Burning Anthracite in a stove

Tzardine

Hi all,

Looking for some advice if you can.

We have an Olymberyl Aidan stove in the house and are finally getting to grips with it after some practice. Thing is running great and heating the rads good now but it is a hungry fecker. Needs feeding every 40 mins or so with wood / polish coal to keep it going. The house is fairly large so it is to be expected I guess.

I decided to give some Anthracite a go on Monday and it took me a while to figure it out and get it to light but after I built up a good bed of it I could not believe the way it was running. After 4 1/2 hours I had to shut it down when I was going to bed because it was still burning like a mad thing and the rads were piping hot and about 10 degrees hotter than we ever got them. I even let the hot tap run for a while to let out some hot water.

I had covered the whole bottom of the stove in a bed of the stuff but my question is am I wrong to do this ? Should I only be covering the grate area and leaving the gap at the back uncovered ? There was quite a lot of unburnt coal left the next morning, but I suppose some of this will be due to me turning the fire off when going to bed ( closing all the air vents )

Cheers guys

sky6

Anthracite burns very very hot. It's used a lot in furnaces built for purpose.
You need to be careful to check that your Stoves is suitable for it.
Is it Cast Iron or Steel ? as a lot lot of the Steel Stoves would not be able to handle anthracite long term. They will buckle or even develop a hole.

This is one of the reasons you won't see it on the Fuel list of many Manufacturers.

Check with the Manufacturers.
But yes the heat derived from Anthracite is great.

Tzardine

sky6 wrote: »

Anthracite burns very very hot. It's used a lot in furnaces built for purpose.
You need to be careful to check that your Stoves is suitable for it.
Is it Cast Iron or Steel ? as a lot lot of the Steel Stoves would not be able to handle anthracite long term. They will buckle or even develop a hole.

This is one of the reasons you won't see it on the Fuel list of many Manufacturers.

Check with the Manufacturers.
But yes the heat derived from Anthracite is great.

Thanks for the reply. The stove is built for it alright. Its a huge, multi fuel stove with a cast iron grate. Some stuff to burn.

I will try burning it again but only cover the grate where the slots are cut out this time. Last time I used it I put it all over the bottom and covered the whole stove.

scudo2

As Anthracite is a smokeless fuel you must have a carbon monoxide alarm in the room for safety.


Everybody should have one no matter what fuel they use in a stove.

robertxxx

How do you burn this stuff, do you start a fire with normal coal then put it on?

sky6

That's good so, Cast Iron is the best material for burning it in. You might find that you have to change the grating more often, but that's a small price to pay for getting a higher output from your Stove.

Tzardine

robertxxx wrote: »

How do you burn this stuff, do you start a fire with normal coal then put it on?

Start the stove with some firelighters, then kindling and then a good bit of dried hardwood logs. Usually get the stove pretty hot (Above 250 degrees) at the top before putting on a small layer of the anthracite. Then putting a new layer on every 10 mins or so when the previous one has caught on.

Keep putting on loads of the Anthracite until you have a very large bed of the stuff. It almost looks like you are putting out the fire. But it burns from below and you should have some smallish blue flames coming through.

It does need a lot of air from the bottom I find. On my stove I need to keep the ash pan door open just a tiny bit. But it is great stuff to burn.

Its strange, If I burn hardwood / polish coal I can get the top of the stove to over 300 degrees but the rads wont come up over 50 or so. With the Anthracite, the top of the stove will only get to about 200 degrees or so but the rads will be well over 60 degrees. I think because it is a constant 200 degrees and burns for a good while which lets the back boiler really get up to temps.

Hope this helps.

JimmyK1

Hello all i have an Olymberyl Aidan, we are expierencing same problems as most here...I tend to keep mine going overnight, damping it down with a couple of shovelfuls of fine slack. Is this recommended or bad practice?

Sanchez83

The Aidan is not designed for overnight burn so it could be quiet dangerous.
I would imagine you will have a heavy creosote buildup in your chimney.
This can increase the chances of chimney blockage and chimney fires.

Tzardine

Sanchez83 wrote: »

The Aidan is not designed for overnight burn so it could be quiet dangerous.
I would imagine you will have a heavy creosote buildup in your chimney.
This can increase the chances of chimney blockage and chimney fires.

The manual says that it can be used for overnight burn ?

Not sure how you would manage it though. My one is an animal on fuel.

Sanchez83

I'm quiet sure it can't be.
It doesn't have a tertiary air system to allow this to the best of my knowledge.
I will have a closer look 2m and read manual.
If it's heavy on fuel you may have a problem somewhere.
Either an overdrawing chimney or a gap in the stove itself allowing excess air in.

Calahonda52

Does allow over night.
OP rd the hot rads, maybe u have an issue with the auto stat.
Ps, I would mix fuel, ifvu burn 100% anthracite u will shorten stove life