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Which smokeless fuel do you use?


Supertramp

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Everyone seems to have their 'favorite' type of SF, and reading alot of topics here I see that some are 'better' than others, some produce too much ash, and some burn too hot and destroy the grate!!

 

Can you tell me YOUR experience of a particular make of smokeless fuel? heat, ash ease of lighting, ease of keeping in etc?

 

Then I and others can actually compare your experiences and make an 'educated' choice

 

Thanks! Tony

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Taybrite...a lot of ash and burnt to hot.

 

Stoveglow..tended to have a sulhper smell.

 

Supertherm..For us it seems to work, not to much ash and burns at about the right temperature.

 

Stove is Morso, Squirrel 1430 (cleanburn)

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I use Multi-heat,a bit cheaper. Years ago the main one available around here was Phurnacite nuts,a bit smaller than most other,we thought it was very good,but its expensive now,but it might last longer so swings and roundabouts,have to try some again. To be perfectly honest i don't find much difference between any of them and i've tried most. Just the smaller needs a bit more bottom air and the bigger stuff a bit less really. :closedeyes: .

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I suspect it depends on which stove you have.

We have a big, unusual (and inefficient) Stratford and find "Wildfire" to be by far the best, significantly better than Taybrite is all aspects.

Several friends who have tried it would agree!

Its also at the cheaper end.

The bag says something like "for open fires only" but we have had no trouble!

 

Bit hot for lighting the stove right now though!

 

.........Dave

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Thanks bottle and CT, just what im looking for, - anyone help with Excel and anthracite?

 

We've used both. Anthracite didn't suit us, we found it needed too much air and would go out pretty easily when trying to slow the fire down. Excel was fine apart from the smell, which is by far the worst of any smokeless fuel I've tried.

 

Taking into account price the best I've found is Stoveglow, which is actually random smokeless briquettes mixed up, so you can never be entirely sure what you're getting. We've used Homefire Ovals and they are great, but £2.60 per 25kg more than Stoveglow, just not worth it.

 

As others have said, Taybrite does produce alot more ash than most others, but it's the most commonly available round here so we do end up using it alot.

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Taybrite...a lot of ash and burnt to hot.

 

Stoveglow..tended to have a sulhper smell.

 

Supertherm..For us it seems to work, not to much ash and burns at about the right temperature.

 

Stove is Morso, Squirrel 1430 (cleanburn)

 

Homefire - burns too quick, doesn't stay in well overnight

 

Exel - easy to light but doesn't stay in overnight

 

Taybrite - as suggested above plenty of ash and burns nice and hot which works well for my stove. Stays in brilliantly overnight. Love it.

 

I've got a basic Boatman Stove

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Thanks everyone, - good honest simple answers,

I'm going to try a 'split' load from the coal boat for my first winter, and see what suits.

 

There isnt an answer that suits everyone, and I think it has to be as much a matter of 'trial and error' as anything.

Even 2 boats with the same stove may have more draw and therefore different experience.

 

- I really appreciate the responses :cheers:

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Have always used Excel since trying a few. It really DOES stay in overnight. Last winter ours never went out once, it stayed in for 19 hours once without a re-fuel! Burns hot, little ash, doesn't coke up the flue too much, can be dearer than others but well worth it. Wouldn't use anything else.

East Midlands supplier...Coopers Coal in Mountsorrel. (though I may have cleared them out of Excel!!)

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Have always used Excel since trying a few. It really DOES stay in overnight. Last winter ours never went out once, it stayed in for 19 hours once without a re-fuel! Burns hot, little ash, doesn't coke up the flue too much, can be dearer than others but well worth it. Wouldn't use anything else.

East Midlands supplier...Coopers Coal in Mountsorrel. (though I may have cleared them out of Excel!!)

 

Thanks Ally, - I've put an order in for split load of Excel and supertherm, I really want one of them to stay in overnight, AND while out at work some days which might be 12 hours or so... -- is that an unreasonable expectation???

 

Also - no-one has yet told me if having a back boiler will use the fuel up quicker, or make it burn cooler, and therefore slower... (sorry - this was from an earlier thread, - but is relevant here.)

 

Thanks again

Tony

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I might try supertherm on the basis of this thread. It's certainly cheaper.

 

Any opinions on 'wildfire'?

 

I couldn't get it to stay in overnight.

 

I'm currently using Taybrite which produces vast amounts of ash (prefer Pureheat but it's harder to light in a hurry and large nut anthracite in the Rayburn which works well enough, but again is a bugger to get started in a rush.

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Also - no-one has yet told me if having a back boiler will use the fuel up quicker, or make it burn cooler, and therefore slower...
I don't think having a back boiler will make any difference - the fire will burn and give out the same heat dependant on the air supplied to it. All you're doing with the boiler is capturing a proportion of this heat rather than letting it radiate out into the cabin behind the stove.
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having a back boiler will remove some of the heat into the system it is connected to. The inside of the stove is normally smaller as a bolt on boiler usually is internal. A friend had a stove that was lovely and hot until he added the back boiler and it did make a suprising difference.

Excel, once you have a good fire bed, and have sussed using it, will happily go 12 hours....it'll be low, and keep the wheels fairly well shut down when wanting it to stay in a long time, but there is nothing unreasonable in that expectation. If you want any further advice on using it to it's best shout, but I'm sure you will get the hang of it!

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having a back boiler will remove some of the heat into the system it is connected to. The inside of the stove is normally smaller as a bolt on boiler usually is internal. A friend had a stove that was lovely and hot until he added the back boiler and it did make a suprising difference.

Excel, once you have a good fire bed, and have sussed using it, will happily go 12 hours....it'll be low, and keep the wheels fairly well shut down when wanting it to stay in a long time, but there is nothing unreasonable in that expectation. If you want any further advice on using it to it's best shout, but I'm sure you will get the hang of it!

 

Thanks Ally, - I'm using a 'Boatman' stove, and the back boiler is an integral welded part of the stove - not a bolt on job, - it takes the space of the 2 rear firebricks, so the no loss in burning room.

 

As you say, - try it and see.

Thanks for your input

Tony

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We've used homefire ovals and Taybright and both seemed good, the latter producing more ash. Last winter we used the cheaper stoveglow mixed stuff and it seemed just as good and quite a bit cheaper. We burn lots of wood too, a bed of coal with wood on top all day and then just coal over night to keep the fire in. Morso Squirel clean burn stove.

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I am a bit amazed at the number of people that seem to have problems keeping the fire going overnight. Though my preferred fuel is Excel I have had to use about every sort of fuel over the years, a case of just having to buy what is available. I have never had a problem with keeping the fire going over night and I only have a small Becton. Is it because I only sleep for about 7-8 hours a night? Or because maybe some do not put enough fuel on the fire before going to bed?

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