Coal Burning Fireplace:

twistedjeepster

twistedjeepster

Just another American with a gun!
Joined
May 25, 2009
Location
Kannapolis,NC
What can I do with this fireplace? Has anyone had any xp with this type of fireplace? Can anyone suggest a good chimney company that I should call? I would like to get this thing working again but this is the first one I have ever seen. We just moved into this house a few months ago and I didn't give this fireplace a second thought until now that it's getting colder at night.

Also where can I get coal if I find out this thing can be used as is? I think it needs to be lump coal not charcoal. I really have no idea what I'm talking about which is why I'm asking on here. The googles aren't any help seeing as I can't get a straight answer.
 
i thought coal was frowned on for home heating? O2 emissions are lethal arent they?
 
I grew up with a coal stove furnace, it fawking sucked. This was in Connecticut 20-30 years ago, but I think the coal co. is still around. They would deliver a few tons in the bin at the end of our driveway every so often. A few times per day the ashes had to be shook and a bucket of coal dumped in.
 
Reid said:
i thought coal was frowned on for home heating? O2 emissions are lethal arent they?
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Apparently there are still a lot of homes that use coal fireplaces/stoves for heat. From what I have been reading they produce a lot of heat with very little flame. I'm guessing all the fumes go up the chimney with the smoke and it doesn't leave the creosote that wood leaves in the chimney. Now I don't know all of this for sure it's just from what I was reading. There are some people that have converted their coal fireplace into a wood fireplace but I am currently renting this place until we decide to buy it ( after the owners make the major repairs ) so I won't be doing any serious upgrading until that time happens.
 
We used coal the entire time I was growing up. Dad had a coal stove as opposed to a fire place, but every day the ashes had to be shook out and more coal put in. We'd go through between 4 and 6 tons in a winter (in Colorado). The dust it created (according to Mom) was horrendous. It would heat our 2300 Sq ft house nicely and the parlor where the stove was would be REALLY hot!
 
Is it a coal fireplace or a coke fireplace? Coke was semi-burnt logs, from what I understand. We had one in our house as a kid. It looked like a fireplace, just smaller and shallower. The grate was built-in and it had an ornate cast cover and an adjustable vent on the bottom. We just chopped the wood a little thinner and it burned fine.
 
I'll I know is a story about someone putting a lump in a stacked barrel wood stove. The kind built out of old drums. Seems the coal once started can only be regulated by the oxygen dampner and burns extremely hot compared to wood. As the story goes it was left un attended in the work shop and melted the barrel floor and caused a small disaster.

Is the unit made of a cast material?
 
catfishblues said:
Is it a coal fireplace or a coke fireplace? Coke was semi-burnt logs, from what I understand. We had one in our house as a kid. It looked like a fireplace, just smaller and shallower. The grate was built-in and it had an ornate cast cover and an adjustable vent on the bottom. We just chopped the wood a little thinner and it burned fine.
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From what we were told it is a coal fireplace but from what you described it may just be a coke fireplace. It has the built in grate, the cast iron front piece and it's 8" deep x 18" wide. Here is a picture of it maybe that will help.
 

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This probably won’t be much help unless you have the same setup but here is what I did. My house in rock hill has a back to back chimney so it has a firebox in living room and another on the other side in the a bedroom. It had a really small firebox so I took 2 rows of brick out the back of only in one firebox. I had it inspected. Then said it had a few cracks so they don’t recommend using it but they are above the roofline so it is not big risk if I do use it. I don’t have $3k for a chimney liner so I use it sometimes. I did get a flue installed on the top of the chimney. I can’t remember the name of the company. They were ok company but I would not recommend them above another company.
 
Our previous house had a coal burning fireplace just like that.

We used small pieces of wood. It worked fine. If anything it seemed to heat a little better than your typical wood burning fireplace because the fire was contained in a small area right up front.

NOTE: We had fires for entertainment purposes only... It'd keep that room toasty warm but that was it. If you're actually trying to heat your hosue, get a wood stove.

twistedjeepster said:
From what we were told it is a coal fireplace but from what you described it may just be a coke fireplace. It has the built in grate, the cast iron front piece and it's 8" deep x 18" wide. Here is a picture of it maybe that will help.
Click to expand...
 
BoltOnJohn said:
Our previous house had a coal burning fireplace just like that.
We used small pieces of wood. It worked fine. If anything it seemed to heat a little better than your typical wood burning fireplace because the fire was contained in a small area right up front.
NOTE: We had fires for entertainment purposes only... It'd keep that room toasty warm but that was it. If you're actually trying to heat your hosue, get a wood stove.
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Yup. What he said. that's just like what we had, and what friends had, and we all did the same thing. I think it pitched out more heat that our big-ass fireplace now, but it's still not going to heat a whole floor. It should do fine for making fun fires this winter.

I won't say that without saying this, though: Get the fireplace inspected before burning anything in it. Better safe than sorry.

And here's some info on coke. Seems it's a better choice than coal for fireplace consumption. Very little smoke off it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coke_(fuel)
 
I was actually wanting to use to for heat and if coke is going to do that then that's what I will rather do. Once I have a find a good place I'm going to have it inspected hopefully it checks out seeing as I love the smell of a fireplace.
 
Your best bet for heat is going to be to pipe in a good freestanding wood stove with a fan. You can find a good, small footprint stove that will put out a ton more heat than this. Otherwise, burn wood. It's not going to be much worse, and certainly less expensive. Still, if you can find coke, let us know. I'm interested if anybody still sells it. Seems it gets used elsewhere these days.
 
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