and no refrigerator. I guess I'm dating myself here.
Barry Litchfield you are blessed to remember days such as those. Innocence was actually in style and popular as well as proper. I was born in 78 and remember a simpler way of life. But to live before popular culture pimped out our way of life I can only imagine. I know a lot is better now. But I fear we have lost our path getting here.
@@barrylitchfield250 when I was a little girl we lived by railroad tracks. Every day mama, me and my brother woul take buckets and go for a walk down the tracks. We never bought coal when we lived there.
@@lindachandler2293 - Thanks for your comment. "The good ol' days!"
Our next door neighbor had a wringer washing machine, and we did too! The neighbors little boy went down into their basement and while playing with the wringer, he got his fingers into the wringer. It pulled him in until it stopped at his elbow and ground off his skin and muscle until his mom came and stopped it. I still remember him screaming for his mom to this day.
nice video , I used to live 5 miles from where that coal was made , actually worked for their competitor
Coal is mined, not made.
I grew up in West Virginia and we used wood and coal. Had a cooking stove in the kitchen and stove in livingroom. We all had to learn to start a fire. Best heat ever!
But people say it's part of GLOBAL WARMING!!!!
Our home was heated by a coal furnace. To this day, I believe that same furnace is the reason or my many health issues. The other aspect of a coal furnace was shaking the grates to get the ashes. DUSTY DIRTY HARMFUL work it was done without a facial covering and dust went up to the main floor. Getting coal delivered by my dad, who went to the coal mines himself, also covered everything with the black coal dust. It was a wrong versus wrong theory.
I remember the old days when we had a wood and coal furnace in the basement of our house. Thanks for another great video.
in the city i live, there are either coal burning trains or col hauling trains that still come through several times per week. they scatter large 4-8 inch chunks of coal all over near the tracks.
I like this, I love the stove, the coal stove.
Important, Woodfires only reach up to 1100°C that means Steel is glowing, but not much bothered... Hardcoal can go up to 1500°C what MELTS your steel away, so make sure your oven is constructed to handle one, or any kind of coal.
They don't recommend them anymore due to needing to be cautious about their use, but adding an exhaust damper to the stove pipe can allow you to build up to a full stove of coal but still slow the burn down so you don't have a superhot stove. It improves length of time on one load in the stove. It also helps with complete heat scavenging from the coal gasses. Beware that you MUST reopen the damper a few minutes before opening the door as the sudden inrush of fresh oxygen can cause a sudden combustion that can be a bit disconcerting.
My grandma and my in laws had coal stoves. They bought it in truck loads. By the ton I believe. I live in Pa - what used to be big coal country , but much anymore.
I use a Duraflame fire log to start my coal stove. I light it and 20 min later add coal wrapped in newspaper and 25 min later i can load her up and enjoy.
Really great video. I have only heard about coal stoves and how they burned so hot...
I never saw a coal fire until this video.
Thank you for taking the time to post a really clear, informative and interesting video. If I get to move next year I will differently be looking for a wood and coal stove.
👍❤🙏
Good on ya for clarifing some stoves arent designed for coal, it could be catastrophic if you put coal in a non coal stove
What he does is great.
I used to heat with coal. Finally got tired of cleaning out the ash pans.
Also, starting it up was always a pain. Then I found out that I could shove a heat gun into the coal and zip tie the trigger down for about ten minutes. Then just coax it along for an hour or so.
It did melt the plastic cover off the heat gun, but it still works.
Great video! Fantastic job explaining and keeping it interesting. Greetings from Southern Missouri. Using a pellet stove this year and I’m actually impressed but really missing that wood / coal burning experience.
Great video I have never burnt coal but am interested.
I love God's gift of anthracite coal! Your stove is awesome! I have Hitzer insert I love. You may try using using a bunch of soft wood scrap - get a big raging fire going. You may then be able to add the coal sooner than an hour possibly less than 30; minutes. I find the first layer of coal must cover as much of the wood fire as possible- can't be spotty- about 2 inches thick.
I work for Warrior Met Coal #7 mine. Our Blue Creek coal is used for making steel. Its ash content is often less than 8%. It could make that heater glow red!
I start with a bed of coal, make a little hollow and build a pile of chunky kindling over that. Light a firelighter to get the kindling going and once it's well lit chuck a scuttle of coal over it. Never failed me yet.
I burned coal for 10 years. This ol boy would bring coal from Kentucky and spread it around. He had a dump truck with particians in it. 5 tons a section. 5 tons would get me through the winter just fine. Most of the time I had some left over. One 5 gallon bucket a day. I burned wood with the coal.
My guy died and no one took his place. I did get a call from a few others that got a hold of his list. They never showed up. 80 bucks a ton is what I paid.
Funny to see Blaschak Coal! I deliver pallets to them. You can't beat coal heat! Greetings from Central Pennsylvania!!
Great tutorial thanks...I like those herbs you have drying there.
Thank you for this. I've been operating a wood fired cookstove for about 8 years now, and we're switching to a coal fired cook stove this weekend. It's a new Heco 420 cook stove. It's going to be alearning curve all over again, and I don't even know how to start a coal fire. I think I've got it now, and I appreciate you taking the time to go over it step by step.
How’s cooking on the cookstove ? I used a glenwood range from the early 1900s on coal and absolutely loved it. Good luck with it
How’s cooking on the cookstove ? I used a glenwood range from the early 1900s on coal and absolutely loved it. Good luck with it
How’s cooking on the cookstove ? I used a glenwood range from the early 1900s on coal and absolutely loved it. Good luck with it
How’s cooking on the cookstove ? I used a glenwood range from the early 1900s on coal and absolutely loved it. Good luck with it
@@libertyanunion I just switched it over to coal heat in the past couple of days. It takes much longer to bring the stove up to cooking and baking temperatures when using coal. In this stove, the coal is much farther from the cooktop than the Glenwood and other antique ranges. Then once it finally gets hot, it can cook you out. So I have to figure out how to adjust. I think if I plan on cooking supper, I have to open the stove up at lunchtime so that it has enough time to reach cooking temperature.
If I heated with coal, I'd probably try to find a good base burner. My grandfather had a coal furnace that "heated" the whole house.
It was in the cellar and was fed by a large screw that went from the coal bin to the grate inside the furnace. There were all sorts of dampers and vents that were controlled by chains. As a kid it fascinated me but I wasn't allowed to touch anything!
Live near a coal mine in the US and have a pickup truck you can go to the loadout and they will sell you a truck load, you just scale in empty then you load it yourself and scale out. I live near a bunch of coal mines and as a kid used to go with dad and help load him up. You can also hire a dump truck to deliver it. Just make sure you don't get the metallurgical grade or it will burn the bottom out of your stove and catch your house on fire. Steam coal is what you want (what the power plants use). When I was a kid coal is all we used for heat, we had a coal stoker stove. Filled it up on the side in the coal hopper with three 5 gallon buckets of coal and it would feed the fire every few hours with the auger. It had a big electric fan above the firebox that would come on every so often. Filled it up once every 24 hours. It was dusty but it kept the house hot. Everyone around here had "coal houses" sheds that you kept nothing but coal in, which consisted of dirt floors with walls and a roof to hold a couple of truck loads of coal for winter. Now I have central heating/cooling and a fireplace insert for when the power goes out.
The reason it is best to leave a corner open is that coal is a "lazy burner". Unlike firewood, it doesn't work very hard at getting lit. Leaving a corner burning only wood keeps a constant updraft going up the flue, forces the coal to catch fire. If you don't keep the draft going, starting the coal fire can stall out.
I have a 120K BTU Harmon furnace. When I start it up (with firewood) I usually leave some of the firewood burning in the back, as I put in the first layer of coal.
I use 4 tons of PA anthracite every year. Very comfortable heat.
Nice vid.
Excellent content.
Thank you.
But I'm in rural, northern Canada, so,......hold my beer. Lol
I've been to MO twice, Fort Leonard Wood both times. Mizeki was an incredible sushi spot just outside the gate. Looks like they closed, sadly. It got pretty miserably cold the second time I was there!
I really want a stove like yours but I was afraid I would do it wrong and burn the house down. I learned a lot watching this thanks
Growing up in western pa my family had a coal burning furnace until the mid 1990’s. No joke. My mom would put cheese cloth over the vents to reduce the amount of coal ash and suet in the house.
Thanks man. I'm selling my mom on getting a coal stove, and how it's better than wood..❤
It definitely gives a more even heat. If coal is readily available where you live I would recommend it.
I want to thank you for doing this video.
I want a pot belly stove, but it works with coal, and I wondered if they were referring to charcoal. I've never seen any other kind.
So this video is very important to me.
Thanks again.
We had a heatrola and a bucket-a-day when I was a kid, they were great for junk mail, I saw on TV one time a story about a guy who loved to get
junk mail, he would go to the post office every day to get his daily load of junk mail which was bundled up with a string, take the bundles home
open the heater door and toss them in!
Coal looks great but the weed drying in the background looks better 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
I’m from NC and when staying with my grandmother many years ago it was my job to keep large chunk coal broken down to softball size kindlen split in case the fire went out. If it went out I could have a far roaring very quickly cause it was COLD. I don’t think we used the same type of coal it was very easy to get burning once it caught up you had to close the drafts or it would run away and turn bright red. Burning Coal has a distinct odor I can smell it miles away.
NOTHING beats a coal fire - the heat warms your soul.
I use a 1930 warm morning coal stove. Also will burn wood and pellets. I mix coal and wood pellets. Great heat.
I just noticed I live 10 miles away from where that very bag of coal was made. Mahanoy City lol. I live in Anthracite country.
I love the greenhouse gas stories
Here in Alaska there are places where you can dig your own coal and even pick it up off the beach.
I was hunting on public land in Wyoming a few years ago and noticed an area where it looked like people were digging up coal that was lying exposed. And that's exactly what it was. Very soft however so was probably bituminous.
We have both types here, the Anthracite is definitely a better burner
@@warrenswildernesswoodlorea3151 Where do you find anthracite? I've been digging up bituminous coal up by Sutton but I wasn't aware that anthracite was present in Alaska
north side of the valley of the Matanuska River, its Anthricite andHigh-volatile bituminous
I was always told it was anthracite, but it may not actually be. We also use to pick up coal off the beaches down by Ninilchik, I think that is all bituminous. Still burns good.
I grew up with coal/wood heat. A sears furnace in the Basement. I've never seen it in a bag before though. I've dug it out if the ground and bought it from mines before though. When I was a kid my dad would let me melt lead and cast muzzleloader bullets and sinkers out of old bullets that I collected.
That's good hard clean burening coal from Schuylkill County, Pa. Superior to the soft dirty, more abundant coal from western Pa. WV & Kentucky
AWSOME 👍 that's better than wood .but all you have to do is a little more work getting it started huh..but once it's going it's going .thanks for sharing..
This was a great video thank you. I always wondered what was involved in getting a coal fire going. My next wood stove I will make sure it is designed to burn coal as well.