which is better? Anthracite or home fire ovals

wrightk

Cornwall. homefire is insanely expensive here but there are other branded smokeless ovoids for a lot cheaper which perform just as well. the general price is around £6-£7 per 20 or 25kg. anthracite being around £7 and the economy blends at £6 that ive been using like superesse boiler nuts, which is just a blend of anthracite, smokeless ovoids and lignite briquettes all chucked in together

A._Badger

Thanks for the points of comparison. Given that transport costs to Northern Ireland and Cornwall must be pretty high, it seems the reason we in the SE are being charged so much is our good old friend, monopoly!

After posting here last, however, I had a look on eBay (of all places!) and have found what seem to be some much more favourable prices. The question is whether I am up to manually shifting a couple of metric tonnes of fuel dumped on a pallet at the entry to my drive to where I store it.

ktee_uk

1st attempt last night with homefire ovals was ok-ish. Lit well in one corner of stove bed and took ages to spread - got frustrated so chuvked a log on.
2nd attempt today - got a better spread of fire to start with, and took about an hour to get up to optimum temperature. Has been glowing now for a couple of hours with a thin even layer of ovals across the stove bed.

Gives a good even heat and love the glowing effect. Smallish flames hover across the ovals.

Impression after first weekend is that, compared to logs, it doesnt need so much tending, but its a bit of a mucky job dealing with the raw material.

Will be checking out prices and will try to get hands on some anthracite.

Happy stoving everyone

Greenfires

We've burned nothing but firewood briquettes for years. Unfortunately, due to pesky customers coming round and buying them, and me being busy and not getting round to ordering more in - we sold out and ran out on Friday.

In the absence of any wood - Jo went and bought a couple of bags of smokeless to get us through the weekend. I got it going - eventuaqlly - and after a couple of hours the stove was showing a flue temp of just over 200. With briquettes it normally sits at about 375. The stuff lasted quite well I suppose - but the stove never got hot - even with the ashpan door cracked open. This morning - after one burn - we had the same amount of ash in there as we'd get in several months with briquettes - I'd emptied it all out before starting with the smokeless.

In short then - not impressed. We never burn the stuff normally for environmental reasons, but we've added a few more now - and at least the experience will help keep me on my toes as far as keeping our store stocked up goes!

A._Badger

A fire not spreading across the entire bed is a problem I sometimes have - but in my case it's the one downside of using a Grenadier electric firelighter, which starts the coals burning at a single point. Like you, I often use wood to encourage the fire to spread - it works well.

There are three main attractions to smokeless over wood: it has a much higher calorific value, so produces more heat for a given weight, it needs less tending and it takes up less storage space.

Needless to say, it has some downsides, too - as does everything.

suki1964

Mine has been a mare to light this past 2 weeks, mainly cos I cannot get any dry kindling anywhere. 3 different suppliers and its all wet .

But once I do get it to take it spreads pretty quickly. If it don't I get the poker out and spread the lit coals about before adding another load

Just loaded it with anthracite now and when I get home from work about 11pm it will still be burning and my house will be toasty warm

PaulF81

We used to prefer Ovals when we lived in the UK, never really got on with anthracite as it never seems to burn completely. Im not sure if we were supposed to poker it! The Ovals, once lit, seemed to burn for much much longer too, albeit with a lower heat output towards the end (circa 5 hours if you slumber once they are fully lit and glowing nicely!).

wrightk

i agree with the wet kindling,its a pain, and sometimes i feel like screaming at my retailer because a pallet can sometimes be sat outside in the rain.

i rarely have lighting problems anymore, but after a firelighter i always make sure i fill the box with a level load of kindling, followed by a levelish load of eggs, then once the kindling is glowing, i fill in the gaps i missed. usually takes less than 10 mins for stove to get up to 350f

soulmonkey81

A word of warning with antracite its an excellent fuel but be carful having your damper open too long as it gets so hot it can melt the bars in your fire and your stainless steel flue too if you have one.

A._Badger

soulmonkey81 wrote: »

A word of warning with antracite its an excellent fuel but be carful having your damper open too long as it gets so hot it can melt the bars in your fire and your stainless steel flue too if you have one.

As I've yet to see any stove maker fail to recommend anthracite as a suitable fuel (nor issue any warnings about using it - unlike pet coke) I'm inclined to take this with a pinch of salt.

Have you any evidence to back this up, please?