it's been cold and i keep stuffing the stove full of wood...the coals and ash keep building up and i've been trying to find the best way to manage it. i've been using the shovel to push everything from front to back then scrape the coals from the back to front leaving the ash at the back then reload and keep going. there were so many coals in there last night that i just left the door open for about an hour trying to burn them up but noticed the room dropped 3* so i decided that probably isn't the best way to do it. i usually try and open the draft when it's down to mostly coals to try help burn them up quicker but i've wondered if this is worthwhile as it might be sucking more room conditioned air up the chimney.
eventually ash needs to come out and if i've been burning a lot there are always a few coals intermixed with the ash that comes out. another annoyance is that when i shovel hot ash into the bucket, a poof of ash raises up into the room no matter how careful i am. I always turn off fans/blower and being very careful and steady, I tilt the bucket towards the stove so the draft will hopefully suck some of that airborne ash up the chimney but i think most of it ends up as dust on our mantle/walls/mantle decor, etc. that the wife will eventually complain about when she cleans.
any tips to help me improve my coal/ash management would be appreciated.
eventually ash needs to come out and if i've been burning a lot there are always a few coals intermixed with the ash that comes out. another annoyance is that when i shovel hot ash into the bucket, a poof of ash raises up into the room no matter how careful i am. I always turn off fans/blower and being very careful and steady, I tilt the bucket towards the stove so the draft will hopefully suck some of that airborne ash up the chimney but i think most of it ends up as dust on our mantle/walls/mantle decor, etc. that the wife will eventually complain about when she cleans.
any tips to help me improve my coal/ash management would be appreciated.