How to start a Coal Stove Fire

Knowing how to start a coal stove fire will be extremely useful for the coal stove owners, but even if you don't have one, it may come in handy later one winter night when you're camping, skiing, or tramping and stuck in a cabin with no electricity, but only a coal stove. Starting fire in a coal stove is not as trivial as in a wood stove. Coal is much denser than wood, so it will take much hotter fire to ignite it initially (about 920°F or 500°C). And now here is how to start a coal stove fire:

Use a couple of sheets of paper, loosely crumbled and covered with dry kindling on the top. Have your kindling criss-crossed to let the air in. Have your draft control and the flue damper fully open – more air will help for coal burning. After everything is set, light the paper inside and close the loading door.

After a few minutes, when the fire builds up, start adding small pieces of hardwood. Still keep the draft control fully open to provide good airflow and establish hot fire.

When a decent bed of red wood coals is built up, start adding small amounts of coal. Do not put too much coal at one go; give enough time between loads to let the coal thoroughly ignite. Continue adding small loads of coal until you build a 1" to 2" (3-5 cm) bed of burning coal.

If you have a deep bed of burning coal, you can fully load your stove to the highest level possible. You can turn down the draft control to the proper operating level when all coal is ignited. By this time, you should have nice and hot fire in your stove.

Coal stoves have been around for centuries, but what our fathers and grandfathers could do with their eyes closed, we may either have very little idea about or just fail easily. But now as you know how to start a coal stove fire, there is one thing less to learn in your life. You can see current listings for coal stoves here.