I'm not a big fan of Natures Comfort, I'll state that right up front. It burns wood great, but the coal burning side lacks decent shaker grates. After I harassed NC for a year, they sent me some new grate designed by there "engineers" in Alaska. They must be smoking some wicked stuff in Alaska, because the grates were 16 inches(!!!!) to short for the 250 I have and 3/4 inch to wide to fit down in. I was supposed to take off three bolts off the ashpan door(fun when it's 10 below), fish a handle back to connnect to 2 square knobs to turn 2 triangle shaped rollers. In principle, it would have worked good if they'd of actually fit. I called my dealer, who was hoping these grates would allow me to burn coal. He came to see them and immediatley started swearing a blue streak, as I did when I saw them. He than went back to his shop and built his own grates that are actual shaker grates that fit the stove(Grates from another stove manufacturer modified to fit NC's). He also built a hinged ash pan door so I don't have that screwy, burn your hand, too short, ash pan door, that leaks air unless you play with it. It is slick as sh##. They are actual grates that drop the ashes out the bottom, as a coal stove should be. He aslo did some other modififcations. I don't want to explain to much of how they work, because he is starting littigation against NC. Thank God I have a good dealer.
As my dealer says and I agree, "they build a good stove, they just didn't finish it". Check out Mahoning or Freedom if you want to burn coal.