(Pt.2 15min. Service) How to Burn Anthracite Coal in Pot Belly Stove

Tips, Tricks, Information, on how to light and burn PA's finest hard Coal for heat.

[@scottreynolds4827]

Thank you for taking time to perform these two how-to videos. I watched them both several times after installing my vintage coal burner and prior to ( attempting) to use it. For sure its quite different from that of my wood fired heaters.

[@virgilvalois9306]

A good guide. Minimum of fluff/chatter, has visual aids and good editing/speaking. Liked and saved.

[@suzmaca650]

Holy moly…you did a great job providing us with a wealth of information. Thank you for posting

[@anavlahos0550]

Great video, supper informative. Thanks!

[@TsunauticusIV]

Interesting for sure. Does coal have a unique smell? I love the smell of a home that burns wood. Never been to a coal burning home before.

[@ArtBarn591]

The house hasn’t gotten any odor from the coal as far as we can smell and company doesn’t comment. So I’d say it’s odor free inside. Outside I’ll get a whiff of coal burning smell once and a while but only just after adding coal. There is 0 visible smoke from the chimney ever. The smell is light and definitely unique, indescribable in words. I will say that the coal while working on it if I have it opened up too much and I get a breath of the fumes (likely carbon monoxide) above the fire, it’s a bit choking and takes your breath but not stinky. Cheers!

[@papageorge9950]

This entire conversation is about Anthracite aka hard coal. Bituminous or Soft Coal is another story. IT is smokey & gives off a burning tar like smell, and is quite different from Anthracite ! @@ArtBarn591

[@andrewdonohue1853]

i heat with anthracite rice with a keystoker 90K. it's almost completely automatic, it is a stoker stove. fill and empty, controlled off of a thermostat. the hopper can hold 110 lbs and it burns a very long time on a full hopper, like 2 days.... same with the ash pan, it's a fairly large square pan. this pot belly seems interesting but it also seems to be quite a bit more work and more dust. anthracite is awesome heat, it's efficient and a great option. old school. my 90k BTU stove has plenty of heating capacity for my 1,500 sq ft farm house. i bought the stove used in 2015 for $800

[@davidclark8855]

I have had that hats twin many years Boiler welder.

[@palangnar3588]

Nice stove, how much they worth, the one like this one, large one ?

[@ArtBarn591]

I got a good deal on this one at a local flea market late on Sunday afternoon………. guy didn’t want to reload it. I don’t really know what the prices are like lately, but a few to several hundreds of dollars. Make sure it isn’t cracked, if it cracked it’s worth 10cents a pound because it’s scrap.

[@johnr5545]

nice job God bless

[@ArtBarn591]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@colbolt54]

Does that stove have a firebrick lining?...I ask because I just bought a potbelly coal stove, who seller says it doesn't need a firebrick lining!

[@ArtBarn591]

No it is just the iron casting, no fire lining

[@johnbutler5208]

Bull

[@brockallen5476]

and now we know why every G.D. coal stove shaker is broken. Stove coal... size of softballs.... tons for free next to the rail sidings. 3 minuets of maintenance 24 hrs. of making BTU's on a 5 gallon bucket of anthracite. 90 secs before breakfast 90secs before bed. Haul a bucket every 3rd day to the ash pile.

[@robertjr9844]

Does this heat the entire house? Why do you turn the boiler on/off?

[@ArtBarn591]

It Pretty much heats the whole house, the basement and main floor are very comfortable untill it’s like upper 20’s outside. I use the boiler for hot water so it stays hot and as backup for if the stove goes out. Thanks for watching!

[@papageorge9950]

He turned the boiler & fans off so their noise did not interfere with the audio of the video.

[@danthurman9076]

Where is your draft diverter ?

[@ArtBarn591]

Backside of the pipe, it’s there.

[@danthurman9076]

Cool, it's great that you have it. It increases the efficiency of your stove. An oil stove makes no heat unless it's there.

[@fostexfan160]

Anthracite is the worst fuel I have ever used in my multifuel stove. It's a myth about how hot it burns. I could never get it to raise the stove thermometer above 200 degrees despite doing all the servicing tips and de-ashing the grate.

[@ArtBarn591]

Myth? I have absolutely no trouble Turing my entire fire pot RED HOT!! with hard coal, I don't have a clue as to why you have trouble with it but I can say that it definitively burns hot.

[@fostexfan160]

@@ArtBarn591 Yes I can see that you get a nice red hot glow in the pot belly. My anthracite never got above a dull orange glow even with full vent open. I tried half vent and a quarter vent. The fire nearly went out!! It looked like decorative coal with very little heat. The airflows are fine. I had to to mix some ordinary coal with it to get some heat. I think they are mining and selling some poor quality anthracite here in Wales. That is all I can assume. It burns terrible, has little heat value and leaves a lot of ash

[@ArtBarn591]

Huh I wonder, I have to make an update to this video after another season of experience with hard coal……what I can say shortly is that I switched coal yards and the quality is very different. Wales you say……. I am sure there are many qualities of coal in Wales, some of the coal there is known for its heat in making steam. It seemed in Pennsylvania several years ago; here my friend got some coal that was trash. Rumor had it that it’s not uncommon for the old cull piles to be gone thru for discarded coal and what you are buying sometimes is effectively 2nd choice stuff.

[@fostexfan160]

@@ArtBarn591 The Welsh steam coal here is excellent for the multifuel stove. Top it off with a few lumps of Columbian house coal when it gets to single digit temps and I get a great little furnace going. But the do-gooders in government have stopped the mining of the steam coal and an inferior steam coal from Poland is being imported!! Apparently too many woke activists against coal didn't like the change in the landscape from mining!!!! I watched your excellent first part of this video for some more tips and I picked up your layering technique. I have now tried a shovel of anthracite on a hot bed of wood coals and same problem.....dull orange glow.....poor heat. So I placed a hardwood log on top and within half hour I'm getting some good heat. It's like it's compressing and containing the heat within the anthracite for it to burn better? Some more experimenting I think. After an hour the log has burnt away leaving nice hot Anthracite. So maybe its me and my stove management technique as opposed to our wonderful Welsh Anthracite? I'd love to get my hands on some of that Pennsylvania anthracite!!! Great vids....keep 'em coming. Thanks

[@happycamper-ux5pv]

you should fill it up all the way to the door with wood and coal

[@JJ-el9id]

Sammy Hagar

[@beavisbutthead2058]

Wow , those are stove / egg coal sizes ? I usually see either rice/pea or chestnut / nuts .. looks good to me

[@papageorge9950]

This stove is a "Victory" size 14, I have a "Victory" size 16 & I find it works well with either Nut size or Stove size coal. Pea coal is too small for these stoves, & tends to fall through the grates unburned.

[@happycamper-ux5pv]

i was thinking of burning plastic bottles egg cartons rubber in the coal pot belly stove