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[Cshick]

Has anyone tried burning coal?

[Scott7m]

Hey, did you get my email?  I emailed you back.. 

Centrals or any stove without grates is a pain with coal.  Coal varies greatly and there is always certain parts of s lump that won't burn, sometimes it's a pile of ash, sometimes it looks like a cast of the lump you put in. 

Without grates, there is no way for air to come in under the coal, which is what coal needs.  When it don't burn proper you get tons more clinkers, just chunks that won't burn, and other issues

Can you burn it??  Yea..  Will it be a pain, probably

[boilerman]

My CB owners manual states do not burn coal in furnace.

[Scott7m]

My CB owners manual states do not burn coal in furnace.

Was that just for your 2400 or your old conventional as well, I've not read through a cb manual completely

[boilerman]

Scott, that was in my current Eclassic manual. Don't have my old manual anymore so I checked with my dealer buddy and he said owners manaul states the same for the Classic models. No coal or any other product other than wood. He says it is very caustic and will shorted life of boiler dramatically particularily if mixing burn practices of wood and coal.

[Scott7m]

There are a lot of folks around me burning coal in all sorts of stoves.  I haven't seen it cause problems yet, but without grates burning coal is nearly impossible. 

Trash is hard on boilers as well, you'll never convince folks that's true but trash is full of all kinds of different corrosive substances that can shorten it's life. 

[MattyNH]

There are a lot of folks around me burning coal in all sorts of stoves.  I haven't seen it cause problems yet, but without grates burning coal is nearly impossible. 

Trash is hard on boilers as well, you'll never convince folks that's true but trash is full of all kinds of different corrosive substances that can shorten it's life.

Abusive burning!

[artbaldoni]

Burning coal produces sulfur dioxide, SO2 gas, not good for long term exposure. S02 gas mixed with moisture produces sulfuric acid which is highly corrosive. Look up coal scrubbers and you will find the clean coal technology is experencing accelerated corrosion conditions in some of the most high tech designs.

Acid rain!
I tried coal in my NC but I just couldn't get it dialed in right. I'll stick to wood.

[Scott7m]

Wood is more forgiving, I grew up around folks burning coal and I adapted fairly well but wood is much simpler.

[muffin]

Burning coal produces sulfur dioxide, SO2 gas, not good for long term exposure. S02 gas mixed with moisture produces sulfuric acid which is highly corrosive. Look up coal scrubbers and you will find the clean coal technology is experencing accelerated corrosion conditions in some of the most high tech designs.

I would imagine it would, but to the furnace does it really matter.  I am not aware of the coal burning ones being made or coated in anything different than the wood ones.  They are all pretty much SS or plain steel.  So I would imagine it would only be an issue with being able to burn it.  Without the right grates and airflow, it would not work well.  Maybe different for the phase 2 ones.

[Scott7m]

I would agree if it's made to burn coal no problem, but if the manufacturer says wood only there must be a reason.

Yea, the reason being it won't burn it.  Not because it will tear it up, they just don't want constant phone calls of folks saying its not burning right because there burning coal.  You can't burn coal without grates or air coming in from under the grates.