Ash Pan Smoking in Lopi Yankee

[JBlank912]

I did something i should not have and this is what happens. I wanted to go to bed and noticed the fire pot had a lot of ash built up. I turned off the stove but only waited 10 minutes. I dumped the ashes into the ash pan. I saw some were still glowing but figured they would go out without the air flow. WRONG! An hour later I smelled smoke upstairs in my bedroom. When I went downstairs to the stove, there was smoke coming from the ash pan. I opened it and saw the black pellets smoldering/smoking. I scooped them out into a cup of water and they sizzled out. Once that was all done all seemed OK.

My question, other then Don't do that again, is, the ash pan was pretty full of old ash, other then some smoke smell was there any danger? There were no flames just smoke. Not enough for the smoke detectors just enough for a smell. Obviously I will not do that again, but just want to know for future. :red:

 

[crausch]

I am not familiar with the Lopi ash pan setup but the ash pan is designed to catch the occasional hot ashes or unburned pellets. You don't want to have a roaring fire going on in the pan, but a small amount smoldering or burning out should be safe. Any unburnt combustionables in the pan will cause smoke due to the temperatures in the firebox. I get this sometimes after cleaning my burn pot and scraping residue into the ash pan. Goes away after a minute or two. The smoke should end up in your firebox and drawn out with the rest of the exhaust. The next time you have your ash pan out for cleaning, look around where it fits in. More than likely you will not find anything that will burn. My ash pan completely seats against all metal. No wires or other combustionables up against the pan.