Jump to content

Coal......... Which one to choose.


Jo

Featured Posts

Now that winter is approaching fast. I am in two minds as to which coal is best for a boatmans cabin stove.

 

Due to the fact that boatmans cabin stoves are not air tight like most fires on a boat, I need a coal that will give out a gentle heat as we sleep in the cabin, but will stay in for a year and a day :lol:

 

Has anyone got any ideas. I am sure someone out there has a tried and tested coal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now that winter is approaching fast. I am in two minds as to which coal is best for a boatmans cabin stove.

 

Due to the fact that boatmans cabin stoves are not air tight like most fires on a boat, I need a coal that will give out a gentle heat as we sleep in the cabin, but will stay in for a year and a day :lol:

 

Has anyone got any ideas. I am sure someone out there has a tried and tested coal.

 

Different stoves like different coal and the same applies to different people. When it's not that cold out I like Barge Nuts because it's cheap (it's basically a mixture of the sweepings of spilt nuts from the yard which has been bagged up). Excel burns very hot and is good when it gets quite cold out. Just get 3 or 4 different types and see which you like. Just avoid housecoal which stinks!

Edited by blackrose
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Different stoves like different coal and the same applies to different people. When it's not that cold out I like Barge Nuts because it's cheap (it's basically a mixture of the sweepings of spilt nuts from the yard which has been bagged up). Excel burns very hot and is good when it gets quite cold out. Just get 3 or 4 different types and see which you like. Just avoid housecoal which stinks!

 

Blackrose many thanks for the reply.

We have tried Blaze which was way to hot, the stove went into melt down :lol:

at the moment we are trying homefire, which seems a little better.

But as you say everyone is different. I guess we keep trying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the fire is out of the main living area I wouldn't rule out 'house coal'. Trouble is it throws out soot, leaves clinker in the grate and it smells like coal but it does stay in well and is cheaper than processed stuff. For a living cabin stove I use homefire. Does costabit though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now that winter is approaching fast. I am in two minds as to which coal is best for a boatmans cabin stove.

 

Due to the fact that boatmans cabin stoves are not air tight like most fires on a boat, I need a coal that will give out a gentle heat as we sleep in the cabin, but will stay in for a year and a day :P

 

Has anyone got any ideas. I am sure someone out there has a tried and tested coal.

We like Taybright. It can be a bit of sod to light but once going is very good. We've also managed to keep a fire of Taybright "in" for 36 hours by banking up and turning down very low. Sitting in a very toasty warm boat at the moment. It's good for a gentle glow in a squirrel and for turning up when it's colder too.

 

Taybright's not too expensive but more expensive than housecoal (smoky) or barge nuts. We buy off of Pete on Argus and Bletchley.

D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We use anthracite, it burns long and slow but can, with the lower vent wide open be encouraged to burn quickly and give off a lot of heat. What I like about the anthracite is that it burns very cleanly and with minimum fumes but will stay in overnight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use mostly Taybrite, but if we are having guests, which we usually put up in the same cabin as the stove, we use Homefire, coz it's stays in all night. I can keep the Taybrite in all night, but find it's trickier to get the fire going again in the morning, with Homefire it's very easy, coz the lumps are so big, theres still quite big bits in there burning in the morning, also when we've guests, Homefire is less of a faff, you need to tend to it less.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've tried a few... Supaheat, in the blue bags, Excel, Longbeach and the old house coal...

 

Although Supaheat does seem to stay in for a long while, it does what it says on the tin... gets super hot! The downsides that it left alot of clinkers.

 

I found that although Excel provided lots of heat, it sometimes provided a bit too much... and lot's of ash too! But then I suppose if you empty the ash can out regularly it wouldn't be a problem.

 

Longbeach burns for ages, and doesn't get too hot either, but also leaves clinkers.

 

We've found the ordinary house coal burns for absolutely bloody ages! We've left the boat before now at around 5 / 6pm and returned the following morning and the the fire was still in. It doesn't take much to get going either, you're able to revive it from a single spark near enough to a roaring fire in about 10 minutes. It doesn't burn anyway near as hot as the others and doesn't really fill the ash can up either and the clinkers burn down next to nothing, but can also be used when you re-light the fire. They seem to get glowing pretty quick and provide a good base for the fresh coal you put on which vary from small bits, say the same size as a dice to pretty big bits to around the size of tennis balls. The only downside with the house coal is that from the point which you light it to the point where it finally goes out is the smoke. It does nothing but smoke, and it's not the friendlier grey/black stuff either it's the stinky sort of yellow/cork coloured smoke.. but it does give you an indication of what state the fire is. If it's not smoking it has gone out. At only £4 a bag for 20kg it's good value and we wouldn't swap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the "Classic" range in the back cabin we burn a mixtue of house coal and Taybrite underneath this mix will stay in happily overnight providing a good gentle heat and is is easy to get up to heat in the morning for a brew.

JMO though other "Classic/Epping" ranges have different tastes !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use mostly Taybrite, but if we are having guests, which we usually put up in the same cabin as the stove, we use Homefire, coz it's stays in all night. I can keep the Taybrite in all night, but find it's trickier to get the fire going again in the morning, with Homefire it's very easy, coz the lumps are so big, theres still quite big bits in there burning in the morning, also when we've guests, Homefire is less of a faff, you need to tend to it less.
We too use Taybright, and yet we've found the opposite. Our Little Wenlock stove doesn't like lighting Homefire because the ovals are so big (although broken into pieces they light superbly easily) and although we can use it to get an extra-hot fire if we need it for a while, it's almpst impossible to get Homefire to stay in overnight. It either burns too hot, so it's all gone by morning (and we had a really hot cabin when we were asleep) or else it goes so low that it goes out.Taybright stays in with no problems, we just bank it up and turn the regulator right down. In the morning it's easy to get going again. A trick with Taybright, which often chokes itself in its own ash overnight, is in the morning very carefully poke a couple of ventilation holes through the ash to the grate and then open up the regulator for half an hour. This often works better than riddling it because if you do that you lose all the hot ash into the pan and there may not be enough power in the remaining coals to get themselves going again. I've found we can keep it going with just 3 lots of attention per 24 hours; in the morning poke 2 or 3 holes through it, and add 2 or 3 new lumps, in the late afternoon riddle it through (empty the ash pan) and add several lumps for the evening, then late evening fill it right up and turn it right down.Every stove I've ever known, has it's own personality and preferences. Even different models of the same stove behave differently.
My coalman told me I would burn out the riddlers on my squirrel using excel as it burned too hot. He was right :P
I've heard of several people having this problem.On another forum someone was advised that they could cheaply replace the grate with a drain cover. He posted the next week to say it would probably have worked fine if he'd realised that the one he'd used was made of plastic!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

just to add my two penn'orth, I used to burn Taybrite quite happily on a Squirrel, and have now moved to Homefire Ovals - the reason being that it produces about half as much ash. Both of them will stay in quite happily overnight.

 

On my last boat I to burn Taybrite all the time in a boatmans stove type thing with a lid on the top. As well as being cheaper, the weight of the taybrite used to push the ash down. Oh, and the ash pan was much bigger too!

 

So...horses for courses I reckon. If you don't know what's best then get a bag of everything and try them out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Haven't tried anthracite or housecoal, but most us by 'ere use Pure Heat rather than Taybrite. It stays in well, doesn't produce clinker but rather a mountain of ash. Allan's trick with the poker to produce ventilation holes is good as we'll lose the fire if it's riddled in the morning.

 

Jill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Jo.

 

Don't know which stove you have, but just as an aside take care that you keep the flue pipe swept and the passage in the stove clear. My Epping gets a reasonable bit of use in the cooler months and certainly if I use old fashioned smoky house coal, the flue becomes constricted with soot and tar. Could be nasty if it then causes fumes to escape into the cabin. I tend to fire mine up on ordinary coal and then go to a mix of coal and whatever the 'egg' shaped stuff is called.

 

Mike.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you burn housecoal your neighbours will love you (not). As well as a thick heavy smoke it produces a lot of oil which deposits itself all over the inside of your flue, (though perhaps no more than wood?) Anyway, I don't bother with it.

Edited by blackrose
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now that winter is approaching fast. I am in two minds as to which coal is best for a boatmans cabin stove.

 

Due to the fact that boatmans cabin stoves are not air tight like most fires on a boat, I need a coal that will give out a gentle heat as we sleep in the cabin, but will stay in for a year and a day :P

 

Has anyone got any ideas. I am sure someone out there has a tried and tested coal.

I use peat briquettes. They're machine pressed so are all the same shape, easy for storage. They're clean to handle. Once I've got a build up of ash (36 hours) if I load up with six or seven briquettes the fire (squirrel) stays in for up to about sixteen hours. I'm not sure of the latest price but I've just ordered a delivery today so if anyones interested I'll have the price in a couple of days.

Brian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use peat briquettes. They're machine pressed so are all the same shape, easy for storage. They're clean to handle. Once I've got a build up of ash (36 hours) if I load up with six or seven briquettes the fire (squirrel) stays in for up to about sixteen hours. I'm not sure of the latest price but I've just ordered a delivery today so if anyones interested I'll have the price in a couple of days.

Brian

Do you know the origin of the peat? Peat is one of the most environmentally unfriendly forms of fuel there is.

 

Not only does the burning of it release CO2, the cutting process releases large amounts of greenhouse gases too.

 

Perhaps most importantly, peat bogs are a very important, and rapidly dwindling wildlife habitat.

 

People are, finally, starting to use alternatives to peat for their compost. It would be a shame to encourage its use as a fuel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.