How to start an Anthracite Coal Fire / coal stove insert 

I did EXACTLY as you showed here on this video and my house completely burned to the ground and my mother in law died in the fire! This is the best video on youtube!

I wholeheartedly agree with atouk use a couple of lumps of charcoal. I've been starting my coal fires this way for over 40 years. I use ordinary charcoal and a number 10 can put several lumps in the can and cover with charcoal lighter fluid. When the bubbles stop rising use a old hot dog set of clamps to remover three or four pieces of charcoal and set in a pile on the grate then one match to light the charcoal after 5 minutes or so when the charcoal has a light coating of ash on it then you add the coal and with the ash door open a on inch or so the coal will take right off. No blasted newspaper or twigs and sticks or wood logs and I've never had to go in search of kindling doing it this way. I did that using kindling wood the first time I lit a hard coal fire and an old timer lagged at me the next morning as the diner and told me the easy way to start a coal fire and I've been doing it that way ever since.

I recently purchased an old house that has the Hitzer 503. The documentation from the website is defiantly lacking. Thanks for posting this video!

Blaschak coal is mined in NORTHEASTERN Pa. It is the only place in the world where anthracite coal comes from. They are near Mahanoy city. I live about 10 miles away. I heat my home with it every winter. I currently get 3 or 4 tons a year delivered @ $200/ ton. This lasts me the winter.

Appreciate this video. I just installed a Hitzer model 710 rice stoker furnace in our Homestead, and really like their products. Now I think i am going to install one of these up in our living room, and down at our cabin when I build it. Just wanted to get a good look at the unit in use. Thanks again........Darryl, AML.

Very well done thank you for taking the time to show us the process.

Northeast Ohio myself! Go Bucks!

I heated my home in Western Maryland for 13 years with Coal. In the middle of September I would start the fire, on warm days I would just cover the fire with ashes one or two days later I just poked the fire a little and shuck the grates, the fire came back ok. I never let the fire go out until spring.

Love a real fire - nothing beats a coal fire.

Nice Job Joe. Thanks for sharing information!

Very informative. Thank you for posting.

Beautiful setting. Nice stove. Hope those cathedral ceilings have circulating fans.

Thanks for taking the time to record this...it's helped me out a bunch. Now, my house is toasty and comfortable! :-)

Nice video...well done. I too burn anthracite and once you know how to use your own stove to get a nice hot wood fire base, coal is the best long burning, clean burning, most comfortable heat source on the planet.

There is an even easier way to start a coal fire. I use an empty ragu sauce can.bi remove the label and drill 1/4 inch holes about 1/8 th of an inch down from the top and up from the bottom all the way around drilling about 8 holes. I also drill holes in the center of the can, about 8. Now I cut a /\ that is about 1.5 inches up from the bottom of the can. This is like a small version of what some people use to start a charcoal fire and works very well. I put the can bottom on the stove grates and a brick below it so it doesn't slide down the coal grate and use a fire starter and match light charcoal that I have broken up into small pieces so that the firestarter is on the bottom. I take a small amount of anthracite coal (rice size works best) and mix it with the broken match light charcoal and put it one top of the fire starter . Now everything is ready to light up. Light the fire starter in the /\ opening you previously cut on the bottom of the can. Wait until you see a little blue flame in the can and then wait 5 more minutes. Now take pliers and carefully remove the can that has both ends open out slowly. Take out the brick that held the can in place as well. Begin to fill the coal into the stove slowly and the coal ignites and start the rest of the coal on the grates. Poof a good coal fire is blazing.

Its good that you think in american Jobs, most people sadly don't care, hence ruin in Ohio and Michigan..great video

Very helpful. Thank you.

Great video! Thanks!

The coal you are using comes from east-central PA, not north-west PA.Western PA is soft coal, bituminous. The only pure anthracite coal in the USA is located in a few counties of east-central PA such as Northumberland, Schuylkill, Dauphin and parts of Columbia counties. Mahanoy City (Blaschaks)is in Schuylkill county. Thanks!

Your starting the fire the hard way. Buy a box of coal fire starters which is like a square candle with additional fuel added which start a hot fire in less than 1 minute then spreads over the entire grate in less than 5 minutes or so. Requires 1 match. Follow the instructions and no paper, no sticks or twigs or kindling required. The cheaper alternative for starting a coal fire is fill the grate with match light brand charcoal lights literally with one match wait 10 minutes and when all the charcoal is white indicating it's all burning just add your coal to the the entire charcoal on the grate and watch it burn. Very easy. I stopped using newspaper and wood to get my coal fire started over 20 years ago and this is how I start my coal fired using charcoal only. No fuss no mess and it's quick and easy.

any up dates on how your insert is going different coal etc , may be another good video ,? you did good on the old one thanx and stay warm !!!

coal is awesome!

Great video thank you . We are looking into one. So according to what you said, 60 lbs for 2 1/2 days. You use about 1 1/2 to 2 tons a winter? Do you use this as your only heat source? What is the cost?

Pretty good video was helpful, but I wish you would have told us how long it been in between time lapses

Awesome! Your a great American! Coal is a very energy efficient, coal is given a very bad name, buy coal burn coal! Keep American economy running an Americans employed! Our greatest national resource and economic engine!

Dam I wish I had a fireplace like that, here in the uk we use anthracite nuts called black diamond it burns yellow & not blue.

I'm thinking of getting one: How does the hopper work? How does it release coal? Do you manually release it? or is it automatic? There's nothing on Hitzer's website on this; that's why I came to YT.

Why would people buy a stoker stove using rice coal if you could top load your particular stove and have it run for days? It's an honest question....do stokers go for even longer intervals? Thanks for the informative video, great stuff for a newbie like me. :)

8:54-9:05 Wow! 60 pounds of Anthracite coal can burn for 2 and a half days (or equivilant to roughly 60 hours), I didn't know that!

great info, my harmon mark 2 has no top flue ? and sits on the slab ,installed w/o legs due to height ,i'm told. coal does not burn well,a nd as a result i'm burning wood...

That's pretty comparable to buying wood then. Not too shabby. Much cheaper than fuel oil! I burn wood, but also have an oil burner. I have considered coal as my wood burner is designed to burn either wood or coal. However, here in Iowa, there isn't anywhere near me where I can buy coal. My only choice would be to pick it up along the rail lines like they did in the depression!

Have you ever burned firewood in your stove? The guy a bought my house from did, so I continued doing it and the only thing I see different from coal is the firewood burns quicker than in a regular wood stove! And I see more build up of creosote after burning season Even though I'm burning around 650 degrees continuely. Just trying to get some feedback on the hitzer stove and the use of firewood in it.

I am looking at building a new home and plan to heat almost entirely with Coal and maybe some wood

Some questions and a comment. I've read that if the power does go out these stoves can still throw quite a bit of heat. Is this true? What do you do with the ash? I guess the idea is to not let the fire run out. Re-starting seems to take quite a while. I'm in northeast Pa and have been thinking of getting a coal stove for the house.

Hi. Very good video. I also have a Hitzer 503 and I'm curious about you claim that 60lbs of coal (or a completely full stove) will burn for 2 1/2 days? Either you are burning the stove at very low BTU or I am doing something very wrong. If I want to produce any significant, useful heat I am going through a 40 LB bag ( of the very same coal you use Blaschak) in a 12 hour period....sometimes less sometimes more but on average we are going through 1 ton/month. We use this as our exclusive heat source...maybe that's the difference. I am curious as to what the major difference may be in what we are doing?

Hi, can I ask, you you use the "pea" sized anthracite? I want to learn to burn anthracite properly. I am based in the UK, and we have 3 sizes. Pea - the smallest, medium, which I have tried, and large. Thanks in advance.

do you fill up you stove to the top with coal for a very hot long burning fire

i wish i had anthracite but due to me having a antique coles hot blast with a bithomous gas buring tube i have been limited to bithimous to get the most out of it.

How does the storage hopper gravity feed more coal without the hopper catching on fire?

Even better, Ohio's winters are not "brutal".

I have a Hitzer 983 that I love. I live in the Rocky Mountain area and we simply can't get Anthracite coal at all out here, but Bituminous coal is plentiful. I pick it up at the mine for about $100 for a truck full of loose coal. I made a huge bin that holds four truckloads of coal, enough for two winters. It has a little bit more black in the smoke but is still less noticeable than a wood stove would be. This is mine. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MKRXi_wSV_g.html

What size is your anthracite?

How much do those bags of coal cost you, and how long does each bag last?

Just be sure your wood/coal burner is not meant for Bituminous ... or soft coal. Anthracite burns hotter than Bituminous. Burning hard coal in a stove meant for wood or soft coal can be dangerous.

You call northern Ohio's winters brutal? Try Michigan...

Really good video! I just moved to a cabin in the mountains in PA and heat with an old Vigilant 2. I just started making some videos myself, so if you want to see how to rebuild a Vigilant or something similar check out my channel! I'm in the process of making a how-to burn coal video myself, I hope it comes out as good as yours. Your stove looks a good bit more modern!

I have been told that you shouldn't burn wood and coal together ?

ohio winters your funny , iam 7200 elevation in wyoming -40 is normal here

...Try Alaska

whats hard about lighting a fire , not having ago at you only , hundreds of video about this , theres nothing hard , paper , a bit of cardboard and then thin strips of wood and finally coal , not a problem , roaring fire in 5 minutes

your name is not Joe