Ash Pan/No Ash Pan? To Scoop or Let Drop?

Woody Stover said:

That link worked fine for me, Dennis.
My door only opens to 90*, then it hits the fireplace front wall. My shovel is the normal size but I want to be able to shovel with my right hand and then spin the shovel and dump with the (short, cut-off) handle pointing out into the room (shovel would be parallel with the door side of the stove.) I'm going to fashion a simple pan that is about level in height with the bottom of the door opening. I think that will work well...and I can save $102. The Ash Dragon looks good; Scoops 'em inside the stove which would make it easy to avoid any flying ash. Only problem is, it costs money too. :lol: Another thing I don't like about shoveling is that you might be able to push most of the coals out of the way but you always get some glowing chunks in the pan. With the Keystone's ash pan the only thing you remove is cold ash. All the coals burn up in the stove since they can't drop through the grate until they are quite small. I don't like throwing even a few BTUs out. To me, the Fireview would be the perfect stove with an ash pan and big glass...
Life is as baffling to me now as it was when I was a boy. Growing older didn't help me figure anything else out, and emptying ashes is no exception. :lol:

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Ash pans work great if you have an open grate stove but I think pulling a plug and funneling ashes through a 2.5"x2.5" hole just stinks in my opinion.

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Backwoods Savage said:

False statement Very untrue. It is very possible to empty ashes without making dust fly all over the place.


Just remember that when you handle ashes, you must handle them as if they are the most fragile thing you own. Move slowly and never, never, never dump the ashes off the ash shovel. Gently....very gently, lower the shovel into the ash container and then rather than sliding the ashes off the shovel, slide the shovel out from under the ashes. Result? No ash dust.

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firefighterjake said:

I think ash pan vs. no-ash pan often comes down to two deciding factors: if you've used them in the past and if the ones you've used in the past or present is a decent sized one.

I personally like the ash pan in my Oslo . . . when I'm burning 24/7 in the winter I dump it about every three days. This time of year with just morning and evening fires I'm dumping it once a week or so.

I guess if I was to look at another stove I would see the size of the ash pan . . . and see how convenient it is . . . having heard about some stoves where you have to remove a plug in the base to push the ash into the ash pan . . . well that just seems darn inconvenient.

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