I am running a Blaze king Ultra, and the fire box is in 8 inches deep. I have been running 24/7 . I have about 8 inches of hot red coals that are producing extreme heat. We just keep throwing wood on when the house temp drops. How can I burn these into ashes? Dont want to waste usable heat want to utilize that energy.
how to burn down hot coals
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It's all about the timing. Naw, not really, these things keep those coals going forever. I just cleaned mine Sun. night. Last load was the previous Fri. morning. I still had coals after 3 days, enough that that I shuffled them around as I cleaned the ash, spread 'em out, threw on some cedar shake, and it took right off. you may just have to scoop 'em out to make room for new stuff. Losing that bottom 8" really hurts at times.
Maybe, maybe not. My wood is all Pine and Aspen- not known for good coaling, yet it does. Can't hurt to try though.
At times, more coals than I need has been a problem for me too. I also don't want to shovel them out and waste a good heat source - but on my Keystone, with it's small firebox, to many coals limits the amount of splits I can get into the stove and that reduces my btu output and burn times.
I have been trying several things with varied success. One thing I do is when the coals get hot is to let the damper full open so they can burn to ash. Another is to load to one side of the coals with a split so I can get some flame heat off the log, but not smother the coals on the other side of the sove.
I've been burning some locust this past weekend and it is not totally seasoned. I'm mixing it in with my really good stuff, but the coals off that locust is hard to get to ashes. My Keystone has a little air hole in the bottom side of the ash pan housing, which I had plugged. I prefer to run the stove this way as I have total control of the air intake and get a front to back burn, but the little air hole, when open, allows air into the stove from under the floor and the coals burn to ash as they have another source of air. I re-opened the hole and gave it a try overnight last night and when I got up this morning, I had some real fine ash. I'm still playing around with this, but when I am burning hard and loading the stove more frequently, it's nice to have the coals burn to ashes and that makes for more room to load more wood and makes it easier to rake ashes into the ash pan.
Not sure if your stove has anything like the above, but something to think about.
Good luck,
Bill
I have been trying several things with varied success. One thing I do is when the coals get hot is to let the damper full open so they can burn to ash. Another is to load to one side of the coals with a split so I can get some flame heat off the log, but not smother the coals on the other side of the sove.
I've been burning some locust this past weekend and it is not totally seasoned. I'm mixing it in with my really good stuff, but the coals off that locust is hard to get to ashes. My Keystone has a little air hole in the bottom side of the ash pan housing, which I had plugged. I prefer to run the stove this way as I have total control of the air intake and get a front to back burn, but the little air hole, when open, allows air into the stove from under the floor and the coals burn to ash as they have another source of air. I re-opened the hole and gave it a try overnight last night and when I got up this morning, I had some real fine ash. I'm still playing around with this, but when I am burning hard and loading the stove more frequently, it's nice to have the coals burn to ashes and that makes for more room to load more wood and makes it easier to rake ashes into the ash pan.
Not sure if your stove has anything like the above, but something to think about.
Good luck,
Bill
When it is very cold, and I want to reload sooner rather than later to keep the house warm, as soon as the load enters the coaling phase of the burn cycle I open the primary air at least 3/4, sometimes full. The every hour or so, I pull the large coals into a central pile - usually results in nice blue flames that keep the stovetop from dropping quickly. By the time the stovetop is at ~ 300*, I'm usually ready to load up on a nice, hot, but smaller bed of coals. Cheers!
I do very similar to NH_Wood. In cold weather, as soon as the wood goes to the coaling stage I open the air up to #2 (which is half way on the Fireview). This way I get more heat out of those coals and they burn down faster. I find that the stove top temp drops down to around 300 F and all I have left are small hot coals and ash. Burning on a lower draft setting leaves more coals and lower stove top temps.
I rake all the coals to the front of the stove and place 2 splits on top of each other in the back of the stove. Then I place on split on top of the coals in the front and open the air all the way. After 30 min the raked up coals in the front are gone and the splits in the back are on their way to being the new coals. This allows me to keep my temperature around 400 for a good 5 hrs.
Reload less often.
If I have to throw wood in teh stove "early" I may have lots of coals like you talk about, but if I just reload every 12-14 hrs there isn't much left. Plenty to catch the fresh wood on fire right away still though.
All I do is spread them out and put fresh wood. When the ashes get too deep (about level with the door) I clean it out.
If I have to throw wood in teh stove "early" I may have lots of coals like you talk about, but if I just reload every 12-14 hrs there isn't much left. Plenty to catch the fresh wood on fire right away still though.
All I do is spread them out and put fresh wood. When the ashes get too deep (about level with the door) I clean it out.
kwikrp said:
Excess coals seems to be a common problem. It will be much worse with not really dry wood but there is a way around it. FWIW, when we got our new Fireview, this is the first time I ever had a problem with excess coals. Here is how we fixed the problem:
Before the wood has burned down to nothing but coals, we open our draft FULL open. Our stovetop temperature might be 350-400 degrees. We leave the draft full open until the coals have burned down. If we have to hurry things we will add a small split or even some kindling on top of the coals. But opening the draft to full open seems to be the biggest trick to burning them down. We try to do this on every burn cycle.
I have to chuckle a bit here. With only pine and spruce here, it takes hours to get a bed of coals built. Last thing I want to do is figure a way to get rid of them.
Bypass the cat and open the air full, those 8" of coals will burn down fast and still throw heat. If this problem continues you need to burn a little hotter or turn up the air 1-2 hours before reloads.
I bun on "high" when the wood is almost gone for about 2 hours,
rake the coals to the front, close to the door, in a mound & "high" for another hour.
Then rake the coals around & reload.
If time to empty, rake some coals to the side, shovel out ashes, rake coals to the other side, empty that side
reload & burn for another 6 -8 days.
On cold days, I heat the house up a few degrees warmer than normal, then do the coal burn down.
rake the coals to the front, close to the door, in a mound & "high" for another hour.
Then rake the coals around & reload.
If time to empty, rake some coals to the side, shovel out ashes, rake coals to the other side, empty that side
reload & burn for another 6 -8 days.
On cold days, I heat the house up a few degrees warmer than normal, then do the coal burn down.
I rake all mine to the front open the air wide for half and hour then I stoke the coals and leave the door open an inch. I only leave the door open while I am in the room. I burn pine as well and after 15-45 minuets the coals are nearly gone.
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