I love the smell and everything of coal, but hate all the hassles of working with it. Storage and all that mess everyone else mentioned. I used coal for about 1 yr. then i switched to propane. I like propane a heck of a lot better. Just light it and go. I found one thing that was kind of in between propane and coal, and its called "Cowboy Charcoal". Its sold at lowes, and its that old style charcoal. Its about $6 for one of the bags, and the bags would last me about 3 hrs. at welding heat. It would probably last longer with a hand crank blower or a small electric blower, but i had neither so i used a leaf blower. Big hole in the bottom of my coal forge from that, but thats a different story.