Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers WITH EPA-Certified Models => Heatmor => Topic started by: juddspaintballs on January 28, 2016, 01:53:46 PM
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I've got the urge to burn coal again. I burned up 80# over the past few days. It works, but it could work much better. I have the shaker grates already. My thought is to take the 1/4" steel sheet I have lying around and build a 6-8" tall rectangular vertical box around the outside of the shaker grates so I can pour the coal into the box and it MUST be over the grates and it cannot spill out the sides. Then I started thinking that the area might be a big large, so perhaps I should build the rectangle, but put a divider in the middle so only half of it gets filled and I can cover the other half with the plate steel. That would still be a fairly large area for the coal to be in, I can pile it deep for a good burn, it will all be focused over the grates, and all of the air already is forced to come up under the grates. It will be a simple piece I can drop in when I want to burn coal and pull out when I want to burn wood.
What do you think?
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sounds good to me...i am also shutting down this weekend since its suppose to be in the 40's and doing a modification...on the new 400 models they have this air baffle in the back that directs air down onto the fire. Its suppose to push gases down for a secondary burn...i like the logic but unfortunately i found that unless i clean my ashes every 2 days i get no air to the back of the firebox to burn any wood...it just kind of smolders. the back blower only blows down onto the fire...the baffle goes 3/4 of the way un the firebox. so no air hits the coal bed. I took the baffle out the other day when i let it run down, it just slides in and out, pretty simple. I was hope that the back air box would jsut be identical to the front air box: but its not. It has another metal lip that point the air straight up. I am thinking of placing another SS plate or firebrick in front of the air box to keep the direct heat away from the fan and also welding or making another lip to diverte the air at the coal bed.....this thing burns like a champion if i just load door in the front half of the firebox....my neighbor has the older model 400 and it doesnt have this baffle....his unit is a screaming dragon from front to back.
I have also thought about doing the same thing u are speaking off for even wood....making a "rack" out of bar stock that would fit right over the perimeter of the grates so i can stack wood nice and tight without it touching the firebox at all. I think it will get much better heat trasfer
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I built this today. It's 6" deep and slides over the outside of the shaker grates. It goes in and out fairly easily. I might make angled wings for it on all sides so it's harder to "miss" when putting coal in. I like your thoughts of using something like this for wood too. I'll use this setup for a while to see how I like it. If it works well, maybe I'll get 1/2" steel and build a new one next year for longevity.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/juddspaintballs/Boiler%20stuff/20160130_164318_zpsizvovgog.jpg)
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I picked up a few bags of coal and a bag of charcoal to start it. The fire is growing and the water temperature is coming up. We'll see how this goes.
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:post:
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I will tell you a coal story my dealer told me . This was a guy calling him he was burning coal . and it was milting his grates he went throw 2 sets . What was going on his coal was just small enough it was dropping in to ash pit and he wasn't cleaning it out enough .
so coal burning in ash pit was heating from bottom of grates . This just makes me think wow that coal must get dam hot . I never burned coal yet.
I tried front tunnel wood stacking tonight . 2 pieces outside edge of grate and put rest cross ways on top in the front only this was loading 24 inch pieces 2 ranks one in back was normal stack . ya there was some serious white flames going on right between the 2 stacks . water 100f to 160 f in under 15 mins . I didn't think it burn that nuts but it did . sparks shooting out chimney 5 ft . this 400 is a crazy hot burner . wood stacking inside lot bigger deal than the old 200css . I put 7.5 cord in and still finding ways to make it burn even hotter faster . :thumbup:
Keep us posted how it works looks great !
Heat550
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I added firebrick to the bottom of my Heatmor 400 this weekend. Had them laying around....working great. I layer 6 bricks the long way on each side of the grates, flush with the grates. The then packed new sand around them and leveled everything off. It's burning super hot. I also made a baffle out of SS for back blower to direct air down onto coal bed. The stock baffle that came with it went to far up the firebox and wasn't efficient IMO....this thing is burning nice. I like these stoves because u can easily make modifications
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I wouldn't mind making a firebrick box like the steel one I just made for containing the coal. It would last longer than steel with those kind of temperatures.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/juddspaintballs/Boiler%20stuff/20160131_002422_zpsaisc1acz.jpg)
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Looking nice!!!!!
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Maybe built a larger box and line that with firebrick? Use the insulating firebrick instead of the other.
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I'm going to try that when I get back to running my stove.
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If you look at the pictures, the metal base that supports the shaker grates has a channel about 2-3" wide all of the way around. I could stand the firebricks in that channel and build a simple angle iron supporting setup to keep them from falling over. It's almost like the firebox was made for these modifications.
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Looks good. I've been heating with coal; anthrocite since the 1970s, and I have a NCB250 coal now. The issues you have to watch is that you have to shake the coals 1-2x a day just gently, so you need an arm or something to more the grades. Coal burns bottom up, not top down, so the ash you need to shake off is on the bottom. Second, somehow you have to remove the coal ash from under the grades because is the ash builds up, it will act like an insulation and actually melt and warp your grades.
Also, if you remake this box, I'd make it wider and put firebricks on the side. This box will be melted down, and all warped in a few weeks with the coal.
Good luck.
I love my coal NCB250. Load it 1x every 2-3 days. Saves my back from using a ton of wood. I am down to 3 cords a winter and 4 ton of coal.
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After trying this for a while, I don't like it. Ashes have to be emptied daily, the grates need shaken every couple hours, and if there isn't a demand for heat for a bit, the coals will go cold. It requires a lot of maintaining to keep the fire from going out. I even set the differential to 5 degrees, which didn't help.
While the boiler CAN burn coal, it was never really designed properly for it. I think I'm going to give up on coal and stick to wood. If I want to dabble in coal, I'll get a real coal boiler. I will be making modifications for wood in the spring so all of the ashes and coals fall down onto the grates as they burn, though.
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That sucks! It was good try tho! I really like the results I'm seeing from adding firebrick to the bottom of mine!
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too bad; to be honest, it's really not that easy to get in a groove burning coal even with a fireplace that it was designed to do it so. It took me almost 2 years to really get it down with NCB250 coal, and always had coal stoves. You should only have to shake the grates no more than 1-2 times a day or two. And the coals should now go out for days. I left town for 3 days, and when I came back I still had hot coals that ignited the new logs in minutes. Nice try, to bad.
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Good luck.
I love my coal NCB250. Load it 1x every 2-3 days. Saves my back from using a ton of wood. I am down to 3 cords a winter and 4 ton of coal.
If I may ask, what do you pay for coal in your neck of the woods?
Was thinking about setting my dad up with a C125, but with the price of coal up here it’s cheaper to buy wood even with the difference in BTU’s.
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I am sorry to hear that coal is not working out. I have had great success. So far this season i have burned 2 full cords of pine and 2.5 tons of bituminous coal. I get it from the mine at $70 / ton. It took a couple weeks to develop a routine and now 36 hr burn cycles are not uncommon.
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I was using Anthracite coal. That could be the big difference between other people's success and my failure.
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bituminous coal burns more like wood, but has more clinkers and smoke. Cheaper.
Anthrocite is very clean, few clinkers, high btu, but more expensive.
I use less then 1/2 of anth than what I used to use from bituminous coal. I don't know what I pay for anth, because I trade help. I use 2.75-5T per season depending of the winter. This winter, I only used 1.5T and 2 cords for a 4000sqft house. I'll probably finish at less than 3T and 3 cords of wood.
Some areas anth can be very expensive; $200-$300 per Ton! I can't split and cut so much wood anymore, so coal works for me. They bring it and they dump it. Than it can sit there for 30 years in rain and snow if need to, there will be no change. It helps if you cover it up with a tarp so it doesn't freeze in clumps. I just have a lean to like shed for it.
I hope this helps.
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Looking at 200-230 a ton up here, believe it was anthracite, was charcoal sized more or less.