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[duke]

Don't mean to hijack your thread, but does anyone know how I go about finding a place to buy coal? I live in southeast MO, Im about an hour and half south of St. Louis.

[CountryBoyJohn]

I struggled myself finding a phone number for any of the dozen mines around me. I ended up just driving up to the offices and asking them.

[artbaldoni]

Google nepacrossroads forum. They are the coal gurus. Just be prepared to take abuse for having  a OWB. Its like you are a baby seal killer or something...

[CountryBoyJohn]

Got 500 lbs if this bituminous coal. 3" nuggets. They were out if the big chunks, but the guy there sounded like most of the guys who get this for their stoves like the nugget size better. So, I got a small scoop for $13. First scoop goes in tonight!

[andyjs]

If its like the stuff I got you will love it

[CountryBoyJohn]

Thanks Mr. andyjs. I wish I had gotten the coal before the weekend so I could fiddle with it. I just threw in 2 - 5 gallon buckets on my coals, added some wood, turned differential down to 8 and came in the house. We'll see how she did in the morning. I'm tempted to go out and check on it, but it's so flippin windy tonight! Guess I'll put on my big boy pants and go check on it.

Oh, you need to update your tags below your name. You have a HM now, right? 10,000E?

[kybaseball]

Come on country boy!!! Put the big boy pants on and go check that stove. LoL man I love using the coal.

[CountryBoyJohn]

I went out and checked!  Talk about a GREEN flame!!  Shew, that was cool!  Went back out this morning to check on things and everything was fine.  Tossed in 1 more 5 gallon bucket and tossed in a half dozen 6" rounds of white ash.  I knocked the grates and really broke up my coal bed.  Then I turned the fan on to see what it all looked like inside.  Man that fire got going quick and hot!  Turned my dif down to 6 and my high set to 183.  I will probably turn it down some more since we're warming up so much this week.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm hoping to stretch my 1 cord of white ash out to the end of the season with this coal added in. 

Do you guys have your coal covered?  It's supposed to rain this week.  Does it matter if I toss in wet coal?

[CountryBoyJohn]

Ok, got my first full day and night of actual cold weather to try this coal! And it's awesome! It is basically cutting my wood usage in half with a 1.5 buckets or so of coal. 12+ hour burns with 4 medium sized pieces and see 5" rounds. Normally I put in 8 large pieces with some medium and small mixed in to get thru 12 hours of sub-freezing temps with only wood.

[Sloppy_Snood]

Great information CBJohn!    I was thinking you ought to be running even better run times between fills with your coal addition. 

[CountryBoyJohn]

Mr. Snood, I'm still loading for 12 hours.  I might consider loading for 24 after I get more coal and really get used to it.  I'm loading stoker coal right not and will likely switch over to lump.  The stoker coal starts to fuse together and requires a good stir at the 12 hour mark.  That aspect may be different with lump.  I'm still playing with it.  But, I've run it enough to know that it is cutting my wood usage in half.  No doubt about it. 

As far as burn times go in general, I've never gotten less than 12 hours.  That's also with not even filling it up full.  On 0 degree nights, I'll get 12 hours with a load a little less than 3/4 full of hardwood.  Tonight should be down to single digits and with a 5 gallon bucket of coal, I'll get through the night with a 1/4 load of white ash. 

[Sloppy_Snood]

Let's see a picture or short video of that MF10000e shaker grate in action CBJ.   

[CountryBoyJohn]

I did post a short video of the end of my coal/wood burn here.  Although I didn't shake the grates.  I really do like HM shaker design.  I haven't had any problems with them.   

http://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com/forum/index.php?topic=4967.0

I can't do any more coal videos right now because I'm out of coal!!  That 500 pounds lasted about 2 weeks.  I'm hoping to get more tonight after work.  The wife hasn't been too happy with the odor.  Upon immediately loading the stove, it smokes like a locomotive.  Our house is so drafty that some of the odor gets in the house.  BUT, I'm going to look at ordering a couple stack extensions to try to fix that problem.  The coal is so awesome, I'm going to do whatever I can to keep burning it.  It cut my wood usage in HALF easily! 

[CountryBoyJohn]

I'm back in the coal business! Picked up 1.25 tons in my short bed Chevy. Unfortunately, I got a rookie did steer loader who scooped me up a bunch of worthless fines. Probably 500 pounds worth!    Anyway, been running coal wood mixture all week with great success. I load a five gallon bucket plus a couple big chunks twice a day and a few pieces of wood once a day. 

Smokes like a locomotive when it first fires! Holy cow! Thick black tire burning smoke!  But, after two cycles it's back to normal smoke signature, which is hardly anything. I don't get 24 hours because it still needs shaken and stirred up at the 12 hour mark.

I'm sold on coal. I have it stored in my shed in an old bed liner. I scoop it into my bucket and dump er in. I empty my ash pan more often too. That stuff needs all the air it can get. I haven't burned a full chord in almost 1 month since I started burning coal.

[Scott7m]

How are those fines burning?