Any tips to cleanly raise coals above the ashes?

[EbS-P]

How often are you removing ash?
My pine doesn’t leave a lot of ash. If burn 24/7 I could go about 3-4 weeks. (I always get
Temps warm enough that I won’t have any coals.

 

[rashomon]

How often are you removing ash?
My pine doesn’t leave a lot of ash. If burn 24/7 I could go about 3-4 weeks. (I always get
Temps warm enough that I won’t have any coals.

That’s the thing. I could remove a few big scoops daily if they included the roughly 1/2 of which are coals. Sifting out and reburning the coals I could stretch that to three days. By day four the ash bed is approaching maybe 2” deep across the entire bottom of the stove and I need to push it away from the front lip. I thought that area needed to be clear for air? — air wash for the window maybe?

I can’t fathom how someone would have NO ash. The wood turns to something doesn’t it? Pine or hardwood?

 

[30WCF]

30WCF, What tool are you using? Is that a hoe? I find my coals buried in the morning so my shovel doesn't easily take them from the top. Someone mentioned using a poker and that's been working well in place of my trying to actually sift out the coals using a sifter. I'm surprised you find your ashes disappear!?? What kind of stove do you have? My Green Mountain 60 hybrid creates a lot of ash. I exclusively burn pine and have hot fires (so I think). I don't have an ash grate or anything, but could easily get a few big scoops mixed with coals each morning, or a few big scoops of just ash every few days if I'm able to reburn the coals. The Green Mountain doesn't have a deep entry for ash to lay so maybe it just feels more in the way than your stove's design?



May I ask what you use the ashes for in the spring?

I guess its called a hoe or I would have called it a rake even though, I suppose it’s more hoe’ish. It’s part of the set I have. I guess it is a hoe since it’s the one I use the most.



Aspen C3 for the stove. It is about 2” deep to the top lip of the primary air supply up front.



I can certainly accumulate some coals and ashes when burning oak non stop, so much that I would just have to scoop red hot coals out just to get the next log in.

(Pictured is about 6-8” deep by about 18” long of pure hardwood lump coals. Great for grilling, terrible for heating.)


But at others here have enlightened me, some pine or small splits, I see mention of bark, will kill those coals fast. In my experience, in the process it consumes the majority of my ashes as well.



If I burn some hardwood, oak, hickory, pear or ash, then toss on a split or two of pine (sometimes a second load of pine) it will reduce my hardwood coals and ashes to optimal reloading level for me.



Pretty much, two strokes back and a couple pulls off the top, and I’m ready to reload.



What I do scoop out goes in a closed bucket on the porch. When it’s full, it gets dispersed into the front lawn.

 

[rashomon]

But at others here have enlightened me, some pine or small splits, I see mention of bark, will kill those coals fast. In my experience, in the process it consumes the majority of my ashes as well.

This is news to me. I've always assumed hardwood burned hotter than Pine?! When you say "small splits" do you simply mean like taking a normal firewood log and splitting into two or three smaller pieces lengthwise? What did you mean by 'mention of bark'?

My pine has the bark on it. My stove has a secondary burner and a catalytic burner (is that what they mean by tertiary combustion?). It's lined with Soapstone.

I recently read softwoods are best for rocket stoves or gasifiers that then burn the wood gas. But sounds like others here and yourself seem to get hot enough burns to burn off hardwood coals here?

In any event, I exclusively burn pine and get tons of coals and ash. Maybe my wood isn't as dry as I thought?

 

[begreen]

This is news to me. I've always assumed hardwood burned hotter than Pine?!

Hardwood has more BTU content typically, but that's different from the rate of combustion. A 2" split of pine will combust and give up its heat faster than a 2" oak split, so it could be considered a more 'peaky' fuel. An oak fire will provide more BTU/hr than the pine.

 

[rashomon]

Hardwood has more BTU content typically, but that's different from the rate of combustion. A 2" split of pine will combust and give up its heat faster than a 2" oak split, so it could be considered a more 'peaky' fuel. An oak fire will provide more BTU/hr than the pine.

Oh wow, I need to find some other posts discussing this. thanks

 

[begreen]

Oh wow, I need to find some other posts discussing this. thanks

Sweep's Library - Firewood Heat Value Comparison Charts

Firewood heat value chart

hearth.com

Wood Fuel - HEATING VALUE OF COMMON WOOD SPECIES

HEATING VALUE OF COMMON WOOD SPECIES

www.hearth.com

 

[30WCF]

This is news to me. I've always assumed hardwood burned hotter than Pine?! When you say "small splits" do you simply mean like taking a normal firewood log and splitting into two or three smaller pieces lengthwise? What did you mean by 'mention of bark'?

Yes. A couple smaller splits will burn faster and hotter than large splits burning down coals and eating ashes.
I think it’s @Caw that burns the hardwood bark that falls off his splits to burn down the coals. A couple handfuls of bark is like jet fuel too.

My pine has the bark on it. My stove has a secondary burner and a catalytic burner (is that what they mean by tertiary combustion?). It's lined with Soapstone.

Your stove might be shut down too long to not let the coals burn, but I’m also not adding a full load on top of coals. I’m putting a few pieces and lots of air and surface area to make the coals and ashes disappear.

I recently read softwoods are best for rocket stoves or gasifiers that then burn the wood gas. But sounds like others here and yourself seem to get hot enough burns to burn off hardwood coals here?

Yep. Just a split or two to burn them off.

In any event, I exclusively burn pine and get tons of coals and ash. Maybe my wood isn't as dry as I thought?

Not dry enough, choked down too tight too long, or packing a full stove on coals and turning the air down again instead of burning the coals off with a small “airy” load.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Hardwood has more BTU content typically, but that's different from the rate of combustion. A 2" split of pine will combust and give up its heat faster than a 2" oak split, so it could be considered a more 'peaky' fuel. An oak fire will provide more BTU/hr than the pine.

I don’t know… a firebox full of regular sized oak certainly packs more btu than a regular sized firebox full of pine, but I can drop a full firebox full of pine pretty quickly. I could probably get 3 full loads of pine consumed before a load of oak is. Would that push more btus into the house? *shrug* maybe? I know I’d want that dense load of oak at night so I wouldn’t be getting up so often to refill the stove!

I wonder how fast a load of really small, say 2” dry oak vs 2” dry pine would burn. Both would burn really fast. Maybe pretty close to the same speed with all the surface area! I think I’d be watching that baffle closely as the heat causes it to sag!

 

[stoveliker]

I agree about the hoe thing. I push everything to the back, and then take the coals over the top of the ashes to the front.

Small pine splits (ideally E-W for me, but this depends on the stove) on top, and I get the air wash that mostly flows under.thst split, thru the coals. They get white hot because of the air that jets thru there. Rocket stove like.

I do also the same with bark. Mostly maple bark as it's more contiguous (not flaky) and it falls off easily.

The funny thing is that for maple and pine, if I burn reaaaally slow (cat stove, simmering) I get some coals only in the second half - the front is very fine ashes whereas the back of the stove contains some coals. Even for pine. Burning a bit faster there is no issue. Burning really fast I have coals when I want to reload because I need more heat but the left over (coals) don't provide enough.

 

[Caw]

I think it’s @Caw that burns the hardwood bark that falls off his splits to burn down the coals. A couple handfuls of bark is like jet fuel too.

That's me. Bark is a free BTU injection that also gets rid of your scraps and burns down the coals, it's perfect for the job.

I think it's hard to argue btu/hr of oak vs pine because they burn at such different rates. You can definitely plow through a load of pine and reload faster therefore burning more wood per hour. What we can definitively say is oak has significantly more BTUs per cubic foot of wood. You can jam more BTUs in your box on a per load basis. Just oak loads take longer to burn and can't be pushed as hard for high hot fast heat all day due to its coaling properties.

At my house during a big cold snap I like to burn red maple and cherry. They burn hot and fast and can be turned over faster than oak. On a normal winter day nothing beats an oak fire. Load it up and just let it go for hours.

That being said I go through long periods of time where I burn nothing but oak regardless of temperature. It's just what I have, I live in a oak forest. I just use smaller splits when I need more heat on demand.

 

[30WCF]

How often are you removing ash?
My pine doesn’t leave a lot of ash. If burn 24/7 I could go about 3-4 weeks. (I always get
Temps warm enough that I won’t have any coals.

I probably burn at about the same frequency as you do. I’ve had the A/C on the last two days. Probably be on tomorrow, then, 28 on Monday 🤷‍♂️. But to answer the queation. I’d say 3-4 weeks between scooping ashes if I manage the coals by burning them off. If I didn’t burn them off, it would be daily.

 

[30WCF]

Every morning I wake up with tons of coals buried under ash. I leave the air intake open 1/4" in the medium-low burn rate as the manual states.

Mines not a cat stove, and I don’t have as many control options. Don’t be so hard on yourself for having coals left in the morning after shutting it down for an overnight burn. Rake them to the top. If you pile up dehabilitating coals like I do when I’m burning straight oak, the try some loose loads that burn hot and fast.

 

[stoveliker]

That (above).
It's part of the game. Don't burn your loads to not have coal. Burn for the heat you need, and deal with the coals if and how they come.
Some small softwood splits or bark can quickly reduce them while providing some heat.

 

[Qvist]

Generally I just use a fireplace poker, I use the scooper when I try to clean ash but want to keep coals

I use the poker as well. Other than that I only use an ash shovel.

 

[cahaak]

30WCF, What tool are you using? Is that a hoe? I find my coals buried in the morning so my shovel doesn't easily take them from the top. Someone mentioned using a poker and that's been working well in place of my trying to actually sift out the coals using a sifter. I'm surprised you find your ashes disappear!?? What kind of stove do you have? My Green Mountain 60 hybrid creates a lot of ash. I exclusively burn pine and have hot fires (so I think). I don't have an ash grate or anything, but could easily get a few big scoops mixed with coals each morning, or a few big scoops of just ash every few days if I'm able to reburn the coals. The Green Mountain doesn't have a deep entry for ash to lay so maybe it just feels more in the way than your stove's design?



May I ask what you use the ashes for in the spring?

I dump some of them in my garden, sprinkle some around my fruit trees, and then sift the rest through hardware cloth and spread them with my fertilizer spreader on my lawn. You want to do the latter on a calm day.

 

[EbS-P]

It takes some time for the ash to compress. I push I back from the lip and then take any coals forward. The less you move it the more dense it packs.

Try to go a couple week without emptying.

This is news to me. I've always assumed hardwood burned hotter than Pine?! When you say "small splits" do you simply mean like taking a normal firewood log and splitting into two or three smaller pieces lengthwise? What did you mean by 'mention of bark'?

My pine has the bark on it. My stove has a secondary burner and a catalytic burner (is that what they mean by tertiary combustion?). It's lined with Soapstone.

I recently read softwoods are best for rocket stoves or gasifiers that then burn the wood gas. But sounds like others here and yourself seem to get hot enough burns to burn off hardwood coals here?

In any event, I exclusively burn pine and get tons of coals and ash. Maybe my wood isn't as dry as I thought?