1 ton per full ash pan.?

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The castile has a teeny weeney ash hopper...I maybe get 5-6 bags into the stove before its full....same with pretty well every pellet I've tried.
 
I'm burning "wood pellet co" pellets fills my ash pan every two weeks of steady burning
 
SidecarFlip said:
A word of caution to everyone on ash pan dumping. Don't dump your ashes in the garden and expect them to be a nutrient. They ain't unless you intensively till them in. Found that out 2 years ago, my beans refused to grow in soil that I had dumped the ash pan in. Now I just toss it in the gravel driveway and call it good.
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I don't have green thumbs and am the first to admit it. My wife is the gardener and she bolsters up her gardens ritualistically and has told me to dump the ash in the raised beds. But not coal ash . But then again this year she killed all her beds vegetation but a few plants. Thought she was spraying bug killer but it was Roundup, OOOPs!
 
alternativeheat said:
I don't have green thumbs and am the first to admit it. My wife is the gardener and she bolsters up her gardens ritualistically and has told me to dump the ash in the raised beds. But not coal ash . But then again this year she killed all her beds vegetation but a few plants. Thought she was spraying bug killer but it was Roundup, OOOPs!
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Kewl.....

I'm a farmer by vocation so even though I never tested the Ph of the soil in the garden (I grow the garden too), I suspect the ashes are mildly to essentially acidic in nature. If I limed the garden to neutralize the Ph to about 7, that would have probably negated the impact of the ash pan dumps. I didn't

I've since refrained from dumping them in the garden, besides, the driveway is closer.
 
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SidecarFlip said:
Kewl.....

I'm a farmer by vocation so even though I never tested the Ph of the soil in the garden (I grow the garden too), I suspect the ashes are mildly to essentially acidic in nature. If I limed the garden to neutralize the Ph to about 7, that would have probably negated the impact of the ash pan dumps. I didn't

I've since refrained from dumping them in the garden, besides, the driveway is closer.
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I get all that ! She says with all the earthworms she has in her gardens that she doesn't feel she has an acid issue. And she says she is not poo pooing your concerns but she says she doesn't know many people who have ten ft tomato plants. On the other hand I'm saying she never could grow corn to save her life !!
 
About twenty bags or so. Assorted brands for testing etc.
 

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alternativeheat said:
I get all that ! She says with all the earthworms she has in her gardens that she doesn't feel she has an acid issue. And she says she is not poo pooing your concerns but she says she doesn't know many people who have ten ft tomato plants. On the other hand I'm saying she never could grow corn to save her life !!
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Not big into 'maters here. I prefer growing what I like to eat (and my wife), Cabbage for sauerkraut, green peppers to stuff, sweet corn for the freezer and lots of potatoes and onions for Venison roast garnishes..... and some green beans.
Have her get a Gurney's catalog and order some Ambrosha seed for sweet corn. I guarantee you'll both love it and it's easy to grow.

Grudgingly, I grew a couple 'mater plants last year and the wife canned a bunch of home brew spaghetti sauce. Pretty good actually.

You can't eat field corn. Too tough and bitter.
 
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SidecarFlip said:
Not big into 'maters here. I prefer growing what I like to eat (and my wife), Cabbage for sauerkraut, green peppers to stuff, sweet corn for the freezer and lots of potatoes and onions for Venison roast garnishes..... and some green beans.
Have her get a Gurney's catalog and order some Ambrosha seed for sweet corn. I guarantee you'll both love it and it's easy to grow.

Grudgingly, I grew a couple 'mater plants last year and the wife canned a bunch of home brew spaghetti sauce. Pretty good actually.

You can't eat field corn. Too tough and bitter.
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She grows jalapeno peppers for me, bell peppers for us both, sweet banana peppers, potatoes, zucchini , summer squash, kale , lettuce, swish chard and winter squash, green beans, yellow beans. Then various herbs. onions every other year. Lot's of flowers.

Me, if it's not in a raised bed or otherwise delineated I'll probably mow it down with my tractor, LOL !!

She gonna look up that Ambrosha corn, she is excited, now you've done it !!
 
alternativeheat said:
She grows jalapeno peppers for me, bell peppers for us both, sweet banana peppers, potatoes, zucchini , summer squash, kale , lettuce, swish chard and winter squash, green beans, yellow beans. Then various herbs. onions every other year. Lot's of flowers.

Me, if it's not in a raised bed or otherwise delineated I'll probably mow it down with my tractor, LOL !!

She gonna look up that Ambrosha corn, she is excited, now you've done it !![/quote]

No problem. I always like to make the gals happy..... It's a 60 day hybrid, plenty short for your Cape Cod climate. My tractors are too big to get into any garden with and are FWA anyway. I use a tiller, actually 2, a Troy Bilt Horse and an MTD with counter rotating tines.

We do perennial strawberries too. Seem to have good luck growing whoppers.
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Talk about hives, Strawberries gives her hives. I use this little Mantis Tiller, works great in the raised beds. I looked up Ambrosia corn from Burpee, from them it's 75 days. People don't realize it but we generally have cold springs here and wet, Corn goes in near Memorial Day someplace, so 60 days would be perfect. To get 55 deg nights for some things you looking at June. If it's a fairly dry spring corn might be able to go in at the end of April, according Mis Professor. we were losing sun in Aug but a bunch or trees have come out so that may change next summer.

And now that we are sooo off topic, guess I will end with that before moderator browses too close. Great info though anyway !!
 
SidecarFlip said:
A word of caution to everyone on ash pan dumping. Don't dump your ashes in the garden and expect them to be a nutrient. They ain't unless you intensively till them in. Found that out 2 years ago, my beans refused to grow in soil that I had dumped the ash pan in. Now I just toss it in the gravel driveway and call it good.
Click to expand...

They are a liming agent and can make acid loving plants cringe. Always do a soil test after amending garden soil as it is very easy to get the soil messed up for various plants.
 
I'm going to dump them on the the poison ivy. See what happens this spring.
 
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alternativeheat said:
Talk about hives, Strawberries gives her hives. I use this little Mantis Tiller, works great in the raised beds. I looked up Ambrosia corn from Burpee, from them it's 75 days. People don't realize it but we generally have cold springs here and wet, Corn goes in near Memorial Day someplace, so 60 days would be perfect. To get 55 deg nights for some things you looking at June. If it's a fairly dry spring corn might be able to go in at the end of April, according Mis Professor. we were losing sun in Aug but a bunch or trees have come out so that may change next summer.

And now that we are sooo off topic, guess I will end with that before moderator browses too close. Great info though anyway !!
Click to expand...

Not really, field corn you can get below 60 days. Plant an acre, get a hand sheller and roast it. I wouldn't roast sweet corn, I'd eat that but field corn smells so good burning in the stove.....
 
I don't use "time" to calculate emptying my ash pan. I use "bags". Depending on how well my stove is burning I can empty the ash pan anywhere from 2 bags to 5 bags. Any more and I need to vacuum up overflow ash (i.e. IT WAS FULL). The better the stove burns the more bags I can go w/o emptying it. I literally almost NEVER open the burn chamber. I try to clean the stove good ~every ton. If I feel like cleaning the glass in between then I do but it in no way effects the stoves performance just the ambiance. Personally, I don't see the benefit of a huge ash pan. The ash pan tells you the health of the stove and if you check it to infrequently you might miss the fact that the stove is not operating well (clinkers or black soot). I would rather be bother to empty the ash pan more frequently and handle an issue immediately instead of waiting 1/2 a ton or having a hopper fire (which BTW I almost had one year which could have been bad had we NOT been home). Thats just my 2 cents
 
I am currently getting about 12 bags per pan in my P43. I waited till 15 once and it was overflowing! Granted, this is with ashy pellets. I hope to reduce this once I switch over to Blazers.

Question though, to those of you with a P series, do you have to vacuum your handle on the ash pan before you pull it? Ash collets on the handle and the edge of the pan. I will have a half way full PA but ash will fall out when I open the ash door. Is this normal or am I using /inserting the ash pan wrong?
 
yrock87 said:
I am currently getting about 12 bags per pan in my P43. I waited till 15 once and it was overflowing! Granted, this is with ashy pellets. I hope to reduce this once I switch over to Blazers.

Question though, to those of you with a P series, do you have to vacuum your handle on the ash pan before you pull it? Ash collets on the handle and the edge of the pan. I will have a half way full PA but ash will fall out when I open the ash door. Is this normal or am I using /inserting the ash pan wrong?
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Yes that's pretty much how my p61 is as well. I vacuum as best I can before pulling the pan out of the stove but don't get to obsessed with it as the ash vacs right off the hearth extension easy enough. Sometimes just brushing with the same paint brush used to brush down the heat exchanger and sides in the stove is good enough. Then vac up after, the vac will be running at various times during cleaning the stove anyway. ..
 
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Good sized ash pans on the free standers. My insert ash pan looks like a cookie sheet. I empty it whenever I clean the stove.
 
mainegeek said:
I don't use "time" to calculate emptying my ash pan. I use "bags". Depending on how well my stove is burning I can empty the ash pan anywhere from 2 bags to 5 bags. Any more and I need to vacuum up overflow ash (i.e. IT WAS FULL). The better the stove burns the more bags I can go w/o emptying it. I literally almost NEVER open the burn chamber. I try to clean the stove good ~every ton. If I feel like cleaning the glass in between then I do but it in no way effects the stoves performance just the ambiance. Personally, I don't see the benefit of a huge ash pan. The ash pan tells you the health of the stove and if you check it to infrequently you might miss the fact that the stove is not operating well (clinkers or black soot). I would rather be bother to empty the ash pan more frequently and handle an issue immediately instead of waiting 1/2 a ton or having a hopper fire (which BTW I almost had one year which could have been bad had we NOT been home). Thats just my 2 cents
Click to expand...

I've never had a hopper fire in 30 odd years. Heard and read about them but never experienced any burn back at all., but then, my burn pott has never overflowed with burning pellets or corn either.

A stove is like a carburetor on a lawnmower engine. Keep the A/F ratio right and it runs good, economically and produces good power, Get the A/F ratio wacked up and it runs poorly, smokes and makes no power. Same applies here. The difference is, unlike a modern lawnmower engine, there are no LIMITING caps on the stove adjustments, not to say the EPA won't try to come up with crap like that (limiting devices) but, for now, there are none.....
 
My XXV has a smallish ash pan and last year burning NE Pellets it would fill up about every 10-12 bags. This year I just started my second ton and have not emptied the ash pan. Burned 1 ton of Cubex and just started on some Okie platniums.
 
yrock87 said:
I am currently getting about 12 bags per pan in my P43. I waited till 15 once and it was overflowing! Granted, this is with ashy pellets. I hope to reduce this once I switch over to Blazers.

Question though, to those of you with a P series, do you have to vacuum your handle on the ash pan before you pull it? Ash collets on the handle and the edge of the pan. I will have a half way full PA but ash will fall out when I open the ash door. Is this normal or am I using /inserting the ash pan wrong?
Click to expand...
harman P61A does the same thing... lot of ash on the handle....
sometimes if I am just going to empty the ash pan, I put a piece of newspaper in front of the stove right up to the base.
when I pull the ash pan out, the extra handle ash drops on the paper.
 
I cleaned my stove today. After 35 bags of the Packsaddle pellets, the ash pan was 1/4 full. I've burned 5 different brands of DF pellets and these are the best. Burn pot buildup is borderline nonexistent.

Just thought I would rub it in for you guys back East. ==c
 
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yrock87 said:
I am currently getting about 12 bags per pan in my P43. I waited till 15 once and it was overflowing! Granted, this is with ashy pellets. I hope to reduce this once I switch over to Blazers.

Question though, to those of you with a P series, do you have to vacuum your handle on the ash pan before you pull it? Ash collets on the handle and the edge of the pan. I will have a half way full PA but ash will fall out when I open the ash door. Is this normal or am I using /inserting the ash pan wrong?
Click to expand...

Yep, I try to remember to use the brush I use for cleaning on the handle before removing the bin form my P61A.
 
ZBrooks said:
I cleaned my stove today. After 35 bags of the Packsaddle pellets, the ash pan was 1/4 full. I've burned 5 different brands of DF pellets and these are the best. Burn pot buildup is borderline nonexistent.

Just thought I would rub it in for you guys back East. ==c
Click to expand...
You Suck.:p:p::PJust kidding.
 
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SidecarFlip said:
I've never had a hopper fire in 30 odd years. Heard and read about them but never experienced any burn back at all., but then, my burn pott has never overflowed with burning pellets or corn either.

A stove is like a carburetor on a lawnmower engine. Keep the A/F ratio right and it runs good, economically and produces good power, Get the A/F ratio wacked up and it runs poorly, smokes and makes no power. Same applies here. The difference is, unlike a modern lawnmower engine, there are no LIMITING caps on the stove adjustments, not to say the EPA won't try to come up with crap like that (limiting devices) but, for now, there are none.....
Click to expand...

I think it was a problem with the pellets. The 2nd year I had the stove I bought some cheap pellets. That year the stove flame was lazy and I couldn't seem to get the AE to dial in the settings to fix it. I was also getting A LOT of clinkers that year. Then one night the stove fed so much pellets that the burn pot was overflowing with the pellets and pellets were backing up into the feed chute.

That's the only time that issue has happened and I have since burned only my usual reliable / more expensive brand.
 
We have sort of a concentrated group of multifuel stoves right around here, the folks across the road have one, down the road have one and us. The couple acroos the road had issues at one time with their Englander, it caught the hopper on fire, or should I say 'smoked them out' but what occured, I'm not sure. They have a Harman now.
 
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