[Public-List] Solid fuel stove - What to burn?

[John Birch]

We have a Cole Stove. Supposed to burn coal or charcoal - too messy and the 
risks of storing coal and charcoal re spontaneous combustion in a dam 
environment ain't worth it.

We now use sterno cans, add a bit of salt to it to get a yellow flame - not 
as hot as coal for sure, but nice ambience, no mess to clean up and it must 
throw some heat, because the cats always curl up near it when its on ; )

Open a bottle of wine and, mon cher ....

ATB

John


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <mainstay at csolve.net>
To: <dans at stmktg.com>; "Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all" 
<public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 5:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Public-List] Solid fuel stove - What to burn?


>
> Hello gents -
>
> We have a Dickinson wood stove in SURPRISE.   I've tried several fuels  in 
> it, here are our observations:
>
> Wood - easy to burn but burns too hot and too fast.  This is partly 
> because the Dickinson is quite leaky with regard to air...you can't 
> really shut it down.  We also noticed that burning wood lets a lot of 
> soot/sparks up on deck - not good!
>
> Coal - 'acorn coal' if you can find it is great.  It's tough to light  but 
> once it's going it is evenly hot and burns a long time.  I've been  warned 
> not to leave the ash in the stove long because the sulfer in it  makes 
> acid with humidity and can rot out the steel in the stove.
>
> Wood charcoal - easy to find, easy to light, nice even heat.  Down  sides 
> are that it's dirty, and in an average bag we tend to prefer the  big 
> pieces in order to avoid handling the smaller bits...which means  we only 
> find about 1/3 of a bag is usefull.  On the other hand, it's  cheap!
>
> Charcoal briquetts - cheap, easy to find, easy to light, not so sooty  as 
> wood charcoal, burn slowly and not too hot.   Downside... makes a  huge 
> amount of ash.
>
> last - make sure ventillation is good!
>
> Gord #426 SURRPISE
>
>
> Quoting "Daniel Sternglass" <dans at stmktg.com>:
>
>>
>>> Jim... What do you mean by solid fuel? Isobar came with a good sized 
>>> 'pot
>>> bellied stove' sorta, which I've never used and has been stored in my
>>> garage attic. It has an ingenious design to fit in a fiddle on the port
>>> settee with a charlie noble stack through a removable scuttle in the 
>>> cabin
>>> top. It even has a cooktop. I've sometimes thought of trying it out, but
>>> I'm a fair weather sailor; winter sailing is not my dish. Besides, I'm 
>>> not
>>> sure what to burn in it. It was probably made before the days of 
>>> packaged
>>> wood chips, which might work well. Otherwise ,I can't see keeping a 
>>> stock
>>> of cordwood in the forepeak. A bag of coal is probably the most 
>>> efficient
>>> but tough to find at your local marina. Can a wood stove burn coal
>>> efficiently or vice versa?
>>>
>>> Bob Kirk
>>> Isobar #181
>>
>> Jim, Bob,
>>
>> I have a similar "Fasco" heat stove in my 1966 A-30. I learned from  the 
>> previous owner that (in 1986) that the thing to burn in those  stoves at 
>> that time was the sheets of charcoal briquettes that you  can buy that 
>> are made up with compressed cardboard. In my case, I  only needed 2 or 3 
>> of those little "Brix" to generate quite a bit of  heat. Haven't run it 
>> in 10-15 years, but those worked very well,  also easy to light.
>>
>> "Brix" don't seem to be made any more, though I thought I had seen 
>> something like that fairly recently. A Google search for 'self  lighting 
>> charcoal' shows some options.
>>
>> --Dan Sternglass
>> Watcher of the Skies, #201, 1966, Cayuga Lake, Ithaca, NY
>>
>> dans at stmktg.com
>> mobile: +1607-592-8012
>>
>> Strategic Marketing Associates
>> 403 Highgate Road
>> Ithaca, NY 14850
>>
>>
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>
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