Dealing with HOT ash pan

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Gridlock

Gridlock

Member
Feb 13, 2010
223
New Paltz, NY
Every morning I go through the ritual of dumping the ash pan into a nearby bucket, which I then dump outside every few days. The problem is that with the stove packed fully the night before, the stove is still quite hot in the morning, and therby so is the ash pan. I almost burned my hands a couple of times holding the ash pan for just a few seconds while dumping the ash. I've tried both a pair of welders gloves as well as standard stove gloves that I got a a specialty stove store, both of which allowed way too much heat through. Anyone else experience this? Should I use a pair of regular oven mittens?
 
Can you add a better wooden handle to the pan somehow? Those ashes should go outside immediately...
 
KB007 said:
Can you add a better wooden handle to the pan somehow? Those ashes should go outside immediately...
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if there is a way to do that. I place the ashes in a metal container with a tight fitting lid which sits on the stone hearth, so think I'm Ok with keeping it inside if done this way. Only completely burned ash and a few small embers make there way into the ash pan.
 
Gridlock said:
Every morning I go through the ritual of dumping the ash pan into a nearby bucket, which I then dump outside every few days. The problem is that with the stove packed fully the night before, the stove is still quite hot in the morning, and therby so is the ash pan. I almost burned my hands a couple of times holding the ash pan for just a few seconds while dumping the ash. I've tried both a pair of welders gloves as well as standard stove gloves that I got a a specialty stove store, both of which allowed way too much heat through. Anyone else experience this? Should I use a pair of regular oven mittens?
Click to expand...
Wow. Why is your ash pan so hot? Do you rake a bunch of small coals into the pan through the grate in the morning? If so, you're losing valuable heat, and increasing your ash disposal volume and workload. When we burned our Encore 24/7, we could go a week between ash pan empties, and welding gloves were always adequate.
 
grommal said:
Wow. Why is your ash pan so hot? Do you rake a bunch of small coals into the pan through the grate in the morning? If so, you're losing valuable heat, and increasing your ash disposal volume and workload. When we burned our Encore 24/7, we could go a week between ash pan empties, and welding gloves were always adequate.
Click to expand...
When I rake the ash in the stove, some small embers squeezes between the grate and makes it way into the ash pan. Do you rake the ash in the stove? If so, don't you get some embers in the ash pan?

I could maybe go two days between emptying ash, but don't understand how you can go a week unless you are either burning much less than I am, or filling the ash pan completely as well as leaving a lot in the firebox. I load my Defiant to the gills 3 times a day, which probably amounts to about 24 splits/day.

Something just occurred to me: I am getting my ash pan replaced as it does not fit well anymore; the back-right corner hits the stove when attempting to close it. The chimney sweep stopped by and had to file the back-right corner off so it can be closed. I wonder if something is defective about the pan where part of the metal is coming into contact with the stove that's maybe heating it up quite a bit?
 
Nice stove!

I burned a 1945 catalytic for 2 winters. Look, I had a problem with the ash pan warping when hot, then it would straighten out when cool.

That ash pan has a lid yes? Why not order up a second ash pan, so when you pull the first one out you can just slide the second one right on in, and give the first one a chance to cool a bit before dealing with it?
 
Gridlock said:
grommal said:
Wow. Why is your ash pan so hot? Do you rake a bunch of small coals into the pan through the grate in the morning? If so, you're losing valuable heat, and increasing your ash disposal volume and workload. When we burned our Encore 24/7, we could go a week between ash pan empties, and welding gloves were always adequate.
Click to expand...
When I rake the ash in the stove, some small embers squeezes between the grate and makes it way into the ash pan. Do you rake the ash in the stove? If so, don't you get some embers in the ash pan?

I could maybe go two days between emptying ash, but don't understand how you can go a week unless you are either burning much less than I am, or filling the ash pan completely as well as leaving a lot in the firebox. I load my Defiant to the gills 3 times a day, which probably amounts to about 24 splits/day.

Something just occurred to me: I am getting my ash pan replaced as it does not fit well anymore; the back-right corner hits the stove when attempting to close it. The chimney sweep stopped by and had to file the back-right corner off so it can be closed. I wonder if something is defective about the pan where part of the metal is coming into contact with the stove that's maybe heating it up quite a bit?
Click to expand...
Doubt if it's the contact that's a temperature issue. Are you sure it's not ashes built up and compacted in the rear corner behind the ash pan? The sloped rear of the ash pan works very well to pack the ash into that space over time.

When we burn 24/7, whether with the current Oslo or with the prior Encore, we do/did not rake the ashes all around so they fell down by force. Keeping a layer of ashes in the stove is better for secondary combustion in the Oslo, as it keeps the firebox hotter, though that should make less difference in a cat stove. Still, it was not our practice to rake the ashes through the grate every day. We used to rake the ashes around just enough to redistribute them into an even layer, letting the ashes fall naturally through the grate over time. A week of round the clock burning, loading the stove 3X per day, resulted in a full, but not quite overflowing, ash pan, and this stayed constant over months of nonstop burning.

With the Oslo, the ash pan fills up in 4-7 days depending on how much wood is burned. The Oslo has a larger firebox than the Encore, so we burn more wood (and get more heat) per hour when we're really cranking than we did with the Encore. Hence more ash production.

Wood type also plays a role in ash production. For a few years I burned a lot of barkless oak, and found that the amount of ash was much reduced, only getting maybe 2/3 of an ash pan full per week, so i think the bark must have more residual uncombustable solids than the interior wood.
 
ansehnlich1 said:
Nice stove!

I burned a 1945 catalytic for 2 winters. Look, I had a problem with the ash pan warping when hot, then it would straighten out when cool.

That ash pan has a lid yes? Why not order up a second ash pan, so when you pull the first one out you can just slide the second one right on in, and give the first one a chance to cool a bit before dealing with it?
Click to expand...
Bingo! I just spoke with the chimney sweep who installed the stove and he suggested exactly the same thing, so I just ordered a second ash pan. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
grommal said:
Doubt if it's the contact that's a temperature issue. Are you sure it's not ashes built up and compacted in the rear corner behind the ash pan? The sloped rear of the ash pan works very well to pack the ash into that space over time.

When we burn 24/7, whether with the current Oslo or with the prior Encore, we do/did not rake the ashes all around so they fell down by force. Keeping a layer of ashes in the stove is better for secondary combustion in the Oslo, as it keeps the firebox hotter, though that should make less difference in a cat stove. Still, it was not our practice to rake the ashes through the grate every day. We used to rake the ashes around just enough to redistribute them into an even layer, letting the ashes fall naturally through the grate over time. A week of round the clock burning, loading the stove 3X per day, resulted in a full, but not quite overflowing, ash pan, and this stayed constant over months of nonstop burning.

With the Oslo, the ash pan fills up in 4-7 days depending on how much wood is burned. The Oslo has a larger firebox than the Encore, so we burn more wood (and get more heat) per hour when we're really cranking than we did with the Encore. Hence more ash production.

Wood type also plays a role in ash production. For a few years I burned a lot of barkless oak, and found that the amount of ash was much reduced, only getting maybe 2/3 of an ash pan full per week, so i think the bark must have more residual uncombustable solids than the interior wood.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. I'll try raking less to avoid hot embers from falling into the ashpan. This will probably also have the effect of filling the ashpan less as those embers will get burned fully in the firefox before dropping into the ashpan.

I wonder if the Encore using the same ashpan as the Defiant which might explain being able to go longer before emptying since the Encore has a smaller firebox than the Defiant. I am currently using a lot of oak (with bark) and some maple which might be producing a lot of ash.
 
Gridlock said:
grommal said:
Doubt if it's the contact that's a temperature issue. Are you sure it's not ashes built up and compacted in the rear corner behind the ash pan? The sloped rear of the ash pan works very well to pack the ash into that space over time.

When we burn 24/7, whether with the current Oslo or with the prior Encore, we do/did not rake the ashes all around so they fell down by force. Keeping a layer of ashes in the stove is better for secondary combustion in the Oslo, as it keeps the firebox hotter, though that should make less difference in a cat stove. Still, it was not our practice to rake the ashes through the grate every day. We used to rake the ashes around just enough to redistribute them into an even layer, letting the ashes fall naturally through the grate over time. A week of round the clock burning, loading the stove 3X per day, resulted in a full, but not quite overflowing, ash pan, and this stayed constant over months of nonstop burning.

With the Oslo, the ash pan fills up in 4-7 days depending on how much wood is burned. The Oslo has a larger firebox than the Encore, so we burn more wood (and get more heat) per hour when we're really cranking than we did with the Encore. Hence more ash production.

Wood type also plays a role in ash production. For a few years I burned a lot of barkless oak, and found that the amount of ash was much reduced, only getting maybe 2/3 of an ash pan full per week, so i think the bark must have more residual uncombustable solids than the interior wood.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. I'll try raking less to avoid hot embers from falling into the ashpan. This will probably also have the effect of filling the ashpan less as those embers will get burned fully in the firefox before dropping into the ashpan.

I wonder if the Encore using the same ashpan as the Defiant which might explain being able to go longer before emptying since the Encore has a smaller firebox than the Defiant. I am currently using a lot of oak (with bark) and some maple which might be producing a lot of ash.
Click to expand...
Could be. The ash pan on the Encore was pretty big for the firebox size, so they might have used the same one on the larger Defiant. Jotul does that. My Oslo has the same ash pan as the larger Firelight.
 
We had a stove once that was difficult to empty the ash pan and it does get hot. We used welder's gloves and then another pair of gloves that we did not wear we put between the welder's glove and the ash pan. It worked better than I expected and we just continued along that line. I expect a bakers mitten still would not be enough.
 
I think folks are spot on about hot coals being raked into the ash pan . . . in general I find that the only time my ash pan on the Oslo is too hot to use my normal welding gloves and require the insulated stove gloves is when some hot coals have dropped down into the pan due to me raking the ash too vigorously.

Typically I empty my ash pan after an overnight burn when the stove is cooler to begin with . . . and I normally rake the ashes afterwards.

Like Grommal I only empty the pan 1-2 times a week . . . an advantage of a large ash pan.
 
A side benefit of emptying the ash pan before raking as FFJ suggests is that you will reduce the blast furnace effect of air rushing up through the coals (though, of course, the ash pan door should still be closed if you're carrying the pan somewhere to empty it!).
 
A side benefit of emptying the ash pan before raking as FFJ suggests is that you will reduce the blast furnace effect of air rushing up through the coals (though, of course, the ash pan door should still be closed if you’re carrying the pan somewhere to empty it!).
Click to expand...

Absolutely correct!!!!! I was going to say the exact same thing but Grommal beat me to it. The handle on my Dutchwest ash bin sometimes is a little uncomfortable to handle so I was thinking of using a right angle vice grip. The shaker grate tool for my stove has a little barb built into it that you use to lift the ash drawer. So far it has always worked but it sometimes feels like an accident waiting to happen as it's a bit of a balancing act.

Jim
 
Gridlock said:
ansehnlich1 said:
Nice stove!

I burned a 1945 catalytic for 2 winters. Look, I had a problem with the ash pan warping when hot, then it would straighten out when cool.

That ash pan has a lid yes? Why not order up a second ash pan, so when you pull the first one out you can just slide the second one right on in, and give the first one a chance to cool a bit before dealing with it?
Click to expand...
Bingo! I just spoke with the chimney sweep who installed the stove and he suggested exactly the same thing, so I just ordered a second ash pan. Thanks for the suggestion!
Click to expand...

That's how I do it use the gloves and the second ash pan works out fine.
 
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