How to burn down those coals and not freeze to death

[Nate Finch]

About every two weeks, the stove fills up with enough coals that we can't fit actual wood in there anymore... these are glowing orange coals, so pretty hot, but not hot enough to keep the house warm, yet they still have a lot of thermal potential, it's just on slow release.

Is there a good way to get these to burn down quickly? Or do we have to dump them in an ash bin and set them out in the snow to cool off and eventually dispose of them.

My stove doesn't have an ash cleanout tray, so I can't just take the actual ashes out without digging through redhot coals.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
-Nate

 

[cmonSTART]

Rake them to the front of the firebox into a big pile. Put one small split on top of them, E/W. Then, close the door and leave the air full open. Repeat a few times and see how many you have left.

 

[Battenkiller]

I suspect there is a lot of compacted ashes in there as well. Two weeks is an awfully long time to let ashes accumulate unless you have an ash pan to collect them into. I always find that there aren't as many coals in there as it looks. I try to remove a little ash each day and my stove seems to like it that way. Hard to do, though, when it's 20 below zero and you have the stove cranked to the max 24/7. I prefer my sunburn to come from the sun, not the stove, so I wait for a warmer day to let the stove's heat run down a bit.

One tip I can give you if you really don't want to waste the charcoal is to use a commercial stainless steel deep-fry skimmer (to the right in the attached photo) to sift the coals out. They are very cheap if you go to a restaurant supply house. The 1/4" mesh size is ideal, as it lets the ashes fall right on through with a few shakes, but leaves even the smallest embers behind in the skimmer. Toss the recovered coals off to one side of the stove and grab another scoop. When you are done, shovel out the pure ash and you're back in business. Takes about 5 minutes, and is a lot less hairy than dumping the entire box full of hot coals into a bucket and running outside with them. Trust me, I've done it both ways. This way may seem anal to some (it ain't just about the lost fuel to me), but it is the best way to handle the problem I've come across in 25 years.

 

[szmaine]

I just went though that conversation here and got lots of good answers...

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/69459/

 

[PapaDave]

BK, that's a great idea.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

cmonstart's suggestion is what I use. Save small dry pine splits for this- you will get good heat and burn down coals.

 

[Jack Straw]

I have a similiar problem.I try not to close the primary air so much during really cold weather when I am putting alot of wood in
the stove. I want hotter and shorter fires then. When its warmer I let the fire go longer and the coals are enough to heat the house during the day.

 

[firefighterjake]

Stir.

Open air control.

Plop a small split on top of the piled coals . . . preferably softwood.

Wait for half an hour to an hour . . . return and wonder where the coals magically disappeared.

 

[Wood Duck]

Every two weeks? I have this problem every morning! I pull the coals to the front and put a split across the top of the coal pile. If the weather is warmish I only put one or two splits on and burn with the air open. If the weather is cold I might add several more splits in back or on top. there are a couple of recent threads, including one with a video link that show this process well.

 

[bogydave]

From Brother Bart's: How & why in another post similar topic
http://www.woodheat.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=74

 

[wkpoor]

This is extremely common with EPA stoves. It seems most n people struggle with the coaling issue just like I am with my new EPA stove. Only difference is I deal with it everyday. I can run out of room for wood in 24hrs. Amazing you can go 2wks before its a problem. I guess we are on both ends of this spectrum. I've been taking the advise here and raking coals forward leaving the door cracked so they can get all the air. Every 1/2hr or so I rake them around to bring more fresh ones up. After about 90mins I go ahead and shovel out all but enough to leave a thin coal bed. I just leave them in a 20gal steel bucket with locking lid till they cool and take em out at my convienence. I'm sure when the weather gets warmer I'll like the coaling issue.

 

[dafattkidd]

I said this in the thread mentioned by szmaine, but didn't hear any feedback from others about it. Curious what you guys think.

Sometimes what I do when i have a huge bed of coals, and I’m going to be in the room with the stove for a bit is open the door of the stove all the way and keep the fan on low. This really pumps heat into the room and burns down the coals.

Is this not kosher? I’ve never heard of anyone else doing this, but it works really well. I’m really curious if this is bad for some reason I’m not aware of. CO2 in the room? What do you guys think of this method?

 

[bogydave]

I said this in the thread mentioned by szmaine, but didn't hear any feedback from others about it. Curious what you guys think.

Sometimes what I do when i have a huge bed of coals, and I’m going to be in the room with the stove for a bit is open the door of the stove all the way and keep the fan on low. This really pumps heat into the room and burns down the coals.

Is this not kosher? I’ve never heard of anyone else doing this, but it works really well. I’m really curious if this is bad for some reason I’m not aware of. CO2 in the room? What do you guys think of this method?

Fine to do but your stove is sucking in allot more of warm air thru the door & up the stack , lots more cold outside air is coming in someplace.
It works & it is ok.

I crack the door when starting a fire, more air, for a short time. or right before I empty the ashes, I crack it about 5 min to get a good draft gong so it sucks the dust up the stack.

 

[dafattkidd]

I said this in the thread mentioned by szmaine, but didn't hear any feedback from others about it. Curious what you guys think.

Sometimes what I do when i have a huge bed of coals, and I’m going to be in the room with the stove for a bit is open the door of the stove all the way and keep the fan on low. This really pumps heat into the room and burns down the coals.

Is this not kosher? I’ve never heard of anyone else doing this, but it works really well. I’m really curious if this is bad for some reason I’m not aware of. CO2 in the room? What do you guys think of this method?

Fine to do but your stove is sucking in allot more of warm air thru the door & up the stack , lots more cold outside air is coming in someplace.
It works & it is ok.

I crack the door when starting a fire, more air, for a short time. or right before I empty the ashes, I crack it about 5 min to get a good draft gong so it sucks the dust up the stack.

Thanks for the reply, Dave. I see an increase in temperature in the room every time I do this and have even seen near by rooms increase in temp when doing this. I only once had too many coals with the Osburn 2400, (That was my fault), but with my smaller stove it was a regular thing for us. Thanks again

 

[EJL923]

as bk said, get rid of the ashes, which are insulating the coals. I usually use a good coal bed as an excuse to get rid of some ash. That way, when all those coals burn down, you have...more ash, which is desired.

 

[Hurricane]

Wood type and moisture content have a lot to do with the coaling too. I notice that black Locust and not completely seasoned ( 1 year ) oak coal a lot more for me. I never have any coaling problems with soft woods.
I also rake the coals forward throw small split or two on and open the air all the way. Do you rake the coals forward on every reload? That is something I learned here and it works well.

 

[Got Wood]

On every reload I do a quick "stir" (poker to bottom of ash bed and lift) of the ash/coal bed - essentially bringing the coals to the surface then spread the coals over the surface leaving a low "trench" from front to back in the center to allow air flow. Then reload and go. I find this is effective in burning down the coals and with getting the fire going quickly. Depending on circumstance (my time and the status of the coals) I may let it sit getting air for a bit before reloading as the air on the coals helps get them cranking red.

 

[wkpoor]

I said this in the thread mentioned by szmaine, but didn't hear any feedback from others about it. Curious what you guys think.

Sometimes what I do when i have a huge bed of coals, and I’m going to be in the room with the stove for a bit is open the door of the stove all the way and keep the fan on low. This really pumps heat into the room and burns down the coals.

Is this not kosher? I’ve never heard of anyone else doing this, but it works really well. I’m really curious if this is bad for some reason I’m not aware of. CO2 in the room? What do you guys think of this method?

I've been doing the exact same thing. Seems to work for me too. No fan but I just open the door wide open and yes the heat flows out nicely and helps get rid of the coals faster. Seems to me these EPA stoves could have a little better balance with the primary air to get the coals to burn down at a bit faster rate.

 

[dafattkidd]

I said this in the thread mentioned by szmaine, but didn't hear any feedback from others about it. Curious what you guys think.

Sometimes what I do when i have a huge bed of coals, and I’m going to be in the room with the stove for a bit is open the door of the stove all the way and keep the fan on low. This really pumps heat into the room and burns down the coals.

Is this not kosher? I’ve never heard of anyone else doing this, but it works really well. I’m really curious if this is bad for some reason I’m not aware of. CO2 in the room? What do you guys think of this method?

I've been doing the exact same thing. Seems to work for me too. No fan but I just open the door wide open and yes the heat flows out nicely and helps get rid of the coals faster. Seems to me these EPA stoves could have a little better balance with the primary air to get the coals to burn down at a bit faster rate.

Glad to hear I'm not alone in this. I wonder if different setups respond differently when doing this. I just know with my chimney and house layout it worked very well. The only problem was I didn't always have time to babysit the stove with the door open. I currently have a much larger stove and face the opposite problem. I keep overheating my house. I'm still figuring out a good method.

 

[pen]

I currently have a much larger stove and face the opposite problem. I keep overheating my house. I'm still figuring out a good method.

It's a matter of house vs. schedule. A large stove gives you long burn times w/ a full load but also produces a lot of heat. A small stove, well, you do the math.

It's tough to get a long burn w/ low heat unless you go w/ a cat.

pen

 

[wahoowad]

Alternate stove loads of hardwood with loads of softwood like pine and poplar. The softwood will burn great but leave far fewer coals. While they burn they help the existing coals burn down too.

On rare occasions I will scoop out the entire load of ash/coals, dump them outside in my large ash can. Inside this ash can is a wire basket that I shake and the ash fall thru leaving just the larger coals. These go back in the clean stove and the next load started. A clean stove also helps the coal situation as the ashbed insulated and helps slow down coal burning

 

[jerseykat1]

what i find works for me and this is a recent discovery. at night i burn fully closed when it is fully loaded, if i have to wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom or something and the stove temp as gone down and there is less flames, i crank that primary wide open and go back to sleep (this gets more heat out of the dying fire and burns down coals quickly, you should only crank it wide open when you know that it wont blaze back up to a massive fire, you will know this with more usage) come morning time there is still a decent amount of coals left (a tad more than i like) so i leave the primary wide open rake the coals to the front and throw 2 2x4 sized splits on top of it. This get that heat cranking again, it wont over fire because its only 2 small splits, and it burns down the rest of those coals quickly. Throughout the rest of the day i just burn 4 small to medium sized splits at a time with primary half open. This keeps the coals from building up, keeps me from constantly reloading, keeps the house hot.

I have learned that having a lot of coals build up is usually when you are trying to get the longest burn times from your wood. that slow burn just doesnt allow enough air into the box to burn those coals down. But it seems to be a trade off for burning efficiently.