Hearthstone ashpans

It's not that it doesn't work - it's just not terribly convenient. FWIW, it's mostly us Heritage and smaller owners who pan the things (pun intended). I dunno if i've heard from Equinox owners on the subject...

It's just way easier and cleaner - for me - to simply scoop w/ a plain little shovel into a nice, small, galvanized ashcan w/ a lid. if the Heritage ashpan was narrower than my ashcan, i'd use the pan a lot more often. It's actually quite effective at removing ash while leaving coals, but the grate can be a bit of a pain to slide back and forth.

Well the ash pan doesn't really work very good . I'm not having any closing or ceiling problems buts its a pain in the azz to open and close . The ash shaker only works if you use it on every fill up. Ive been using a bucket for full clean outs and just shaking the coal in between loads of wood . John

Yeah sliding the grate fwd and back can take some serious pushing/pulling. and then when you're done, you have... a wide open pan of ash. i want to get the ash out of the stove and into something covered as son as possible and w/ minimal risk of spilling. therefore the long, narrow shovel and the covered can...

Also the gaskets and sealing can be a problem on some of the stoves. I know mine gave me fits.

I just scoop mine out. Like others have said it just seems faster and the less chance of disturbing the gaskets on the ash door.

Never use mine.
Rusty

I actualy use the ash cleanout and find its not a problem on the Equinox I empty it about every other day and burn 24/7

I empty my Mansfield every night using the ashpan and for the past four winters I have not had a problem. I burn 24 in the winter also.

Frank

On my Mansfield I do not use the ashpan.Just easier to scoop with shovel and place in the can with a cover.We use a small garbage can.

I just shovel the ash that is in the front of the stove.after that i pull the hot coal to the front and then reload.And if you have a noncombustable floor you can leave the can there but if not take it outside.

With the soap stone the stove stays around 275 -300 and the coals are kinda low .I will pile the coals in the center on the center great clean the sides and rear of the fire box with scooper . Then i shake the great out so we only have coals , scoop out the ash draw with shovel to fill bucket close the shaker great and ash draw and pull the coals to the front of the fire box . Fill the stove with wood . My last stove was easier and faster i had a VC Dutch west . This stove was self cleaning pull ash pan and dump . The fire box just had 2" of ash in it all the time . John

I have eliminated the sliding second grate & the roll out .
Every second day I open the ash door pull the pan & dump outside.
Pushing the pan back in acts as a shovel for any excess .

When burning 24 /7 , I run the poker through the coals & the ash drops through the open holes itn the grate.
I find it easier this way.

doug60 said:

I have eliminated the sliding second grate & the roll out .
Every second day I open the ash door pull the pan & dump outside.
Pushing the pan back in acts as a shovel for any excess .

When burning 24 /7 , I run the poker through the coals & the ash drops through the open holes itn the grate.
I find it easier this way.

Click to expand...

I was thinking of doing the same thing . the shaker is a pita.

I just took the sliding grate out. It is just resting there and serves no real purpose. I don't know why anyone would ever want to have it slid shut, unless they were really worried about ash and coals falling into the ash pan, which seems to me like the place I want ash to fall (granted, not all my coals, but there is no way they all fall through, not enough to effect the fire at all). Take the shovel, move the coals around a bit, the ash falls through, the bigger coals remain, and I just take the ash pan out and slide a new one in. I don't see it as a huge problem with mine, but I did buy a second ash pan just to avoid having to leave the ash drawer vacant while dumping hot ashes.

About removing the ash "grate"...

And this isn't affecting the performance of the stove at all? This sounds like a great idea.

The performance of the stove is not affected one bit. If your stove is set up the same way mine is (Shelburne), the sliding ash grate just sits on the permanent grate by gravity and it slides just by your own force pushing it right and left (and anyone who has tried to slide it back and fort or left and right, however it went, knows that it is difficult to do). All the sliding ash grate is good for is acting as a paper weight, in my opinion. I just don't see why you need to have no ash or coals fall into the ash pan. I've never had a problem starting it, never felt I lost a lot of coals by them falling through, I mean the gaps in the grate are about 5/8" I'd guess. The secondary ash pan was about $85 I think, plus some shipping. I know it seems like an unnecessary use of money, but I wasn't real keen on walking away with my ash pan removed to go dump ashes when the fire was still going (we burn 24/7). My advice: take the grate out and when you get too much ash build up, push them back and forth over the existing grate and let them fill the ash pan.

A heads up about another issue I had with ash...be careful to monitor how much as falls through when you remove the ash pan. It will fall onto the bottom part, I'll call this the ash drawer, and build up in the rear of the drawer when you slide a new or empty ash pan back in. One night I had no control over my stove, it was burning very hot and sure enough the problem was that my ash pan was not fulling inserted in the ash drawer due to the build up in the rear of the drawer. I just had to sweep it all out, but it must have been packed in about an inch thick, certainly enough to bar the ash pan from being inserted in all the way. And shame on me for not noticing that the ash pan was not in all the way when I inserted it. As I think about this situation and the design of the stove, perhaps this is why they designed and installed the sliding grate. When slid shut, sliding grate in theory would stop all ash from falling while you dumped the ash pan. But again, I found it impossible to try and slide that thing shut with all the ash packed in around it and the hot coals glowing in my face. Perhaps as someone eluded to earlier, this sliding grate concept looks good on paper but isn't logistically possible to use given the ash accumulation around it and hot temperatures of a wood stove. Provided that this was the intention of the sliding grate, you think Hearthstone would have explained that to dealers, none of whom have ever been able to explain how/why it is there, other than saying "so coals don't fall through."

The performance of the stove is not affected one bit. If your stove is set up the same way mine is (Shelburne), the sliding ash grate just sits on the permanent grate by gravity and it slides just by your own force pushing it right and left (and anyone who has tried to slide it back and fort or left and right, however it went, knows that it is difficult to do). There is no spring on mine and I believe it is the same as just leaving it in the open position (that's what I used to do but it kept snagging my poker and shovel when I moved coals around). All the sliding ash grate is good for is acting as a paper weight, in my opinion. I just don't see why you need to have no ash or coals fall into the ash pan. I've never had a problem starting it, never felt I lost a lot of coals by them falling through, I mean the gaps in the grate are about 5/8" I'd guess. The secondary ash pan was about $85 I think, plus some shipping. I know it seems like an unnecessary use of money, but I wasn't real keen on walking away with my ash pan removed to go dump ashes when the fire was still going (we burn 24/7). My advice: take the grate out and when you get too much ash build up, push them back and forth over the existing grate and let them fill the ash pan.

A heads up about another issue I had with ash...be careful to monitor how much as falls through when you remove the ash pan. It will fall onto the bottom part, I'll call this the ash drawer, and build up in the rear of the drawer when you slide a new or empty ash pan back in. One night I had no control over my stove, it was burning very hot and sure enough the problem was that my ash pan was not fulling inserted in the ash drawer due to the build up in the rear of the drawer. I just had to sweep it all out, but it must have been packed in about an inch thick, certainly enough to bar the ash pan from being inserted in all the way. And shame on me for not noticing that the ash pan was not in all the way when I inserted it. As I think about this situation and the design of the stove, perhaps this is why they designed and installed the sliding grate. When slid shut, sliding grate in theory would stop all ash from falling while you dumped the ash pan. But again, I found it impossible to try and slide that thing shut with all the ash packed in around it and the hot coals glowing in my face. Perhaps as someone eluded to earlier, this sliding grate concept looks good on paper but isn't logistically possible to use given the ash accumulation around it and hot temperatures of a wood stove. Provided that this was the intention of the sliding grate, you think Hearthstone would have explained that to dealers, none of whom have ever been able to explain how/why it is there, other than saying "so coals don't fall through."

And just think, without that sliding grate in there, you could get a wicked blast of air directly into the fire when you open the ash drawer. I believe there is a bolt that holds the grate in place on the heritage and a linkage that allows you to move the grate with an operating rod.