How much ash have you made this season?

I guesstimate 15 to 20 Gallons, No more than 20, I just dump it in the woods or in the fire pit, Very small coals ever go in the bucket, And I leave at least an inch in the stove

I filled my 5 gallon bucket about 4 times since October. So 20 gallons or so... Actually, it's supposed to be pretty mild this weekend, so after this next cleaning I will say closer to 25 gallons.

2-30gallon cans and a 25 so 75 since about Sept. Lot of silver maple and such in shoulder time last fall. Hickory Oak and Rock Maple been the main stay for the last 3 mo.

I'm not really sure. We don't rely entirely on the stoves for heat. Both our stoves burn on a layer of ash and I remove the ash when it gets to door level and use one of those ash containers that has a hinged lid and the little feet that keep it out of contact with the floor. I dump that into a 20 gallon galvanized can that lives outdoors, on a bed of gravel (under the filon roof that covers the wood stack). I am a little paranoid about fire; every year there is a local story about improperly disposed of ashes resulting in tragedy. It was about 1/4 full at the beginning of the heating season and by the time I give the stoves their spring cleaning it'll probably be full. We spread the ashes on the lawns and in the gardens and mix some into the compost pile, too.

We burn mostly red maple, red oak, and lately some apple and red pine. I have long suspected that burning seasoned wood in an EPA stove cuts ash production dramatically.

smokedragon said:

Once a day, sometimes twice a day. The stove has about a 1/2" lip at the front, so they can't pile up very high or they come out of the stove.

Can't wait to get a new stove.......

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Very strange for me to hear this. I have a 30 yr old pre epa buck stove. I load it with 50 pounds of wood on really cold nights and probably only have to empty ashes every 15 days. Somebody else needs to chime in here. I think your cleaning too much. Some ash in the stove is a good thing. Makes it work easier.

I end up taking out roughly a half a bucket a week (black steel bucket with lid - you know the one...) with mostly ash and some small coals. Can't really say how much that is, but even if it were a gallon to gallon and a half each week, starting in November, - 22 weeks so far this year, prolly talking 22-34 gallons to date. It all goes into either the fire pit or a pile in the woods once it's cold. As others have said, I would prefer to toss a few coals and be able to get a really good fill. This year has been a little colder so I'm not burning down the coals as much every time.

It's also the wood that we split about 2 -3 years ago and was they year we decided to "go big or go home" on the split size. We figured it'll be seasoned for at least 2 years so all the big splits will season by then. In hindsight it was a bit of a dumbass move, now I've got lots of big splits and not a lot of little ones to fill in all the nooks and crannies when loading. So I've been finding on really cold days/nights, we'll re-load earlier which tends to leave a little more of the coals. Fortunately the next year we went back to just splitting like normal people, so next year will be maybe a little different.

Like some others, I have a smaller stove so throw out some coals with the ash. One of the reasons I am leaning hard on the new IS. I think I just started my 3rd 10 gal. pail. So that makes 2-10 gal + 2 20 gal. Burn a mix of elm, silver maple, HL, some pin oak, and a few others mixed in. Apple gets sold to smokers and getting a supply of mulberry, white oak and BL for the years to come.

I'm guessing 30-40 gallons. I also will be spreading it on the garden when winter is done. I clean out my stove once or twice a week, but I have a fairly large stove. I leave a bit of ash in the stove during burning season.

I would say I have successfully reduce 4 cords of wood to about 30 gallons of ash.

tsquini said:

I would say I have successfully reduce 4 cords of wood to about 30 gallons of ash.

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Amazing isn't it when you look at it that way.

Flatbedford said:

Amazing isn't it when you look at it that way.

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It is. I have so much more room.

About 30 galls here. Burnt a lot of black walnut.
Thats from about 3.3 cords.

KB007 said:

It's also the wood that we split about 2 -3 years ago and was they year we decided to "go big or go home" on the split size. We figured it'll be seasoned for at least 2 years so all the big splits will season by then. In hindsight it was a bit of a dumbass move, now I've got lots of big splits and not a lot of little ones to fill in all the nooks and crannies when loading.

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How big were those huge splits that were too big?

My ashes go straight to the driveway or garden area. We have an icy-steep-hill-of-doom for a driveway. 12% grade on a series of curves. Without the ashes, there's no way I'd get up and down it in one piece. I estimate I've probably filled our 3 gallon ash bucket 9-12 times this winter.

If you use the warm ashes to melt snow, DO NOT use it on a wooden porch. Seems like a "duh!" thing, but my aunt's house burned down when she did this. She'd done it for years, so I guess she thought it was safe.

fire_man said:

How big were those huge splits that were too big?

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We were splitting large rounds in 4 rather than 6 or 9. Large being anything over 12" diameter. The rest were all split in half. So some pretty big splits. Problem was not having any small pieces to fill up the nooks once I get 2-4 big ones in NS. Kind of a waste of firebox space.

I dump my ash drawer once a day in my backyard fireplace pit, usually in the morning when ashes are cold, and in spring I transfer all those ashes to a area in my yard that needs fill. Plan on putting about 10 inches of top soil on top of those ashes.

I haven't measured but I bet I get a good gallon of ash from that drawer every day. 7 months of burning 7 days a week = about 210 gallons of ash.

I burn oak slab wood and my saw mill recently got a debarker so I am creating less ash so that's good. Lot cleaner cutting too, easier on the chain saw, with no bark to collect dirt.

Recently, in my area, a garbage trucks load/contents caught fire while parked at its terminal. Never heard of a reason but maybe somebody had hot ashes in their garbage.

This is probably common knowledge but if you routinely leave hot ashes accumulate on top of your grates, that practice will burn up your grates. (ask me how I know).
I have a 3-piece grate in my Johnson Energy stove and replacements cost $100 EACH. My Johnson grates are ok, but on previous stoves, I have burned up a few grates by leaving ash accumulate in stove to aid in restarting, etc.

I notice that the longer the ash stays in the stove the smaller and more compact the ash gets. This affects the volume of ash you remove from a stove, so the guys with big stoves that leave ash in the stove a while probably don't get as many gallons of ash from the same wood, even though they must get the same weight.

Excellent point from Coaly about ashes "sweetening" acidic soil. I will add that if you like moss and make an effort to cultivate it (as I do) keep the ash dispersal well away from the area it has colonized!

(New Englander with very acid soil. But we happen to love the hardy native plants and they prefer acid soil. We use ashes on the lawn areas and in the perennial beds and the vegetable garden. We disperse ashes periodically over the growing season as they leach into the soil pretty quickly)

I've burned 3 cords and I've only dumped 15 gallons of ash so far. I always leave a couple of inches of ash in the insert - it burns better that way. I just keep pushing the ash back away from the air duct in the front and keep throwing wood in. I go over a month without removing ash. When I do scoop it out, it is just dense ash and there is no charcoal - it is all burned away.

I burned a lot of pine this year too. If I just burn oak I get less ash.