I know this is an age old debate 🙂

We have a charnwood country 4 stove minus the optional coal burning (expensive grate/ash pad) kit. We are also in possession of a good quantity of slightly damp wood..

Bet you can’t see where this is going!

As the mutlifuel version of our stove is the same in all respects minus the grate ashpan combo, am I going to melt the stove and set fire to the house by adding a wee bit of coal on top of the ash bed?

Find the damp wood somewhere to dry

Find new quantity of dry wood

Sticking coals on an ash bed will be fine ime .. How ever burning damp wood will do more harm than the coals.

Don’t do it, do as trail rat says.

You saw this pic of the baffle plate of a Dovre 250 after a chimney fire with coal in the grate?

Aye but do you have a picture of it after a chimney fire with wood in the grate

A chimney fire with tofu in the grate wouldnt be ideal either , the connecting link is chimney fire not what was being burnt

Burning wet wood puts you at a higher risk of a chimney fire….

Yeeeeesss….. true, except that burning coal and never having the chimney swept was what caused that fire.

Burning damp wood and never having chimney swept same problem.

So moral of the story is – sweep your chimney, burn hot and clean , dont burn damp wood.

We had a Charnwood wood burner in a house in Barra. No trees on the island and no supply of timber so all we could burn was coal. Got through a fair bit of coal and burnt out a set of window seals every winter but no problems otherwise. Quite miss toasting my feet in front of it actually.

The grate is to allow an air supply from beneath the fuel which is what coal needs/likes (wood burns better with the air supply from above so it doesn’t really need a grate) – you’ll be OK burning the coal but don’t put a lot in.
Put some logs by the stove to help them dry out.

Thanks all.

Realise I need to dry out the wood for next winter, was kind of hoping not to need to buy in any this winter. Especially since brought in wood is probably quite likely to be less seasoned than it should at this time of the year.. The wood has been stored in our lean too which has turned out to be rather damp, i guess surface mold on the wood isn’t ideal?!
Might try getting a moisture meter t see how damp it actually is.

Good call with logs at the side of the stove Sharkbait!

A place near us sells kiln-dried logs, by the pallet.

Globalti why do you keep putting that pic up and saying it was caused by burning coal?.

It was caused by burning unseasoned wood with coal which combined with not having the chimney sweep caused a chimney fire.

Burning anthracite or smokeless in a multifuel stove is safe.

She wasn’t burning wood, she was burning just coal alone in her multi-fuel. It burns yellow and smokey anyway so would have made the chimney fire even more inevitable. When the stove ran away with itself she said it was roaring and white hot and couldn’t be turned down. I’ve never tried it but I guess a smokeless nugget like Pureheat just won’t go that hot.

Anyway I’ll stop posting it now.

Smokeless is still hot but in the bumf that comes with a new stove it quite clearly states not to burn house coal (which I guess she was burning)

just found this

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.

from here

http://www.eco-flame.co.uk/stoves_faq.asp

You should have a word with her and get her to get some smokeless fuel