Black layer of dust... on everything!

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Smokeless

Smokeless

Member
Oct 20, 2008
35
Northeast CT
OK, I read here somewhere that if it's a problem shoveling out a smokeymess to clean the coals from your wood burner, then you shouldn't be burning wood.

Well, I've been burning 24/7 since start of the season. Been burning lots of BioBricks and a moderate amount of wood.

I've been shoveling out coals when the pile gets too high (every couple days). It's a pretty dramatic event in that I am shoveling red hot coals and black dust into the ash can, kind of like a small volcano going off in the middle of the livingroom. After taking the ashes outside, my house has a certain biobrick smell in the air (which I am assumming is the fine black ash/soot floating in the air). Trying to keep the house sealed up as well as possible, I wonder how much of this stuff I'm breathing in? Heck, I gave up moking, might as well start again!

So, I have this black layer of dust on EVERYTHING! I am trying to keep up with it, vacuuming, dusting, etc. over and over. Is it because I'm burning bricks over wood? I'm a bit concerned about the furniture and carpeting...

Wood heat is great but I don't want to trash the place in the meantime...

Guess I've got to suck it up... Just wanted to vent and maybe someone has some insight that I have overlooked...
 
Not a big deal to let the stove go out every week or so and clean out completely as opposed to hot cleanout.
Even if you are going to keep it going, you can usually time things so that it gets down to a small amount of coals...then rake those aside and just remove the white ash. Keep in mind that leaving a reasonable sized bed of ashes and coals is normal...you should not try to clean it out completely. I have sold and installed thousands of stoves and although a stove will create more dust than no stove, it should not be as bad as you say and also usually not black.

Is that a 1/2 kettle on your stove?
 
You should be letting the hot coals turn to ashes. Solve your coaling problem and stop shoveling hot coals. I never shovel coals out of the stove. I'd let the furnace kick in if I need more heat than the stove can put out.
 
We've been burning a prodigious amount of wood 24/7 for a few weeks now. I've shoveled out once.

Burn those coals! Bring them to the front center of the stove and run for an hour wide open. Maybe put a single split of softwood on top of them to accelerate burning.
 
You know, I was expecting to have a dust and wood odor problem when I started burning this year, especially due to a coworker constantly telling me how messy it would be.

But I have not had any issues. I shovel out my ash very carefully and do see a little dust at times, but I keep my Hepa vacuum plugged in nearby. When needed or from time to time I suck up the wood particles and mess on the floor and on the hearth. Half of my house is linoleum, so it does make clean-up quite easy.

I think once you get a good system down, you'll be OK.
 
Yep, 1/2 kettle! I believe you are the inventor? I hope you're getting your commission on them!

There are plenty of folks who have posted about coaling problems... Wanna keep the fire burning 24/7.

I think the problem is not using enough hardwood and using lots of the bricks. The bricks still take up alot of space when they are no longer cranking out the heat. I've been home for the past 5 days and keeping the heat cranking. Usually I put a load of bricks in in the morning before work. I get home in the evening and the pile is pretty much gone. If I was home though, I couldn't let it go that long without throwing another batch of bricks in there.

Pretty soon you run out of room and have a firebox full of red bricks. They crumble pretty easily and that is where I think I'm getting the dust.

So, maybe I just noticed this little problem after a 5 day 24/7 fire binge...
 
I actually have an old pot that I use to shovel ash - it's short so I put it right in the stove. This helps, because the fine stuff that gets air born goes up the flue with the draft.
 
I too use an old stock pan. It has a lid and it is short enough to sit beside the stove and as I shovel in the ash, I put the lid on to keep dust at a minimum. Keep in mind that I too burn 24/7 and only have to do this about 1 time a week or so.
 
I think your smell is from taking a fire out of your fireplace. Every now and then I get a few hot coals down in the bucket and they do smoke up a little. Nothing much more to add than has been said though. Burn those coals!
 
As mentioned, I don't shovel out coals but I do shovel ashes and they do tend to get airborne. I place a coal hod in front of the open door and try to lower the ashes into it without pouring. I open a window to increase draft up the chimney and the dust gets sucked back into the stove.

Hot coals would have so much convection from the rising heat that they would send a lot of dust airborne.
 
The Ashtrap is discussed elsewhere on the site. This is a great tool for reducing the amount of airborn ash when cleaning out the stove.
 
Anytime you shovel ash you do it slowly and carefully. Shovel it out of the stove, slowly lower it to your ash container and let it slide off. If you drop any ash it's going to be air borne.

If you have a covered ash container it will contain the burning smell, as well. I take out a shovel full of ashes or two everything morning, and generally get a few embers in it--can't really help it if there is a bank of coals, but I put it in a can with a cover on it and just leave it behind the stove until it's full, generally a couple of weeks. No trotting out everyday with the ashes plus you get all of the heat out of anything you are taking from the stove since the heat gradually goes into the room from the can.
 
I shovel the ash into a 5-gal galv-steel garbage can with tight lid. I tilt the can into the loading door so the bottom lip of can is almost touching the bottom lip of open stove door. I hold a hose of a running canister vac over top area of can.

I carefully shovel the ash into the can. Fly ash is either pulled back into the stove or sucked up into the vaccum cleaner.

I always let the coals burn down before cleaning.

-- Brandy
 
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