Buying coke for Parkray room heater/fire

[Deleted User]

My coke man has put his price up from £11.50 per 50kg sack to £13.00 within the last month. It has already gone up twice this year. I have no idea what type it is but it used to be called 'Super Coke' on his local newspaper adverts years ago. Still burns OK though.

Infact I think he is short weighting the sacks because I got a plastic coal bunker from http://www.carberyplastics.com/fuel_bunkers.html (2nd one down) and it says it holds 120kg but my coal man manages to fit 4 x 50kg sacks in it.

A._Badger

Solid fuel has gone up alarmingly this year and there's really no justification for it. The major firms simply saw all the other energy prices rising and decided to follow suit. Sadly (as with heating oil) relatively few people use it, so there's less of a public stink raised than there is when gas or electricity prices are increased.

milner57

Hi, just a quick reply for leeuk, most coal bunker in my experience hold more than they are quoted to hold, i believe its so you can still get the quoted amount in before its completly empty, also they normally quote for bags of house coal and coke will take up surprisingly less space than coal. one thing to check would be the net weight of the bags he delivers, by law he should issue a ticket before unloading if the quantity is over 150kg or simply just ask, i only mention this as for 50kg of supacoke i need to charge a lot more than £13 ( i stopped stocking it for that reason)

[Deleted User]

milner57 wrote: »

Hi, just a quick reply for leeuk, most coal bunker in my experience hold more than they are quoted to hold, i believe its so you can still get the quoted amount in before its completly empty, also they normally quote for bags of house coal and coke will take up surprisingly less space than coal. one thing to check would be the net weight of the bags he delivers, by law he should issue a ticket before unloading if the quantity is over 150kg or simply just ask, i only mention this as for 50kg of supacoke i need to charge a lot more than £13 ( i stopped stocking it for that reason)

Thanks for that. He never leaves a ticket or receipt but I did read on the Solid Fuel Association website once that he is meant too. He is also listed on that website. Think I will ask for one with my next delivery.

oldbod

Any solid fuel appliance maker will tell you not to use any form of supercoke as it burns out the fire bars as it burns too hot. I think it is made from oil refinery waste and looks like ball bearings glued together. Apart from this I was buying a "mixture" for years from an "approved coal merchant" what a crock the bodies are, only to find that this had some of the above mixed in and nearly resulted in death as over a period of ten years it left glug of tarry substance in the chimney where it kinked over and resulted in an almost complete blockage of the flue. To make matters worse the chimney sweep it seems was going up so far then getting on the roof and going down and never getting the brush right through, he was a member of the guild of master something or other, another crock.
After cutting out the brickwork to remove the blockage and rebricking it up I have stuck to ovoids (coal based and not Polish ) and anthricite which is natural and the purest form of coal ( need lots of draft for the latter) and changed coal merchants and sweep my own chimney.
Parkrays: the modern Cumbria is a multi fuel stove and you can burn smokeless fuel with the top plate in, wood with the top plate out, or coal with yet another top plate for the purpose. So wood and coal can't be burned together which is just as well as wood leaves a tar linning on the chimney and sooty coal sticks to this and causes chimney fires which are rather worring if you have ever had one, sounds like a train going up through the house.
So to sum up, yes super coke does burn hotter, is much cheaper, if only in so much that you may not live too long to need heat.

crphillips

Yeah.......be careful of cheap coke......it generally has high levels of petroleum coke and this will melt grate bars, baffle plates, ash trays and destroy the ceramic glass........you may save a couple of hundred quid a year on fuel but you'll spend more on replacing parts that should last years. Go for a reasonably priced mixed coke....2% pet coke is okay but you don't want to be going any higher.

mumbles_one

Deleted_User wrote: »

I currently buy from my local coal merchant a smokeless fuel called 'Supercoke' as it is the cheapest per 50kg sack for my Parkray room heater / closed fire.

I want to know if this coke is the most efficient or not?

Would it be worth spending more money for a different named coke if it burns longer / gives off more heat.

Any solid fuel experts here?

Thanks

My local coal merchant has the same Parkray model as me and after years of buying various fuels he told me all his secrets.

anthracite small nuts for lighting and overnight

anthracite large nuts once lit and you want a big bright flame

welsh steam coal once lit ( cheaper than anthracite)

keep ashpan under 70% full and riddle every 4 hours

Once a year:

check the flue for soot. never had any in mine as I never burn wood except to light it and keep the throat plate clean.

check door clearances by putting a candle in the fire before lighting and turn out all the room lights and check the gap between the door and faceplate all around by looking for light leakage. You can carefully adjust door hinges and locking catch to get less than 1mm . After 20 years of use I used strips of paper as feeler guages to get it perfect.

take off the top cover and check the fire cementing of the top boiler control aperture and the flue . My fire cementing needed replacing especially around the control aperture as mine doesn't have a boiler.

also quite many chips out of the fire cement at the back of the hearth which you need to fix

check the opening and more important the closing of the air inlet control . It needs to completely close when the fire is on setting 0.

keep the glass clean with soft damp rag before lighting don't scratch

if its the big single glass and its cracked
remove door and take outside and lay on workmate (have you ever fu**ed a workmate???)
change cracked glass by removing inner top door bolts only (plus gas needed)
clamp will now hinge forward about 15 degrees. get broken glass and old insulation out
The only way to get in the glass and insulation together is to hold the insulation in place around the glass with 4 long lengths of cotton looped and tied around the glass and insulation then slide in the glass and insulation together. Put the bolts back in and cut the exposed cotton to finish.

replace door and check the 1mm gap

after all that it'll last another 20 years and burn with good control

gonna light mine tonight for the first time this year

[Deleted User]

The cheap stuff my coal man delivers, that he calls 'Super Coke' looks the same as the stuff that is called 'Stoveheat' on coals2u.co.uk website (http://www.coals2u.co.uk/stoveheat-premium-50kg-open-sack).

They have a depot near me so I think I will go along this weekend and buy a couple of 25KG bags to compare.