Damp smokeless coal

lohr500

When you say you have the top vent fully closed, is this the one leading to the flue, or one on the top of the door/s?
If to the flue, I would say you need that fully open to generate enough draw.

When you burn wood, does the stove draw well or do you struggle with smoke coming back into the room? It could be a poor chimney/flue design which is preventing the stove from running correctly. A good test is to light a sheet of newspaper when the stove and chimney are cold and see how well the flames are drawn up into the chimney. A good set up should cause the newspaper to burn really well and the flames should be pulled up the flue. 

Andrea15

lohr500 said:

When you say you have the top vent fully closed, is this the one leading to the flue, or one on the top of the door/s?
If to the flue, I would say you need that fully open to generate enough draw.

When you burn wood, does the stove draw well or do you struggle with smoke coming back into the room? It could be a poor chimney/flue design which is preventing the stove from running correctly. A good test is to light a sheet of newspaper when the stove and chimney are cold and see how well the flames are drawn up into the chimney. A good set up should cause the newspaper to burn really well and the flames should be pulled up the flue. 

Wood burns fine. Occasionally there is smoke coming inside when we start it, but usually it is because we mess things up. 
Yes, the vent is on the door, not the flue.
Anyway, this afternoon I want to try again with (hopefully) dry coal and using good deal more of it. I think I was being far too timorous with it .

Andrea15

Swipe said:

Try some Blaze from B&M £3.99 a bag

For some reason it is not avaliable (at least today) at my branch, although it is mentioned on the website. I will try again in teh future, but I'll phone first. (As an aside, what a ghastly shop it is; I have never been in before and I am not looking forward to being back...)

mumf

Andrea15 said:

Swipe said:

Try some Blaze from B&M £3.99 a bag

For some reason it is not avaliable (at least today) at my branch, although it is mentioned on the website. I will try again in teh future, but I'll phone first. (As an aside, what a ghastly shop it is; I have never been in before and I am not looking forward to being back...)

They are now concentrating on Spring. My local branch is not stocking now. Unfortunately retailers such as the Range/ B and M,/ Home Bargains concentrate on seasonal sales. I have picked my smokeless fuel up from all of the above ( I use 40 kg per week) ,but I have a default fuel merchant I use too ,although his is more expensive - but what isn’t? Forget the budget retailers now if you need coal. Find a fuel merchant.

John_the_Boy

Coal is much harder than wood, you just need to keep experimenting. Get the coal burning well before closing the top vent and then gradually shut down the bottom vent until you reach the temp that works for you, i.e. its hot enough, you don't burn through the coal at a rate of speed and the temp doesn't drop too fast.

I have a 7kg inset stove and use just over half a bag of Brazier from 6pm in the evening, by 11pm it is just over 3/5ths gone so I close the vent a bit more so I still get embers left in the morning.

mumf

Smokeless coal is basically anthracite bonded with molasses. Anthracite is notoriously difficult to ignite in its natural form. All stoves and fires operate differently,and you have to ‘play’ with yours to find its optimum capability. When we light ours ,we get a good hard fire going with kindling and small pieces of wood.When it’s really firing ,we get a shovelful of coal on,and let it keep ripping.We will let it burn hard for another five minutes and add a load more ,let that burn hard,then turn down the dampers. 

Andrea15

Thanks @mumf. I was about to ask how people got their fire going when you answered. Yesterday I managed to get to 100 °C and the fan started too. Today it is struggling to get going. Perhaps I am being too timid with the wood at the start... I saw some videos of people getting a fire going with 1 (ONE) piece of kindling and 1 fire lighter.
Maybe I need to be more patient, get a bigger fire roaring and only then add the ovals.

One thing I have noticed, there is A LOT of ash generated. One panful per day. I wasn't expecting that...

On the plus side, the wet ovals look pretty dry already.

henry24

Since they banned sulphur in the ovals about a year ago they don't burn very well and leave loads of ash

mumf

Andrea15 said:

Thanks @mumf. I was about to ask how people got their fire going when you answered. Yesterday I managed to get to 100 °C and the fan started too. Today it is struggling to get going. Perhaps I am being too timid with the wood at the start... I saw some videos of people getting a fire going with 1 (ONE) piece of kindling and 1 fire lighter.
Maybe I need to be more patient, get a bigger fire roaring and only then add the ovals.

One thing I have noticed, there is A LOT of ash generated. One panful per day. I wasn't expecting that...

On the plus side, the wet ovals look pretty dry already.

One piece of kindling? Be bold. Light your fire, and at each stage of fuel addition, let the fire breathe- let it rip before you add more fuel. Your fire needs to burn fierce and fast. 

John_the_Boy

If the smokeless is dry, I get a small fire going with approx 8 pieces of fairly thick kindling and a firelighter and once it has got going I just add the smokeless from my coal scuttle using a small shovel over about 5 mins I add the full load of smokeless that I will burn for the evening.

Leave all vents open until the smokeless starts to glow well, then shut down the top air vent. Leave the fire until it gets to the temp you are aiming for and then adjust the bottom vent to control the burn.

It took me weeks to find a way that is almost always works, a lot depends on you stove as well. Hope you get it sorted soon.