When you talk to any coal dealer when buying the coal for your coal stove getting one lit can be quite difficult. Also to ensure that yours keeps providing heat constantly there are lots of things that you will need to do. What you will find if you don't look after your coal stove properly after lighting it will soon go out.

In this article we offer a few tips on how to get a coal stove fire started along with some other tips you may find useful when it comes to getting yours started.

1. It is important that the kindling and paper use to help get a fire started in your coal stove is completely dry. Only when you have got these lit well and burning hot should you then start to add a few pieces of hardwood to the fire.

2. During this stage of lighting your coal stove it is important that the draft control point (usually found at the base) is kept fully open. This will allow the fire inside the stove to get established and for it to reach the right temperatures. Once the wood has been added allow a good bed of embers to be produced from it and then you can start to add small amounts of coal to the stove.

3. Gradually you need to add more small amounts of coal to the stove until you have a layer of around 1 to 2 inches of coal that is burning. Never add too much coal at any one time when lighting your stove and always allow that which you have added sufficient time to completely ignite before you add some more.

4. It is crucial that you fill the stove up with coal to the highest point that you can as the deeper the bed of coal in it then better it will function. However, just because there is lots of coal in the stove does not mean it has to run continuously at high temperatures you can easily regulate by reducing the amount of air that is allowed to flow in to it.

5. Finally you need to remember that during the initial stages of lighting your coal stove the draft control door needs to remain fully open until the coal is well light and blue flames are being produced. But once this has happened then it can be closed slightly or altogether depending on the amount of heat you want your stove to produce and never leave fully open as it will damage the inside of the stove over time. Plus the ash pan door which will be situated at the very base of your coal stove must remain closed until you need to take it out and remove the ash that has built up in it.

As mentioned previously a coal dealer will tell you that getting your coal stove started initially is going to be difficult. But if you follow the steps we have provided above then you should find it much easier. One last thing when it comes to lighting a coal stove never attempt this until the temperature outside has fallen below 55 degrees on a daily basis for several days. This is because the chimney cannot actually develop enough draft.