Heritage leaving unburnt coals?

[Calef]

My Heritage burns great except I can't seem to get it to burn all the coals completely.

With my 1984 Elmira wood stove when I woke up in the morning there was just a pile of white ash. Every time it was 100% burned with nothing left.

I love that I can have overnight burns with the heritage, but i find it annoying that I cannot get the stove to burn all the coals. It I leave it for a day or two with the air all the way open the stove will go cold, the coals will go cold, but it won't chew through through the last of the coals. What's up with that?

I find this annoying because 1. I want to burn all the fuel I put in it and 2. Every day when I wake up, it would be nice to sort our the live coals from the ash and keep burning, but instead I get a pile of coals (live and dead). How are you supposed to ash it? Scoop out a pile of live and dead coals? Or just let the coals keep stacking up?

I have experimented with leaving the air intake all the way open or closed and it makes little difference.

Is this typical of the heritage? Do other Heritage owners get this issue? Perhaps I just need to change my expectation or ashing habits.

Could it be because my wood is only 9 months since cut, perhaps dryer wood will solve it? Any other theories?

THANKS!

 

[blujacket]

Could it be because my wood is only 9 months since cut, perhaps dryer wood will solve it? Any other theories?

THANKS!

That will do it

 

[fire_man]

Excessive coaling is a classic sign that your wood is not properly seasoned. Been There, done that, never again!!

 

[Todd]

Could also be a draft problem. What's your chimney setup?

 

[Calef]

Straight shot out the top, single pipe to the metal asbestos through the roof. It sticks up maybe 5 feet above the roof. Total length I am guessing is 14-18 feet.

 

[pen]

Could also be a draft problem. What's your chimney setup?

Yep, that's what I was thinking too.

In the meantime, before those coals go cols you could try throwing a piece of kindling in there w/ the air open to get the heat up a bit and help burn the coals down. Another option is to use a load of or mix in some softwoods here and there as they won't coal up as much as the hardwoods.

pen

 

[nyokie]

My englander 30 is coaling pretty bad as well, let it go a week without emptying and i had a pile of red coals all burning but almost to the top of the bricks when piled up. Im blaming it on not so good wood as ive had the glass go dark a time or 2 and have seen liquid bubbling out some logs

 

[Calef]

Or maybe I could just not empty the ashes until they turns to white dusty stuff.... Other than a decreased firebox, is there really a downside to letting the coals pile up 6 inches? I feel like the coals burn again nicely when I get another fire going... I hate to bring them out.

 

[Calef]

Yeah... at nine months old, my wood is less than ideal. I have been cutting and splitting my own wood so I think I am going to have to ether bust ass to get a year ahead or break down and buy a years worth of wood so I can keep only cutting 1 years at a time. Also, building a proper woodshed is on my list of things to do!

 

[nyokie]

I let mine pile up but was cutting into the room for logs. I opened the draft wide open and let most of them burn down, took couple of hours the took the ashes out