How do people feel about the Woodstock built in ashpans? Has Woodstock gotten around the problems reported on other stoves - air leaks, difficult to use, useless, etc? Do you use them or not?
Woodstock Ashpan
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Come on Woodstock-onians, lets hear some opinions! I'm interested in this one,especially since the new stove will have an ash pan as an option. Woodstock does a pretty good job making things work, but I have heard other stove designs where the ash pan was more of a nuisance.
One complaint is that the coal bed cools off too much because the insulating quality of the ashes evaporates into the ash pan, so re-loads are harder to light.
One complaint is that the coal bed cools off too much because the insulating quality of the ashes evaporates into the ash pan, so re-loads are harder to light.
I like the Keystone ash pan so much I'm trading out my Fireview for another Keystone. Well, that's not really the only reason but one of the biggest. The bottom of the fire box has a nice heavy duty cast iron slotted grate that the ash falls through. The ash pan door has a tight seal, and the pan is big enough to hold 2-3 days worth of ash, I like to dump my ash every other day when burning it 24/7.
I was also told Woodstock will be working on an ash pan option for the Fireview after they finish the new stove.
I was also told Woodstock will be working on an ash pan option for the Fireview after they finish the new stove.
Todd:
Does the ash pan cause the coals to cool down faster in the keystone than in the fireview? If you placed equal amounts of wood in the Fireview and Keystone (assuming the same starting temperatures) would the coal beds be the same at the end of the burn?
You are a perfect test case, you have similar stoves - one with and one without the ash pan.
Does the ash pan cause the coals to cool down faster in the keystone than in the fireview? If you placed equal amounts of wood in the Fireview and Keystone (assuming the same starting temperatures) would the coal beds be the same at the end of the burn?
You are a perfect test case, you have similar stoves - one with and one without the ash pan.
fire_man said:
If I load similar sized loads I can get similar burn times and coals but there are some differences. The Fireview doesn't drop ash into a pan like the Keystone so there tends to be a lot of ash to help insulate the coals, so I guess the Fireview can hold the coals a little longer if you don't keep the fire box clean. Personally I don't like more than an inch of ash in there, you can't get as much wood in the box and you could have coaling problems.
The Keystone has a 1/4" hole drilled into the back of the ash pan housing that lets in a little extra air up though the ash pan to help complete combustion. This hole can effect the coals somewhat on a hotter burn but I also found I can turn the air down much further than the Fireview and get a longer burn with a lower heat output without having a big unburnt chunk of wood in the back.
HollowHill said:
The ash pan on the Keystone is perfect. I have read a lot of dislikes with regards to some ash pans on other stoves, but the Keystone's ash pan works great. It is easy to rake ash into it and a bunch of ash simply falls into it via gravity as there are slots across the bottom of the stove floor vs one location. I use the ash pan only for removing ashes - no shoveling and no dust. Great design & the Keystone is a looker too!
Bill
fire_man said:
I find no difference in re-lighting the stove with an empty ash pan or full or with 1 inch-ish of coals. No cool down, no problem re-lighting the stove.
Bill
I have not posted before here because the Fireview had no ash pan. However, I will state this is the first stove (of several) we've owned without an ash pan. We like it this way.
Backwoods Savage said:
If the Fireview had the option to retrofit an ashpan, would you go for it?
I own a stove with a crappy ash pan. It is so so easy to shovel the ashes out every couple of weeks that I can't imagine why anyone would want an ashpan with the additional gaskets and door latch issues. My local woods produce ash chunks, like clinkers, that wouldn't just fall through the slots.
Highbeam said:
I can't speak to other stoves, but for the Keystone, the ashpan is a great design. There is one gasket and it sets on a flat surface - not much to go wrong with. The ash pan has a slickery cover that can slide over it if you want to completely seal off ash dust prior to dumping the ash, but I really don't use it. The floor of the stove has a generous amount of slots across it so ash does not have to be raked to one single opening. The ash pan housing has a small hole in it, about 3/16 inch in diameter and allows a bit of air up through the floor to the fire. At first I plugged this hole, but later found the additional air did a great job of burning the coals from the bottom up and that makes for fine ash that much of falls into the ash pan on it's own without any raking. When I load the stove, I can simply take my log, poker or shovel and rake the coals level and the ash falls out of them into the pan - it's that simple. You can empty the ashes with the stove cool or when it is at the hottest. I can go 3 days of hard burning before emptying it. Open the door, pull out the ash pan, carry the ashes outside - no mess, no dust. It is a terrific design.
The Woodstock Keystone is really a fine stove from top to bottom and the ash pan set-up goes a long way towards that end. I just wish that Woodstock would have simply scaled-up this design to a larger firebox than dreaming up their new design.
Thanks,
Bill
Another thing I noticed between the two Woodstock stoves is, once the Fireview fills up with an inch or two of ash it's no larger than the Keystone's fire box. I have to clean out the Fireview every other day to get a full capacity load in there. Then you have a shovel mishap every once in awhile by bumping the side of the door or ash bucket and the wife gets pissed!
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