Is anyone burning Anthracite coal in a wood burning stove? It seems there should be a way to accomplish this using some sort of cast iron grate. Does anyone know anything about this? Where can I buy a cast iron grate for coal burning? Thanks for any help you can lend.
Well, I can't help with the grate but I had a coal burning stove as a supplement to my regular heat source. It would burn about 50 pounds of pea coal a day at that time $5 per bag. It worked ok. I would have to clean out the ash draw once a day and store the ash in a metal trash can as the embers could start a fire. I would put the cold embers in a box and put them out for the trash pick up. You can't spread the coal ashes on your lawn or garden. Once a month I would shut down the stove and clean it out then clean the house of coal dust. At the end of the heating season I would clean out the stove and also take down the flue pipe and clean out the ash build up to ready the stove for the next heating season. After 25 years the stove died because of ash build up in between the wall of the stove where it could not be taken apart to clean. So I junked it. When I had my chimmey cleaned I had to replace some of the flue in the chimmey because of rain and the coal exhaust created acid rain. After I junked the coal stove I had to have the chimmey relined with a stainless steel liner for $1100. That was my experience with a coal stove. Others may have had a better experience. You may have a better experience than me. If I decide to use a supplemental heating system again I will look into a pellet stove. Good luck.
We just bought a coal grate from Larry Trainer in Bryantville, MA (781) 294-0010. We heat with coal & use gas as the backup. If you want to email me privately thru ThriftyFun, I can help with some of your ?'s. I do want to say though, that heating with coal is much more work, but definitely cheaper.
Regarding the comment below: I wanted to say that Mr. Trainer is a part supplier out of his home. Ecellent, fast service. I also like supporting an individual rather then a large company. He also frequently has used supplies at a lower rate.
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