My problem is the size of the compartment it allows the ash to build much higher than the ash pan. This can be done very very easily because of the size of the stove Jotul F50 is. When you go to pull it out ash goes everywhere and it is impossible to not do that if you do not empty when it is level. It is very hard to see when it is full u less you look through the top load door with a flashlight which just annoys me. The other major issue is if you do not get the ashes out of the back of the ash pan compartment it will not let the pan go back in all the way. Pete
Same with the Oslo. If I wait too long the ashes will rake off the top at the opening and fall back. Sometimes some spill out onto the hearth (oh, the humanity!). And yes, if you ignore them they will keep the door from closing. My fireplace tools include a shovel and a brush. One, two, three, four passes with the shovel and the compartment is empty - a few seconds. Pick up and dump the entire contents into a 30 gal. ash can (standing upwind!), return the pan and taking the same shovel use the brush to sweep the hearth - another 20 or 30 seconds. If company is coming, I clean up the tile a bit more with a damp rag. This is quick, and keeps all the dust to a very small area of the hearth.
Now, stoves are different, hearths are different. The F-50 has a large front opening which would make shoveling far easier than through the little side door of my Oslo (as to why you never open the front door of an Oslo, see older posts). But in my case, the alternative is to poke around with some kind of rake, try and separate the ash from the coals (the ones at the back are two feet away from the opening), empty the ashes one shovelful at a time into a bucket, carry it out and dump it into an ash can, come back and clean up the spilled ashes around the door, and hope my wife never notices the cloud of ash I created settling on the furniture. Yes, I have done that (Hearthstone - nearly 25 years ago), and no, I do not want to ever again. I freely admit that most of you are likely more adroit than myself, but I was never able to shovel ashes without spilling a startling amount, and I always got dust in the air. That is one of the great things about freedom, for, although there is some bureaucrat even now likely working on a $100 million program to regulate the Removal and Disposal of Wood Ash, Frequency and Method Thereof, at present we can do it the way that is most convenient for us.
Finally, I do not think the Oslo, or at least mine, will tolerate a buildup of ash in the firebox. It appears to me that secondary combustion is weaker to non-existent when the pan gets full.