Can you burn normal house coal in a multifuel stove?

Or should you stick to smokeless?

Also, although smokeless is more expensive, does it work cheaper/the same as it is more efficent?

We use normal coal as we really struggled to get smokeless to stay alight through the night. And always seemed to need the draught open during the day so you could see a nice shimmer of heat going out of the chimney instead of staying in the stove.

We use Scottish doubles which works out good value at about £11 for 50kgs and combine it with hardwood and softwood from windows (my Dad is a double glazer)

do you live in a smoke control area?

if so you’re not supposed to use normal coal (unless you have a DEFRA exempt stove)

i prefer it to smokeless though.

NO NO NO! Normal coal burns much hotter than smokeless nuggets and can damage your stove, i.e MELT it!

I will post a pic on here tomorrow but I spent Friday evening at a neighbour’s house helping her deal with the consequences of a chimney fire while burning coal. The cast iron baffle plate in her Dovre 250 has melted, burned through and collapsed into the grate and I had a real struggle removing it. The whole stove was clogged with brown ash dust, which I realised was burned soot. She had started by complaining that she couldn’t control the stove and I explained that in a flue fire the updraft is massive and it was this, which caused the coal to burn so hot and melt the baffle. Her flue is lined and I couldn’t find any traces of melted metal but nonetheless I told her to get it swept and inspected urgently. The new baffle and two liner bricks are going to cost her £200, an expensive mistake.

globalti – Thats very interesting info.

But surely this was only a problem because her chimney was dirty and she suffered a chimney fire, which caused the massive updraft and made the fire so hot.

Surely under normal conditions the coal cannot get hot enough to melt the stove?

from google:

Bituminous Coal, commonly called “Lump Coal” or “House Coal” is not suitable for multi-fuel stoves and it’s use would probably invalidate the stove’s warranty. It burns with long flames which pass around the throat plate and play directly on the unprotected top of the stove with the likely result of a burned out throat plate and/or cracked top plate. Bituminous coal also creates high volumes of soot which can block the throat plate and flue, causing fumes to be emitted into the room with potentially fatal results.

You get loads more heat from smokey coal compared to smokeless. Balls to the regulations, all stoves are efficient. Its not melted my stove yet. Stoves have a certain life expectancy, I suspect that will be reduced by the intense heat you can achieve with good coal compared to log burning. Smokeless coal is a waste of time ime. I burn wood and when that runs out I burn good coal.

theendisnigh – Member
You get loads more heat from smokey coal compared to smokeless. Balls to the regulations, all stoves are efficient. Its not melted my stove yet. Stoves have a certain life expectancy, I suspect that will be reduced by the intense heat you can achieve with good coal compared to log burning. Smokeless coal is a waste of time ime. I burn wood and when that runs out I burn good coal.

Same as him. I’ve been burning pallets and house coal for the last 5 years in my cheaply purchased from Ebay stove. (from a stove supplier in Scotland) My house is yet to set itself on fire nor has my stove melted into a pile of goo.

10 years burning house coal on our no brand stove and no issues

My stove instructions warn of a potential problem with coal. If the ash is left to build up to the level of the firebars they can overheat. This might be part of the problem globalti reported.

If you burn enough coal hot enough (i.e. plenty of air from beneath) you can certianly damage your stove by either melting the baffle or warping the sides to the point that they no longer seal and you can’t control the burn as air gets sucked in all over the place – this is mainly a problem with cast iron stoves rather than welded steel stoves and therefore do not open up.
My fitter told me that you should only burn wood or grade A coal. Most smokeless coal is now treated with an agent that helps it to light and. Abuses damage to flexible liners. This is a shame as I like burning a small amount of smokeless along with the wood but won’t take the risk with the the liner.