Love our Englander 17. Its size, design and performance are perfect for us. It is, however, a smaller stove. It thankfully does not have an ash drawer as I've always found them clumsy and messy. so the ash collects in the bottom of the firebox. Being a small stove it doesn't take too long for the ash level to require emptying--every day or two. Except for the coldest days around here we usually keep it fired up all day and let it burn out over night, firing up again the next morning. The problem was upon getting up at 7am to fire the stove back up, which in itself I don't mind, it often required ash disposal. So out I would go into the yard PJ's, bathrobe and scarf, bring in cold, wet and heavy ash disposal bin into the house, empty the stove ash then take the ash bin back outside. Definitely a pain. It dawned on me to try using one of those metal cans that popcorn comes in at Christmastime with a secure lid and keep it by the stove . Morning comes, I empty the ash into the can, put air- tight lid on, have a nice box to begin my stove again and wait until later in the day when I'm awake and dressed to take can out back to the ash container. It also serves me well during burning as ash and dirt collect on the hearth. Not knowing what to do with it I used to open the door of a burning stove throw it in and disrupt the cycle, now I add it to the little bin, safely collect it and have a tidy hearth area. The tin I use is one of the smaller ones, fits perfectly and won't hold so much that I'll be tempted to let it sit around too long. Read a nice hint on here as well to spray the ash with a water mister to keep down ash dust during disposal Some thing along these lines may be a nobrainer for some, but it takes me a while sometimes to catch on.
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