I've got some unnamed hunk of iron stove that came with my house, I moved in last summer and I'm looking to replace it for next season. Anyhow, that's a different thread. This question is about the ash pan. The piece I have now has no pan, I just shovel the ashes out when I feel like it, or when it just gets too full. When I was a kid, we had a wonderful, antiquated Royal that had a huge ashpan. It seems like it would be every three days that my grandfather would balance it against his hip and tote it out to the field to dump. Huge capacity, never any hurry to empty it. Without an ashpan, I have to let the fire get down pretty low, or go out in order to remove the ashes. Sure, I can scrape around and leave some coals to fire it back up, but it's nothing like the convenience of that big ashpan we had when I was a kid.
In my contemplations of a new stove, I've noticed all the ashpans look so dainty and small in the online pics. Are they a demanding inconvenience? Do they insist upon being emptied daily during the dead of winter with hardcore burning going on? Do they have to be carried to the dumpsite, or do they empty into an ashcan easy enough? I've so far heavily considered (but no committments until July or Sept) the Pleasant Hearth 1800 and 2200 sq ft, and the Englander 13s and 30s. Should I go for the pan, or opt to scoop? What if the stove I want has an ashpan? There's no way to bypass that in favor of scooping, is there?
In my contemplations of a new stove, I've noticed all the ashpans look so dainty and small in the online pics. Are they a demanding inconvenience? Do they insist upon being emptied daily during the dead of winter with hardcore burning going on? Do they have to be carried to the dumpsite, or do they empty into an ashcan easy enough? I've so far heavily considered (but no committments until July or Sept) the Pleasant Hearth 1800 and 2200 sq ft, and the Englander 13s and 30s. Should I go for the pan, or opt to scoop? What if the stove I want has an ashpan? There's no way to bypass that in favor of scooping, is there?