Ash pan

I wanted to know if you are supposed to burn your woodstove with the ashpan opened or closed.

generally speaking you should keep it closed. Burning w/ it open may result in overfiring. But your user's manual should address this issue. Some people crack the ash door open when initially lighting to help with drafting.

closed! otherwise you can overfire the stove! that should be addressed in your manual. Some people cheat and give there stove a jump start in the start up by opening the ash pan, thats a dangerous habit to get in, the bottem can super heat realative to the rest of the stove, the metal doesnt expand uniformy, and you can pop the seams of the stove. So be carefull with using the ash pan as a air source. What stove did you buy again?

MSG, so much more eloquent than I! %-P

we posted at the same time, and both had the same answer!