managing coals and ash

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phenolic

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Dec 8, 2010
20
central TX
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.
 
I had a very similar problem a few years ago when I was demanding more heat from my stove than it could provide.
Like yourself I was constantly reloading to keep the max heat coming rather than allowing the full load of wood to go through it's entire burn cycle. Once I installed a stove that was better suited to heat my house, as well as adding storm windows and improving the skirt around the house I found that I could load the stove, let it burn through it's cycle and reload when there was enough hot coals to ignite the new load but not so much that they would eventually overcrowd the firebox.

If your stove is large enough in relation the square footage of the house then the heat loss of the house itself may be the culprit. Either way, you're relying on the maximum heat output of the stove too heavily rather than the average of the entire burn cycle.
 
if you get a build-up of coals put a pine split on top and it will burn them down. Aside from that, ash happens and you learn to manage what is best for your stove.
 
Ash shovel in one hand and a spray bottle of water in the other.

Vigorously mist and spray the ash as you dump it into the bucket. It seems to reduce the dust and attendant wife noise.
 
Get a wood stove with a grate and an ash drawer? Ash management is one area where my stove greatly outperforms my insert.

On the insert, I first push all the ash/coals to opening side. I gently roll the larger coals to the hinge side and then shovel the ash and remaining coals into a 10 gallon metal trash can as carefully as possible. Even then I make a much bigger mess than I do dumping the ash drawer from the stove into a big metal trashcan outside. With the insert, I have to vaccuum the hearth/mantle after I've put the trash can outside.
 
My uncle taught me something a few years ago... When shoveling out ash, he drapes a wet rag over the opening of his ash bucket. The wet rag seems to prevent a big plume of ash from billowing out of the bucket. Position the rag so that it covers half of the bucket opening... Gently shovel the ash into the bucket and draw the rag over the remainder of the top to prevent the ash cloud. Works really well..
 
phenolic said:
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.
Click to expand...

Maybe I should just make a copy of what we do and then paste it into posts like this. It has came up at least a dozen times so far this year and it does every year. Anyway, here is how we handle it:

Before the burn is down to the coaling stage, we open the draft full. Usually this will keep the stove top between 400-500 and will get the coals burned down by the time we have to reload. If not, then we'll throw a small split or two and leave the draft open full. That takes care of the problem. However, if the excessive coaling is caused by burning too green of wood, then this may or may not solve the problems. The only way to solve that is to burn only dry wood.


On the ashes the simple key is to handle with kid gloves. As long as you handle the ashes as if they were even more fragile than eggs, you won't get dust. Simply rake the coals either to the front or rear of the stove and remove some ash. MOVE SLOWLY!!! Very gently and slow, sit the ash shovel down in the ash container. Then you do not remove the ashes from the shovel but you very gently slide the shovel out from under the ashes. Done right you will not get any ash dust and won't have to mess with damp cloths or any other thing to suck dust away. Handle it right and there is no dust to contend with.
 
Before the burn is down to the coaling stage, we open the draft full. Usually this will keep the stove top between 400-500 and will get the coals burned down by the time we have to reload. If not, then we’ll throw a small split or two and leave the draft open full. That takes care of the problem. However, if the excessive coaling is caused by burning too green of wood, then this may or may not solve the problems. The only way to solve that is to burn only dry wood.
Click to expand...
Dennis, you must be retired. Because as I suspect your method works, if only your there to babysit it. Other thing is I don't even want to take the time to prick with the coal issue. When the stove needs more wood to stay hot I just want to open the door, throw in more wood and get on with it. I usually don't have time to stick around waiting on coals to burn down so I can make room for a load of wood.
As for the ash deposal thing. I have a 10gal trash can with lid, key here with lid, and I carefully drop in a scoop and quickly close the lid between scoops. Then I just leave the can till its full which may be several ash unloading times. Sometimes I just go ahead and unload coals too cause I need to go and also need to load the stove. My can sits on concrete so I don't care how hot it gets. At least its giving something back while it cools.
 
I agree with Dennis. Slow and careful does it. I lift up the ash bucket and tilt it into the stove, so that the ash drop from the scoop is still confined by the insert.
 
wkpoor said:
Before the burn is down to the coaling stage, we open the draft full. Usually this will keep the stove top between 400-500 and will get the coals burned down by the time we have to reload. If not, then we’ll throw a small split or two and leave the draft open full. That takes care of the problem. However, if the excessive coaling is caused by burning too green of wood, then this may or may not solve the problems. The only way to solve that is to burn only dry wood.
Click to expand...
Dennis, you must be retired. Because as I suspect your method works, if only your there to babysit it. Other thing is I don't even want to take the time to prick with the coal issue. When the stove needs more wood to stay hot I just want to open the door, throw in more wood and get on with it. I usually don't have time to stick around waiting on coals to burn down so I can make room for a load of wood.
As for the ash deposal thing. I have a 10gal trash can with lid, key here with lid, and I carefully drop in a scoop and quickly close the lid between scoops. Then I just leave the can till its full which may be several ash unloading times. Sometimes I just go ahead and unload coals too cause I need to go and also need to load the stove. My can sits on concrete so I don't care how hot it gets. At least its giving something back while it cools.
Click to expand...

wkpoor, you are correct in that I am retired. I'm also tired...but that's another story.

However, even though I am now retired, if you look at my signature line you'll quickly figure out that I have not been retired all the time that we've burned wood. We do not handle things any different now than we did before retirement.

You state, "I just want to open the door, throw in more wood and get on with it." You also don't want to be bothered with letting the coals burn down. Then there is the thing with the ashes. Sorry, but that is a poor way to handle things. I've never thought of tending the stove as baby sitting it either. It also sounds as if you would be much happier just playing with a thermostat and I would not at all be surprised if you simply sell your wood stove and then get on with it. People with no patience or who do not want to do the things involved with burning wood simply should not be doing it. There are just too many other ways you can get heat and they would not cut into your time. Sorry, I'm not trying to put you down so please do not think that, but it is how I feel. This in no way makes you or me inferior. Wood burning just is not for everyone.
 
I agree with Dennis here as well. Most of us here try to get the maximum effect out of burning for alot of reasons. To burn 'just to burn' is not what the work ethic of wood stove burning is all about. I can imagine if people treated things that way you could spend as much on your wood fuel as you could on oil or gas, thats what it's not about.
 
I go with the ash bucket with cover method for taking ashes out, slow and steady is called for to help eliminate flying dust. i dont know if anyone alse does this but after opening air up a bit to burn down coals i put my insert fan to slow setting, seems to keep the firebox hotter and burn them down faster
 
hard aground said:
Ash shovel in one hand and a spray bottle of water in the other.

Vigorously mist and spray the ash as you dump it into the bucket. It seems to reduce the dust and attendant wife noise.
Click to expand...

+1. What he said! That is exactly what I do. I have a spray bottle with a fine mist setting. I spray it GENTLY on the ash in the stove. I scoop up some ash and gently spray it. I gently slide it into my bucket then spray it really well. It seems to help.

When I'm into several days of burning mode there is still going to be fly ash/dust that gets out and onto everything. When the Bride's not looking a grab a dust rag and some Endust and do a quick wipedown of the shelves and tables in the living room where the stove is.

She likes the heat but she doesn't like the mess. She doesn't complain about much, though. But it's amazing how much a good
"Tsk...Tsk... Tsk..." conveys.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
wkpoor said:
Before the burn is down to the coaling stage, we open the draft full. Usually this will keep the stove top between 400-500 and will get the coals burned down by the time we have to reload. If not, then we’ll throw a small split or two and leave the draft open full. That takes care of the problem. However, if the excessive coaling is caused by burning too green of wood, then this may or may not solve the problems. The only way to solve that is to burn only dry wood.
Click to expand...
Dennis, you must be retired. Because as I suspect your method works, if only your there to babysit it. Other thing is I don't even want to take the time to prick with the coal issue. When the stove needs more wood to stay hot I just want to open the door, throw in more wood and get on with it. I usually don't have time to stick around waiting on coals to burn down so I can make room for a load of wood.
As for the ash deposal thing. I have a 10gal trash can with lid, key here with lid, and I carefully drop in a scoop and quickly close the lid between scoops. Then I just leave the can till its full which may be several ash unloading times. Sometimes I just go ahead and unload coals too cause I need to go and also need to load the stove. My can sits on concrete so I don't care how hot it gets. At least its giving something back while it cools.
Click to expand...

wkpoor, you are correct in that I am retired. I'm also tired...but that's another story.

However, even though I am now retired, if you look at my signature line you'll quickly figure out that I have not been retired all the time that we've burned wood. We do not handle things any different now than we did before retirement.

You state, "I just want to open the door, throw in more wood and get on with it." You also don't want to be bothered with letting the coals burn down. Then there is the thing with the ashes. Sorry, but that is a poor way to handle things. I've never thought of tending the stove as baby sitting it either. It also sounds as if you would be much happier just playing with a thermostat and I would not at all be surprised if you simply sell your wood stove and then get on with it. People with no patience or who do not want to do the things involved with burning wood simply should not be doing it. There are just too many other ways you can get heat and they would not cut into your time. Sorry, I'm not trying to put you down so please do not think that, but it is how I feel. This in no way makes you or me inferior. Wood burning just is not for everyone.
Click to expand...
Whoa! You need to look more closely at my sig line. I'm way more serious about firewood than 99% of the people out there. And I love my wood heat. Prior to EPA burning when the stove needed wood it was as simple as throwing it in. I'm only suggesting there be a little more balance between burn times and coaling. When the house is cold and I need heat I don't want to be waiting for coals to burn down, I just want to reload and get on with it meaning heat. I'm hoping the Elm has that balance a little more in check. There are many things I do like about the new stove and some I don't, coaling being one. If my stove was in a living room maybe a 200-30 degree stove would be enough but in a concrete dunjun like mine I need fire and I need it all the time. Pre EPA thats what I had but admittedly I had to do restarts occasionally. Bottom line I don't have the perfect stove for me .....yet.
 
wkpoor, I have looked at your signature line but just because you have the tools and the stove has little to do with what was being discussed. As for being serious, I'd hope everyone who burns wood is serious.

One more thing always creeps into my thinking when I read that somebody doesn't want to do the necessary things when burning wood is that in their haste to leave the stove to get busy at something else, they someday might, in their haste, miss something. Fire is nothing to take lightly.

As for the coaling, for sure we get a lot more coals than we have in any or our previous stoves. We had to learn how to deal with it and did so successfully. We actually spend very little time tending the stove but we do try to never hurry as that is when accidents occur or occur more frequently.

Also remember that part of the coaling problems come from burning not-well-seasoned wood. You get more coals out of green wood than you will with good dry wood. I can tell the difference in burning 2 year old wood vs. 7 year old wood. In the second, there is much less of a coaling problem or, in other words, we get more coaling with wood that has seasoned for a shorter period of time. Also, those folks who want things to hurry up when it comes time to tend the stove might also think it ridiculous to put up wood 2-3 years before they need to burn it.

I do hope you find out what you need to do and your problem goes away. Good luck.
 
wkpoor said:
Before the burn is down to the coaling stage, we open the draft full. Usually this will keep the stove top between 400-500 and will get the coals burned down by the time we have to reload. If not, then we’ll throw a small split or two and leave the draft open full. That takes care of the problem. However, if the excessive coaling is caused by burning too green of wood, then this may or may not solve the problems. The only way to solve that is to burn only dry wood.
Click to expand...
Dennis, you must be retired. Because as I suspect your method works, if only your there to babysit it. Other thing is I don't even want to take the time to prick with the coal issue. When the stove needs more wood to stay hot I just want to open the door, throw in more wood and get on with it. I usually don't have time to stick around waiting on coals to burn down so I can make room for a load of wood.
As for the ash deposal thing. I have a 10gal trash can with lid, key here with lid, and I carefully drop in a scoop and quickly close the lid between scoops. Then I just leave the can till its full which may be several ash unloading times. Sometimes I just go ahead and unload coals too cause I need to go and also need to load the stove. My can sits on concrete so I don't care how hot it gets. At least its giving something back while it cools.
Click to expand...

It may not be a really big thing, but haven't I seen it mentioned that burning coals stored in a container inside the house can create the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning?

Ed
 
Intheswamp said:
It may not be a really big thing, but haven't I seen it mentioned that burning coals stored in a container inside the house can create the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning?

Ed
Click to expand...


Yep, Intheswamp , you're absolutely right!.

Also, I believe that spraying water into a stove to control ash dust can release carbon monoxide if there are still hot coals in the ash.

On the other hand, the amounts might be too small to worry about. Mounting a good CO monitor nearby seems like a no-brainer if one engages regularly in either type of practice.

Henk
 
Backwoods Savage said:
wkpoor, I have looked at your signature line but just because you have the tools and the stove has little to do with what was being discussed. As for being serious, I'd hope everyone who burns wood is serious.

One more thing always creeps into my thinking when I read that somebody doesn't want to do the necessary things when burning wood is that in their haste to leave the stove to get busy at something else, they someday might, in their haste, miss something. Fire is nothing to take lightly.

As for the coaling, for sure we get a lot more coals than we have in any or our previous stoves. We had to learn how to deal with it and did so successfully. We actually spend very little time tending the stove but we do try to never hurry as that is when accidents occur or occur more frequently.

Also remember that part of the coaling problems come from burning not-well-seasoned wood. You get more coals out of green wood than you will with good dry wood. I can tell the difference in burning 2 year old wood vs. 7 year old wood. In the second, there is much less of a coaling problem or, in other words, we get more coaling with wood that has seasoned for a shorter period of time. Also, those folks who want things to hurry up when it comes time to tend the stove might also think it ridiculous to put up wood 2-3 years before they need to burn it.

I do hope you find out what you need to do and your problem goes away. Good luck.
Click to expand...
I know you guys harp on the dry wood thing also. And here again I'm not a newby by any means here. I have measured my problem against kiln dried hardwood lumber scraps so I know my wood is dry. Unless you were to see firsthand my problem you might say, thats not much or, thats normal just deal with it. But lets face it, everyone who gets a new EPA stove has an issue with the coals. I read about it here everyday. I even now a guy who bought a stove, Pre EPA, off me without a grate who complains about the coals. Back to the relevancy of my earlier comment. I sure as heck wouldn't have invested thousands into my equipment if I weren't totally serious about burning wood. And believe me I am totally serious and I pay very close attention to my stove and my burning habits. Its very simple....I just want less coals in my stove when its time to add more wood!
As for the coals in the bucket thing. I do have a carbon monoxide detector nearby and it has never went off. My guess is because the air around the wood stove is basically air leaving the house. If the bucket sits near the stove, which it does, any gases will get sucked into the stove and expelled through the chimney.
 
phenolic, newbie here, but I've stumbled upon an ash removal method that allows me to get them out w/minimum of fuss and dust.

I don't mess with the ash drawer. I have a retired turkey roaster that I slide about half-way, give or take, into the firebox, and scoop ashes with a rubbermaid (yes, it's plastic) dustpan into the roaster. If I've remembered to open the stack damper, airborne ashes are swirled up the chimney. If any ashes spill on the threshhold or hearth, I clean them up with the door open, and again, the airborne ash is sucked up out the stove. I then take the roaster outside and (sooner or later) dump the ashes into a galvanized, lidded trash can. I've found that the dustpan, in concert with a stiff-bristled wallpaper-paste brush, works well in getting ash cleaned out, and if handled with at least a modicum of dexterity, can be used around warm coals without melting or burning. I do a quick visual inspect for any coals stuck to them after use, but so far it has not been a problem.
 
These threads are a lot of fun to read, some one has a problem and and you can say its the wood and be right 90% of the time so you have a lot of cherry picking going on. :lol:
 
phenolic said:
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.
Click to expand...

Phenolic, I don't think I can help with the ash blowing problem because it's one I've never had. I don't know what the difference is, but I have zero problem shoveling ash-- slowly-- and doing as Backwoods says, basically sliding the shovel gently out from under the ash when it's put it in the bucket. I may get a dusting right on the hearth, but no running around with dustcloths and Pledge ever necessary.

As for coals-- I've just had to become reconciled to scooping out a lot more (small) coals than I'd like when I remove ash, especially first thing in the morning after a low overnight burn. When larger lumps of charcoal build up when I've been running the stove hard, I pull them into a line at the front of the stove, put one or two small really dry splits on them and open the primary all the way. That burns them down enough to make room. Yes, the stovetop and room temperature drop a few degrees while I'm doing that, but I just throw an extra sweater on for an hour.

You might also try I think it was Shawneyboy's "zipper method," which works like a charm if you have enough short stuff to load at least partially NS instead of EW. (you can find a couple of threads on what it is and why it works through the search box on the site)
 
Our stove is about 4ft from our slider door. We put the metal bucket outside on the deck and carefully take the shovel and scoop out any unwanted ashes or coals. keeps all the dust outside and then is gets dumped into the vegetable garden to be tilled in the Spring. We do have an ash tray but this is so much easier than dealing with the very small tray.
 
BUy a used soot vac used for cleaning boilers. It works GREAT!! but beware of vacuuming up live coals.
 
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