Ash cleaning difficulty and frequency??

[Bone1099]

Everyone go ahead and brag on how long between cleanouts and how easy it is. I have a VC Vigilant that isnt alot of trouble but must be cleaned out no longer than three days. Input please

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I'd suggest cleaning it every three days.

 

[Superlite]

I have a 77' Vigilant and I scoop some out every morning, even if there is still a a good coal bed. VC says to leave at least 1 inch of ash on the bottom, or sand etc thats what I try to get in the morning before I get it burning hot again... I find if I scoop some every day it doesn't get as much build up in the secondary burn area. I use a welding glove and a regular old ash shovel into an ash can then outside with the ash can because it has a lot of hot stuff in it. Pretty easy

 

[fossil]

I take ashes out of my little Century shop stove about every three days. The big Liberty in the house about once a week, or so. I like to leave about 1" of ash in the stove, so how often I need to remove ashes is a function of how hard I've been burning and what kind of wood I've been burning. 3 days sounds pretty reasonable to me, if you're burning your stove every day. I'd be inclined to think that someone who "brags" about how seldom ashes need to be removed really isn't using the stove. Rick

 

[SWNH]

3 days?! I wish. Burning 24/7, I have to empty the ash pan on my Oslo every 24 hours. I have a spare pan, so it's an easy hot-swap. My furnace in my shop is only fired during the daytime (and it's ash pan is HUGE). I can go a week before having to empty it.

 

[Brian VT]

I have an older Ashley and I clean Ashes out every day. It's very easy, they fall through a grate and collect in an ash pan. I slide the ash pan out, take it outside and pour it into my ash bucket. If I didn't use the ash pan, I figure 3 days of ashes would fill up the spot where the ash pan goes, but there's no mess with using an ash pan.
-Adrian

Same here with my Resolute. I could maybe squeeze 2 days but it isn't worth the chance of filling the ash pan chamber and having to shovel that out while hot.
Leave 1" ? My pan is only @ 1 1/2" deep. I do leave a 1/4" or so in there after dumping most of it 'cuz this stove throws some heat to the bottom.

 

[myzamboni]

I empty my ashpan once a week, but I only burn nights and weekends.

 

[Bone1099]

My fisher insert while burning 24/7 only needed to be cleaned out once a week maybe week and a half. with temps in the 20s two weeks if warmer

 

[kork]

About every three days, burning from early evening till morning. Love having the ash pan, makes life simple.
Hank

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I have an older Ashley and I clean Ashes out every day. It's very easy, they fall through a grate and collect in an ash pan. I slide the ash pan out, take it outside and pour it into my ash bucket. If I didn't use the ash pan, I figure 3 days of ashes would fill up the spot where the ash pan goes, but there's no mess with using an ash pan.

-Adrian

Adrian, with that Ashley the ashes usually tend to fall mostly in the center of the pan. If you just slide the pan out part way and level the ashes, you should be able to go 3-4 days easily before having to dump.


We dump ours about every 3 days in winter. Must less in spring and fall.

 

[firefighterjake]

About every 3 days . . . sometimes more often, sometimes less often depending on how hard I'm running the stove . . . but on the average about every 3 days going 24/7 with the stove.

 

[granpajohn]

Anyone care to comment of type of wood?
I happened to finish off a bunch of Beech and get into the Red Oak section of the pile. Made a big difference in ash production, the oak hardly makes any ash. In fact, the oak is wonderful in every way. I've mainly been burning Poplar, (good for the warmer weather), Beech, Apple, Oak, and a bit of Maple.

 

[gpcollen1]

Good point on wood selection as the oak does do a nice job heating and keeping the ash down.

And thanks for smacking me in the back of the head with the recommendation to get a spare ash pan for my Castine!

I empty my Castines ash pan twice per week. I take a few scoops of ash out of my Olympic every morning. My routine with the olympic is to push the ash to the sides and pull coals forward when I reload. So I only need to scoop directly in front of the doghouse in the AM, if necessary and a scoop or two from each side of the stove.

 

[Bubbavh]

When I burn pine (which is most of the time) I can go a real long time... I actually never kept track of how long because I can't remember when the last time I emptied was 2 weeks maybe more.

 

[Bone1099]

In both the fisher and in the vigilant i burn from the same supply near the house. Using lots of Red Oak, White Oak, Hickory (Hot!! more ashes very light fluffy ashes blow everywhere) Elm (Do not attempt with less than 25 ton splitter :ahhh: ), Locust, Ash, and some other hardwoods. I ry to avoid Pine, Sweetgum, Poplar, and other soft woods. Chimneysweeponline has an interesting Species/BTU Chart.

 

[fossil]

If I avoided Pine, I wouldn't have any firewood. Rick

 

[Bubbavh]

If I avoided Pine, I wouldn't have any firewood. Rick

I wouldn't have any free wood right now if not for my friend pine and his chimney fire rumors!
So please keep avoiding it!

 

[mayhem]

I have to clean out every few days when I'm burning hard maple. When using stuff like poplar, pine, ash and beech I only have to clean the stove maybe once every 3-4 weeks.


I toss the coals to the rear of the firebox, scoop and reverse the procedure. A bit of cleanup and I'm ready to melt some more ice off the driveway.

 

[jason4567]

My stove has a huge amount of space for ashes, so i empty it out every 2-3 weeks. I burn it constantly too.

 

[begreen]

I put this off as long as possible. Once every couple weeks is about what I'm averaging now. I don't use the peehole ashtrap or ashpan. Every couple weeks I just shovel it out. I'd prefer to use the ashpan, but the little ashtrapper really isn't up to the job. Reminds me of latrine duty with a toothbrush.

 

[SlyFerret]

I usually clean mine every 4-5 days.

I carefully remove a little more than a shovel's width of ash along the right side of the stove from front to back. This gives me a place to pile up any hot coals that I find while I'm removing the ash.

Once I remove all the ash, I can place the hot coals wherever I need them to help relight the next load.

-SF

 

[Bone1099]

I dont want to talk smack against pine. I would burn it too if thats what was availiable in my area but my stove's feeding ground is about 300 acres of appalachian foothills laden with pine and plenty of hardwood. I wonder how many Btu's of firewood are in one gallon of saw and splitter gas.

 

[Hurricane]

Quadrafire 5100 insert, burning mostly hardwoods I clean out average week or week and a half. I notice if I mix up the coals every now and again they burn down to a fine ash.

 

[f3cbboy]

i let the ashpan fill and just scoop out about 2-3 small shovelfuls of ash out of the firebox every morning leaving the embers behind for restart
i emptied the ashpan about 3 times all year

 

[LLigetfa]

In cold weather I shovel out a bit of ashes every morning into a coal hod. After 3 days, the hod's usually 3/4th full but I empty it rather than fill it to the brim.