What are people using to clean out ashes?

A shovel and a bucket with a cover. I hope someone chimes in because I have wondered about the "Ash Vaccums" and if they cut down on the dust in the house when cleaning out the ash.

I'm using a galvanized bucket and a metal shovel. The ashes go in a pile in the burn barrel to cool off for a week or so. Seems to work well.

I too have wondered about the metal ash vacuums but I can't justify spending $100 on one.

I clean out ashes with a fire place set shovel, into a coal shuttle pail, into a 10 gal galvanised covered trash can. I brush out a cool stove with a long handle bottle cleaner brush. Loose ash on hearth is swept into a old metal dust pan. The floor is kept ash free with a Rain Bow Vacuum.

I can go all year without cleaning ashes :ducks and runs for cover:

I pull my ash pans and empty them into the bucket.
I LOVE my ashpans

I have a bucket that fits inside the stove and the draft draws any ash up the chimney. Ash particulate is not good to have in your house, gets pretty far in your lungs.

I use an ash vacuum to clean out my pellet stove. No muss. No fuss. I've heard of people getting seriously injured by their spouses when they use methods such as shovels, brooms, and the like.

babalu87 said:

I pull my ash pans and empty them into the bucket.
I LOVE my ashpans

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Yeah, I think the Morsos are the easiest stove I've encountered for ash disposal. I'll miss that when I switch to the Quad next year... :tears:

My Morso has an ash pan as well. To get the ashes out of the firebox I use a 4" metal putty knife. Of course I only empty when the stove is cool.

Kevin, how is the 7110 doing? I don't recall seeing any reports from you on it. Morso partisans want to know!

Small metal shovel into an old coal bucket, brush any spilled ash into the bucket with a small broom, close the door and vac up any dust with the Orek. The ashes in the coal bucket then get dumped in one of several locations in the yard, depending on the snow cover and weather.

Yep, ash shovel then into a proper ash can. Best advice I have is to turn off the fans in the room before going after those ashes. My ceiling fan coupled with the box fan on the floor made quite the ash cloud the first time I emptied the stove.

-Kevin

Ash can ~ 5 gallon, that I scoop into with a small shovel from the area around the door. I try not to get to many coals, but do get some. I then use a coal rake to pull as much of the coals and ashes from the rest of the stove floor to the area around the door (most of the rest of the stove floor is predominantly coals) I keep a lid on the can, with the can sitting on the hearth. I really OUGHT to dump it every time, but that means an extra trip outside, so I don't bother - experimental evidence suggests that 90% of what is in it goes out within 20 minutes or so anyways.

Outside I have two 20 gallon galvy garbage cans (with lids) that I rotate - when the second one gets filled I empty the first, etc.

When I'm working with the ashes I wear a dust-mask / respirator to minimize the ash inhalation - given the amount of facial hair I have the seal is probably not perfect (OSHA would never approve) but it's better than nothing.

Unless the stove is STONE COLD (as in out for at least several days) I would not use a vaccum cleaner of any sort - if you have any kind of embers, a vaccum is basically a forced draft system, and will quickly turn into a flame thrower - :gulp:

The bottom line is to get the ashes outside according to whatever works best with your stove, and to treat them as potentially hazardous fire sources for at least a week after removing them from the stove. This means that anything the ashes touch, get put into, or transported with, should be made of fireproof material designed to prevent spills.

Gooserider

precaud said:

babalu87 said:

I pull my ash pans and empty them into the bucket.
I LOVE my ashpans

Click to expand...

Yeah, I think the Morsos are the easiest stove I've encountered for ash disposal. I'll miss that when I switch to the Quad next year... :tears:

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Why are you changing brands?

Dang commie pinko ;-P

babalu87 said:

Why are you changing brands?

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Unanticipated consequences of insulating the ceiling. The boiler hardly ever comes on now, which means the basement is colder, which means the floor is colder. I'll need something with just a bit more btus. But I had to wait until next year so I can cut/split wood the proper size for the Quad.

PLus... MSG would be pissed at me if I put him through all the grief I did and didn't use the thing!

Dang commie pinko ;-P

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Yeah, sux, eh? But I'm not getting rid of it.. either it or the little Jotul will go in the basement once I figure out where to put a chimney...

burntime said:

A shovel and a bucket with a cover. I hope someone chimes in because I have wondered about the "Ash Vaccums" and if they cut down on the dust in the house when cleaning out the ash.

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i use a "loveless " ash vac on the pellet stove , works very well , literally no ash, just what falls off the door , i still use the shovel and bucket for the woodstove ,but only because when i run wood and remove ash there are still likely hot coals in it , the vac can handle the occasional spark , but embers of size are a different matter, especially when there are likely a few pellets in the vac from cleaning out the pellet stove , my opinion ,. with a pellet stove , its a graet tool, less so with wood for above mentioned reasons, hope this helps


mike esw

I also have a Fireview, and I got the Pilgrim ash pan that they suggest - it lines up pretty nice with the door. Since I burn 24x7, I'm almost always removing ashes when hot. So, I bypass the cat and open the air intake 100% - this creates a strong draft. I then open the door with the ash pan lip tucked under the lip of the door. I also leave the ashpan lid down - it rests on the opening and is only about 20-30% open in this position, and the opening faces right into the door draft. I also have a set of short handle woodstove tools from Northline express - I use the shovel to scoop up ash, then lift the lid just enough to tuck the ash under, and then close it again. This method helps contain the ash very well - any stray floating ash gets sucked up by the chimney draft.

You'll only have to do it once every 10 days or so which makes it pretty easy.

-Colin

I've discovered that if I keep a vacuum hose over my ash can as I'm shoveling ashes into it I can catch the litte cloud of dust that rises up and prevent it from getting into the air.