Does this sound like a bad idea?

I want to bank my coals with ash when i don't really want to reload. My concern is would this cause a CO2 or whatever you call it problem? My draft is great but i just thought i would ask before i started doing it.

its probably no different than waking up to ash in the firebox, stir it around and under the ash is a ton of coals. That's what I woke up to this morning. I thought my fire was out. Stirred the ashes and found a sh** load of hot coals and no CO2 problem here if that make any sense

No problem at all. I just shoveled some ash out of my stove and I'm sure I uncovered some coals down in there that have be in there since it got cold on Sunday. I can't imagine what harm it could cause to cover them up. Although, I'm not positive you'll be thrilled with the results either.

Yep that does make sense. Thank you all for the help.

One of the mods (forget who) has a post somewhere on the forum advising against this. For him it did cause a dangerous carbon monoxide (CO) issue. I guess there is a difference between letting a good fire burn itself nearly out vs burying red coals in ash to hold them for a later startup. If I can find the post, I'll link it here.

Found it -

http://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/i-used-to-recommend-banking-coals-now-i-dont.80583/#post-1029252

I find it extremely unlikely that banking the coals presents any greater risk than simply letting a fire burn down. If I ever reload before my fire has burned down to a small coal bed, then I get a large coal bed, with plenty of coals buried under ash. To burn the coals down quickly, if it is cold out and I want to keep the stove putting out lots of heat, I have to open the air pretty fully, rake the coals a bit to expose the covered coals, close door, wait a while and repeat. This process can take several hours. If it isn't really cold out, or if I am away from the home, then I in essence have banked coals that take absolutely forever to burn down.

That said, I wouldn't take the time or energy to bank my coals. My stove will maintain coals for hours unless it is really cold out (see above), so if I am going to reload within three or four hours I can just leave the stove alone. If I had any concern about there being enough coals to start in three or four hours, but had the house warm enough so I didn't want a big fire, I'd just toss a small split on the fire to maintain a small fire. If I was going to let the fire go out for half a day or a day, then I'd want the coals to burn down to ash, because I'd have better reloads. I wouldn't worry about the coals: if I had enough to start the load, great. If not, the stove starts really well with any of many firestarting methods: white birch bark, newspaper, tinder and kindling, supercedar, home made fires starter. Doesn't take any longer than banking the coals would.

Caveat: Soapstone stove. May retain enough more heat to maintain a good draft longer than most, making a "cold" start 12 to 24 hours after the last start easier than for those without soapstone.

Yeah now i remember that thread i think i will stay away from banking coals.