Oslo ash pan, a pan in the ash?

[szmaine]

Still learning up on our new stove.
So far we've had occasion to empty the ash only a couple times but some early observations...

The ash seems to spill down into the space around the ash pan fairly easily, requiring that space also to be shoveled and vacuumed out.
Today the pan was full up so I can see that it probably spilled over, but the first time it was not full and there was still ash to be cleaned out.
Do other people experience this?

Searched the subject and some people seemed to feel that the ash pan prevented good coaling and possible over consumption of wood - but only found one thread on this. Too soon to tell here but I've got my eye on it and can see it depends on the the wood - ie a stove full of elm 4" rounds certainly disappears quicker that some good splits of maple, black locust etc etc - and we are able to get good overnight burn (~ 7hrs) with the latter.
But in tweaking my air adjustment technique it seems that at ~ 75-80 % shut sometime I am getting more active flames than I should and have shut it down completely to get it to look as I read described - ie logs go fairly dark w/ the swirling ether of secondary burn above.

The ash pan door seems tight enough but can give a small wiggle up and down and it looks like compression on the top of the gasket is just on the top edge - should I try to adjust it? How?

Does anyone have any more thoughts on the ash pan assembly possibly being a hindrance to good burns in the absence of a leaky door?

 

[begreen]

In the Castine I found I got longer burns by having a pan full of ash. It insulated the coal bed better. I'm lazy and dump as as infrequently as possible. My routine was to clean out the ash when it was 2-3" inches deep inside the stove, on top of the grate.

 

[szmaine]

You mean just not ever empty the ash pan at all and only scoop from the firebox? Pretend it doesn't exist?

 

[mikepinto65]

You mean just not ever empty the ash pan at all and only scoop from the firebox? Pretend it doesn't exist?

Thats what I started doing after emptying the ash pan and making a mess 2 times. I only shovel out some of the fine white ash in the firebox once a week....just enough to leave 1/2-1" layer above the grate for insulation, oh and keep all the chunky coals too.

 

[ansehnlich1]

I empty my ash pan daily. I shovel out the ash pan drawer if needed. No problem.

 

[begreen]

You mean just not ever empty the ash pan at all and only scoop from the firebox? Pretend it doesn't exist?

It depends on how much wood I'd be burning. Usually, about once a month I would go through and do a thorough cleaning unless it was too cold to stop burning.

 

[szmaine]

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaugg

Otherwise known as "Lake Webster"

I'm originally from Woostah, MA (aka Worcester)

 

[f3cbboy]

i agree with begreen in emptying the ashpan on a day of indian summer only. read it on here about 2months after i got my jotul and it seems backwards but it does work. Just empty the ash out of the firebox.

 

[szmaine]

i agree with begreen in emptying the ashpan on a day of indian summer only. read it on here about 2months after i got my jotul and it seems backwards but it does work. Just empty the ash out of the firebox.

Well, this would suit us both better-
My husband empties the ash but does not see clean-up as part of the job...
and if it gets better burns what not to like.

 

[mikepinto65]

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaugg

Otherwise known as "Lake Webster"

I'm originally from Woostah, MA (aka Worcester)

Nice, my office is in Worcester on Gold Star Blvd. Ever enjoy a cocktail or two at Waterfron Marys? I live about two minutes away by boat or car!

 

[szmaine]

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaugg

Otherwise known as "Lake Webster"

I'm originally from Woostah, MA (aka Worcester)

Nice, my office is in Worcester on Gold Star Blvd. Ever enjoy a cocktail or two at Waterfron Marys? I live about two minutes away by boat or car!

Shocking how the mind goes- been out of there since 1998 and am having trouble remembering Gold Star Blvd - can't remember Waterfront Mary's either.
Worcester though an ugly sprawling mess I think of fondly for good ethnic foods: Water St Deli's - oh, the pastrami on rye, rhubens, bagels, polish sausage!, Pleasant St mid-east markets (Lebanese, Amenian), Shrewsbury St (Italian) Thai, Korean and many, many more. Neighborhood bars and great music local and otherwise): Gilrein's, Moynihan's, etc. I need to visit and eat!

 

[mikepinto65]

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaugg

Otherwise known as "Lake Webster"

I'm originally from Woostah, MA (aka Worcester)

Nice, my office is in Worcester on Gold Star Blvd. Ever enjoy a cocktail or two at Waterfron Marys? I live about two minutes away by boat or car!

Shocking how the mind goes- been out of there since 1998 and am having trouble remembering Gold Star Blvd - can't remember Waterfront Mary's either.
Worcester though an ugly sprawling mess I think of fondly for good ethnic foods: Water St Deli's - oh, the pastrami on rye, rhubens, bagels, polish sausage!, Pleasant St mid-east markets (Lebanese, Amenian), Shrewsbury St (Italian) Thai, Korean and many, many more. Neighborhood bars and great music local and otherwise): Gilrein's, Moynihan's, etc. I need to visit and eat!

There really are so many good places for food and bar hopping....a taste of shrewsbury st is always a fun time as well :cheese:

 

[SWNH]

I have to empty the ash pan every 24hrs. But I find it's not messy at all. Shake the pan in the stove a bit before puling it out will settle the ash. The brief time the ash door is open creates a strong draft which sucks up any fine ash that wants to become airborne. Take it out and dump it, put it UNDER the ash door, open the door and rake out any remainder from the space into the pan, reinsert the pan. This is all done while the stove is hot.

The challenge is walking across the living room to the front door slow enough to prevent the ash from flying, yet fast enough to keep my hands from burning...thru my welding gloves. I have a metal stool on the front porch that we use as an emergency hot-ash-pan holder. Then it's off the the second leg of the journey to the metal barrel on the driveway.

 

[mikepinto65]

I have to empty the ash pan every 24hrs. But I find it's not messy at all. Shake the pan in the stove a bit before puling it out will settle the ash. The brief time the ash door is open creates a strong draft which sucks up any fine ash that wants to become airborne. Take it out and dump it, put it UNDER the ash door, open the door and rake out any remainder from the space into the pan, reinsert the pan. This is all done while the stove is hot.

The challenge is walking across the living room to the front door slow enough to prevent the ash from flying, yet fast enough to keep my hands from burning...thru my welding gloves. I have a metal stool on the front porch that we use as an emergency hot-ash-pan holder. Then it's off the the second leg of the journey to the metal barrel on the driveway.

Why on Earth would you ever HAVE to empty the ash pan every 24hrs?????

 

[grommal]

I have to empty the ash pan every 24hrs. But I find it's not messy at all. Shake the pan in the stove a bit before puling it out will settle the ash. The brief time the ash door is open creates a strong draft which sucks up any fine ash that wants to become airborne. Take it out and dump it, put it UNDER the ash door, open the door and rake out any remainder from the space into the pan, reinsert the pan. This is all done while the stove is hot.

The challenge is walking across the living room to the front door slow enough to prevent the ash from flying, yet fast enough to keep my hands from burning...thru my welding gloves. I have a metal stool on the front porch that we use as an emergency hot-ash-pan holder. Then it's off the the second leg of the journey to the metal barrel on the driveway.

Why on Earth would you ever HAVE to empty the ash pan every 24hrs?????

x2 on the question. Seems way too frequent.

I've only had 8 days worth of burning in our new Oslo so far, and have emptied it twice. It didn't need it either time, but I was trying to avoid an overfilled pan, so I'm working my way up. In 23 years of burning our old VC, emptying weekly or even every 8-10 days was about right during 24/7 burning. The Oslo ash pan is a bit bigger, so I'm anticipating waiting at least as long once I get a feel for it. The trick is to not rake too much of the ash into the pan too often. I like a good layer of ash in the stove, and that can be done even with the slots in the firebox floor if you don't rake excessively.

 

[SWNH]

Why on Earth would you ever HAVE to empty the ash pan every 24hrs?????

Uhhh....because it's practically full. Yes, I rake the ashes once a day to expose the coals to get the morning load of splits going. I am now trying the "don't rake the ashes" technique, so we'll see if that helps. Sorry, but I briefly had a stove that I had to shovel out the ashes. Never again. PITA (IMHO) and way too messy (also, can't do it with a full blaze going). But with and extra ash pan, a hot-swap is always available.

 

[mikepinto65]

Why on Earth would you ever HAVE to empty the ash pan every 24hrs?????

Uhhh....because it's practically full. Yes, I rake the ashes once a day to expose the coals to get the morning load of splits going. I am now trying the "don't rake the ashes" technique, so we'll see if that helps. Sorry, but I briefly had a stove that I had to shovel out the ashes. Never again. PITA (IMHO) and way too messy (also, can't do it with a full blaze going). But with and extra ash pan, a hot-swap is always available.

I dont get it, the Oslo's ash pan holds a good amount of ash that just dosnt seem right....Have you tried opening the ash door and shakeing the pan back and forth to knock the ash down into place in the pan?? Im sorry but I think you underestimating the size of it and the.

 

[SWNH]

Why on Earth would you ever HAVE to empty the ash pan every 24hrs?????

Uhhh....because it's practically full. Yes, I rake the ashes once a day to expose the coals to get the morning load of splits going. I am now trying the "don't rake the ashes" technique, so we'll see if that helps. Sorry, but I briefly had a stove that I had to shovel out the ashes. Never again. PITA (IMHO) and way too messy (also, can't do it with a full blaze going). But with and extra ash pan, a hot-swap is always available.

I dont get it, the Oslo's ash pan holds a good amount of ash that just doesn't seem right....Have you tried opening the ash door and shaking the pan back and forth to knock the ash down into place in the pan?? I'm sorry but I think you underestimating the size of it and the.

Yes I have. Full to me means within 1/4" of the rim. Sometimes I can go a day and a half, but I risk an overflow (which get messy when taking out the pan).

 

[szmaine]

I guess it's taken us a week of regular burning to fill the ash pan brim-full.
Possibly though if we shake it up a bit before taking it out we'd fare better - we probably are scraping off some of the high spots into the ash pan compartment making the big mess.

 

[semipro]

We empty the ashpan on our Oslo when needed but always in the morning. It does seem to help to have some ash in the pan to maintain an overnight fire. Both our Olso and Firelight need to have the ash pan tray cleaned out every once in a while as some ash does seem to get around it. All in all the convenience of having the ash pans outweighs these minor issues for us.

 

[mikepinto65]

well if thats what you have to do, thats what you have to do.....just seems a little off to me ( the every day cleaning)

 

[LLigetfa]

I will fill up a 6 gal pail in a weeks worth of burning.

Wow. Burning Black Ash 24/7 in very cold weather, it takes me nearly a week to fill a coal hod, and that's with some hot embers mixed in. If I had some of those real hardwoods, maybe I could go two weeks.

 

[ansehnlich1]

I empty my ash pan daily, and when I'm burnin' hard it's full. I think something's going on here that doesn't make sense. I hear you all talkin about once a week emptying of the pan, what do you all do? Do you just keep throwing wood in the firebox without raking the coals?

Or, maybe your draft is stronger than mine and you burn stuff up finer than I do....

Or, maybe you're not burning as much wood/heating as much area?

Somethings up here and I'd like to know what it is, cuz my ash pan is full, or close to it, every 24 hours.

What say you?

 

[mikepinto65]

Im not sure whats going on, maybe im just lucky.
I let my ash pan stay full at all times and only scoop fine white ash from my fire box every 4-5 days. Im lucky to be removing a half gallon pails worth of it. All Im doing is running it with good hardwood and letting it run hot (400-500 degrees). If I have a lot of coals at the end of the burn cycle than I spread them evenly across the firebox and load and repeat. If I have a few red coal in the morning I rake em forward and build a smaller fire making more coals to spread. I find that cycling the stove up and down does a real good job of turning everything to snow white ash at one point or another. That fine white ash, in turn, does a REAL good job of keeping coals in the fire box longer (9-10hrs has been my norm with 20-30 degrees night time temps).

 

[grommal]

When burning 24/7 I empty the pan daily also as it is nearly full. I will fill up a 6 gal pail in a weeks worth of burning.

But I only burn pine so I use more wood than you hardwood heaters.

Maybe wood type is the difference then. A weeks worth of hardwood ash fits into the Oslo pan easily. Another factor is bark. Bark leaves much more ash than the interior wood. So if the wood is well-seasoned with at least some of the bark falling off, you get even less ash.