Do you hate your Ash Pan + Poll

[BIGDADDY]

I like the ash pan on my Defiant.

 

[milleo]

I like my ash pan on my F3 and wouldn't have it any other way, I think it is very easy to empty ashes in this way.

 

[chipsoflyin]

i love the ash pan on the PH. Empty once a week tops. no dust in the house, made my loveless ash vac obsolete

 

[Huntindog1]

4th season on the NC-30, and the stove as not seen ash, in the ash pan. Instead, I filled the void were the ash plug was with a fire brick and some furnace cement.

If it's shoulder season, and I don't need a full load of wood, I let the ash build up quite a bit. But, if it's time for the black beast to make some heat, I just use the ash rake, and push almost everything to the back 1/2 of the wood stove, then use the rake to pull what coals are in there to the front of the stove, then shovel however much of the ash I want to remove out from the back of the stove, reload, and carry on.

pen

Everyone should take note of this posting by Pen as it high lights an important aspect of dealing with the ash bed.

As when you open your stove and look at the ash its all fluffed up and looks like more than it really is. I would suggest also to push the ashes back to the back half with your ash rake this de- fluffs (compresses) the ash and you usually can just rake it back out as there wasnt all that much there to begin with, or if your wanting to rake your hot coals forward pushing the ashes back kind of exposes the bigger hotter coals, and leaves the ash in the back to scoop out.

For all you first year wood burners, this is an Ash Rake , I found this pic on another posting:

 

[Huntindog1]

One aspect of the Ash Pan that works for me is that when dropping the ashes thru the hole in the floor of the stove, ash dust is taken care of for me. If the stove is warm or even if its not warm there is draft sucking air up the flue. This is like a convenient vacuum cleaner for me catching the ash dust that takes flight and whisking it up the flue for me and keeping it from coming out into the room.

 

[Pallet Pete]

My problem is the size of the compartment it allows the ash to build much higher than the ash pan. This can be done very very easily because of the size of the stove Jotul F50 is. When you go to pull it out ash goes everywhere and it is impossible to not do that if you do not empty when it is level. It is very hard to see when it is full u less you look through the top load door with a flashlight which just annoys me. The other major issue is if you do not get the ashes out of the back of the ash pan compartment it will not let the pan go back in all the way. The effect of this is the ash door will not shut all the way causing it to let air in to the fire which allows it to burn freely and out of controll. Honestly the stove is a awesome well designed stove and works great I just should not have got the ash pan. Hunt dog I have looked at your style of stove and I think it would work better for me and I probably would like that pan but I have scooped for years and it does not bother me so I will just continue. I like your post it is very informative and I would not trade my ash rake for the world !

Pete

 

[barn burner]

If the stove is warm or even if its not warm there is draft sucking air up the flue. This is like a convenient vacuum cleaner for me catching the ash dust that takes flight and whisking it up the flue for me and keeping it from coming out into the room.

Same here on my stove. I just move the coals, open the plug, rake the ash and any dust gets sucked up the flue. My first year of burning, I didn't use the ash pan. The shovel and bucket worked fine just had to be gentle. I guess I'm one of the few who likes their ash pan.

 

[clemsonfor]

Never used mine. Infact the makers of it no longer put one into it!!

Its useless, I would ahve to rake the coals all around all while trying to get ash into it, then pull it out to dump it?? Its way easier for me to pull the coals to the front that i want then just shovel the ash outt the back. Or if its cool just to shovel it out anyway instead of pushing them all into an undersized ash drawer.

 

[Woody Stover]

My problem is the size of the compartment it allows the ash to build much higher than the ash pan. This can be done very very easily because of the size of the stove Jotul F50 is. When you go to pull it out ash goes everywhere and it is impossible to not do that if you do not empty when it is level. It is very hard to see when it is full u less you look through the top load door with a flashlight which just annoys me. The other major issue is if you do not get the ashes out of the back of the ash pan compartment it will not let the pan go back in all the way.

I see. I had to pull the pan every three days on the Keystone. If I thought I had waited too long, I could open the ash door and see with a flashlight if it was too full. If so, I had enough room to slip a poker in there and settle the ashes, Huntingdog style. I never had a problem with ash spilling over and blocking the pan from going back in. When the pan works right, it's great, but apparently in a lot of cases they leave something to be desired...

 

[vixster]

I don't use it, I feel it's more effort than worth. I'm concerned it wont shut properly, that something will lodge in the grate and be stuck then I would have to fiddle with it.

 

[tfdchief]

No, I don't have one on either of my stoves. It was an option on the Hampton but I didn't want it. Cleaning ashes from the stove never seemed that big a deal to me. I do pretty much what Pen describes.

 

[vixster]

What I don't get is that once you pull out an ash pan filled with ashes, it's more difficult to put into the ASH CAN without making a mess. Shoveling seems to make is less messy..

 

[BrowningBAR]

What I don't get is that once you pull out an ash pan filled with ashes, it's more difficult to put into the ASH CAN without making a mess. Shoveling seems to make is less messy..

I just take the ash pan outside and dump the ashes onto my ash pile. Then I water it down to be sure to eliminate any hot coals that may still exist.

 

[firefighterjake]

Love 'em or hate 'em . . . depends on the design, size, your dumping technique and honestly in no small part what your first stove may have been like.

I've always had ash pans . . . well on all three stoves I owned . . . and all of them worked pretty well with a grate system that allowed the ash to fall down through to the ash pan which was generously sized.

Dumping technique for me is to dump in the a.m. before reloading the stove . . . typically I use a shovel to push the hot coals out of the way and knock more of the ash down into the pan . . . I then open the ash pan door and give it a vigorous shake (without pulling it very far out of the ash pan box) back and forth a few times to even out the ash in the pan. The ash pan is then brought outside and dumped into my ash can . . . I typically make sure to stay upwind. Some ash gets spilled to the side of the ash can, but it's no big deal as it is on a non-combustible surface and I take care of this in the Spring time.

 

[Todd]

I wish my BK had a decent ash pan like my Keystone, I hate shoveling ash, it always makes a mess.

 

[BrotherBart]

My old stove had a grate and a large ash pan. Didn't use it. My 30-NC has no grate and a small ash pan. I don't use it.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

The fireview is the first stove we've had without an ash pan and although we were a bit concerned at first, we love it. We had a PH on order and ordered it without the ash pan. I am surprised at how many want the ash pan.

As for those poor souls who can't seem to handle ashes without making a mess, I feel for them but it is their own fault. It is extremely easy to handle ashes without making a mess or having dust all over the place.

 

[jotul8e2]

My problem is the size of the compartment it allows the ash to build much higher than the ash pan. This can be done very very easily because of the size of the stove Jotul F50 is. When you go to pull it out ash goes everywhere and it is impossible to not do that if you do not empty when it is level. It is very hard to see when it is full u less you look through the top load door with a flashlight which just annoys me. The other major issue is if you do not get the ashes out of the back of the ash pan compartment it will not let the pan go back in all the way. Pete

Same with the Oslo. If I wait too long the ashes will rake off the top at the opening and fall back. Sometimes some spill out onto the hearth (oh, the humanity!). And yes, if you ignore them they will keep the door from closing. My fireplace tools include a shovel and a brush. One, two, three, four passes with the shovel and the compartment is empty - a few seconds. Pick up and dump the entire contents into a 30 gal. ash can (standing upwind!), return the pan and taking the same shovel use the brush to sweep the hearth - another 20 or 30 seconds. If company is coming, I clean up the tile a bit more with a damp rag. This is quick, and keeps all the dust to a very small area of the hearth.

Now, stoves are different, hearths are different. The F-50 has a large front opening which would make shoveling far easier than through the little side door of my Oslo (as to why you never open the front door of an Oslo, see older posts). But in my case, the alternative is to poke around with some kind of rake, try and separate the ash from the coals (the ones at the back are two feet away from the opening), empty the ashes one shovelful at a time into a bucket, carry it out and dump it into an ash can, come back and clean up the spilled ashes around the door, and hope my wife never notices the cloud of ash I created settling on the furniture. Yes, I have done that (Hearthstone - nearly 25 years ago), and no, I do not want to ever again. I freely admit that most of you are likely more adroit than myself, but I was never able to shovel ashes without spilling a startling amount, and I always got dust in the air. That is one of the great things about freedom, for, although there is some bureaucrat even now likely working on a $100 million program to regulate the Removal and Disposal of Wood Ash, Frequency and Method Thereof, at present we can do it the way that is most convenient for us.

Finally, I do not think the Oslo, or at least mine, will tolerate a buildup of ash in the firebox. It appears to me that secondary combustion is weaker to non-existent when the pan gets full.

 

[Dieselbreath]

I never use the ash pan on my Regency.
Oh wait, I don't have one!

 

[DanCorcoran]

I just use mine to store my fireworks until the 4th of July.

 

[Slow1]

I had an ashpan in my first stove (VC Encore NC) and that was perhaps one of the few things I liked about the stove. Now, mind you with the FV I didn't actually miss having an ashpan much at all, but I can appreciate the value of one. Thus, I went ahead and ordered the PH with the ashpan. I saw the WS design for the PH ashpan and figured it was engineered well enough to do a good job. Time will tell I suppose, but I'm looking forward to seeing it in action - may be a few weeks before I first empty it though.

 

[raybonz]

It's not that I hate the ash pan in fact it's pretty decent on the T-5 it's just that I don't see any advantage in using it. Shoveling is easy to do and when my ash bin is full I dump it into a galvanized barrel outdoors. This is the dustiest part of dealing with ashes..

Ray

 

[chipsoflyin]

The fireview is the first stove we've had without an ash pan and although we were a bit concerned at first, we love it. We had a PH on order and ordered it without the ash pan. I am surprised at how many want the ash pan.

As for those poor souls who can't seem to handle ashes without making a mess, I feel for them but it is their own fault. It is extremely easy to handle ashes without making a mess or having dust all over the place.

Your arrogance is truly blinding

 

[raybonz]

Chip I don't see anything arrogant about that post..

Ray

 

[chipsoflyin]

Chip I don't see anything arrogant about that post..

Ray

2nd sentence was a direct attack on my previous post. My experience has been when shoveling out a hot stove there is always a plume.