You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
my dry wood supply is a bit low and thought i might try some smokeless coal, but i didnt realise theres such a big choice!
So multi fuel stove stokers, what smokless coal gives good flames and heat?
Cheers
Smokeless burns slower, longer and hotter, but does take more time to get up to temp. It's also at times harder to get going. Good heat though.
I just pick up whatever the local garden centre has when I go in.
Just don't be tempted to use the coal with damp wood - it'll knacker your flu.
TBH I'd use whatever the local coal merchants had a decent price on.
Had a ton of multiheat last year, which worked pretty good on our multifuel stove (which is essentially a woodburner with a grate). Made a lot of ash but worked fine in the wide, flat firebox.
coal with damp wood
= loads of sulfuric acid, IIRC
We use smokeless as mentioned above it performs much better than unprocessed coal.
performs much better than unprocessed coal.
Well, er, no, in a word.
It all depends on firebox shape, and whether the stove will leak air around the grate.
Hard coal really need a big old mass of fuel to be burning at once, also doesn't tolerate air bypassing the fire. A narrow/tall firebox makes easy to get the depth of fire bed, and the grate must allow the fire bed to be right up against the firebox side to make sure all the air goes through the fuel bed.
Anthracite is the puppies plums once you get the hang of burning it on a stove that is right for it, and it works out quite cheap per unit heat (vs manufactured), but its a massive pain in a stove that isn't right for it.
My Installer advised staying away from smokeless as the nasties they use to bind it together are not good for the flue liner (if you have one). He has replaced a few that had been rotted out in just 3 years by constant use of smokeless. Grade 1 coal is OK - don't know what the difference is between grade 1 and the other grades.
I use stuff called Phurnicite from my local coal merchant. I've experimented with lots of different smokeless varients and it seems to work best. I've found the quality of all the various blends to be quite variable though.
weeksySmokeless burns slower, longer and[b] hotter[/b]
Definitely not hotter. Ordinary coal in a good stove has ferocious heat which will crack glass and warp cheaper/lesser stoves very quickly.
Our multi-burner says use smokeless rather than normal coal in the manual...
Smokeless has less sulphur which is the main component which eats away at chimney liners....
Ovals for me.
2nd jimjam, Phurnacite.
We use:
[img] http://d19q6sbi4e9o9b.cloudfront.net/Handlers/ImageHandler.ashx?id=14417&targetSize=300 [/img]
I read this title and thought who uses coal in an MSR.
Clearly I need to get out less...
Our merchant does a whole host of different solid fuels.
Any that get broken up or are mishaped or left over get lumped together and sold as mixed ovoids.
These are the cheapest but there doesn't seem to be any difference with the others - think they might be mainly Phurnacite.
Our multi-burner says use smokeless rather than normal coal in the manual...Smokeless has less sulphur which is the main component which eats away at chimney liners....
I see Clearview recommend low sulpher coal if you're not going to use wood. I presume my installer must have been referring to cheaper smokeless that isn't low sulpher 😐