We tend to burn just wood, but every now and then we will get some smokeless coal in and getting it going really hot to clean out the carbon from the flume. I like the fan, and think it does push the heat around a bit better, but it took me quite a while to find a fan which would fit in the small gap which we have.Very nice Dave, do you burn both coal and wood..? That fan is a great idea sitting on the top, we got one also for ours.