ash removal questions

[tonyg]

i have a quadrafire 1900. it's been cold here in upstate ny with overnight temperatures often below zero and daytime highs in the single digits. the stove heats my small home nicely, but i hate to let it go out to empty the ashes when it's this cold since i'm pretty cheap about using my furnace. i find i have to empty my ashes (which aren't strictly ashes but rather a bunch of hot glowing chunks of charcoal about an inch or so square) at least once a day or i run out of room to add sufficient wood to keep it comfy and warm. my question is: what is the reason that my wood doesn't burn down to a fine ash? it is well seasoned hardwood.....oak, beech, maple, etc. and i burn it pretty much wide open during the day. somewhere in a search on this topic, i found that it is thought that adding wood too soon can cause this. if this is true, why is it true? the obvious result of not adding wood as often as i do, would be that the room temperature will drop somewhat. but maybe that is the price i will have to pay to decrease the frequency of ash removal and getting a finer ash. your thoughts would be appreciated. on the plus side, i have lots of chunky ashes for my 900 foot driveway! thanks in advance......tonyg

 

[Marty]

I think loosing some temp while the ashes burn up is 'the nature of the beast' with a wood stove.
You can burn one split at a time on wide open air to reduce the ashes more quickly while still generating a decent amount of heat.
By useing that method I go 2-4 weeks between cleanout... You can also scoop out a couple of shovels full of the ashiest ashes, rather than all of them at once to give the charcoaliest ashes more time to burn up and keep a better insulated firebox for your next burns.

 

[Roospike]

my question is: what is the reason that my wood doesn’t burn down to a fine ash? it is well seasoned hardwood.....oak, beech, maple, etc. and i burn it pretty much wide open during the day. somewhere in a search on this topic, i found that it is thought that adding wood too soon can cause this. if this is true, why is it true?

Its hard wood , thats what hard wood does , it last a long time and put off a lot of BTU from fire stage all the way through coal stage.

Sounds like you need a mix of wood , after running hard wood then you can cun a load of soft wood.

Soft wood burns hot and faster then hard wood but dont last through coal stage near as long as hard wood and in turn less BTUs.

Your needing more heat when the total load of hardwood your stove can handle , you need to mix up your wood and work it the best you can or buy a bigger stove.

Undersized stove will have this problem as does not enough insulation in ones home.

 

[Jfk4th]

I agree with Marty's point, open the stove up and you will decrease your ash amount, guaranteed. I have an Avalon Pendleton with a very small firebox (1.3 cu ft.) and this is the only way to not let that ash pile build up on you. Another thing I do is open the stove up just before you go to bed. I don't use my stove to heat my house so opening up the stove will decrease the ash amount, boom you are all set for tomorrows fire. Try it, this will work.

 

[Gooserider]

Another approach is partial emptying - look at your coal and ash bed, and see if there are any areas that are mostly ash - usually this will be where the air enters the stove. Shovel the ashes out of just that area, there will still be some coals, but I look at it as a judgement on the relative amount of coals. When I'm shoveling I look at the "ash pocket" as that area where the ratio is say 90% ash and 10% coals. then I rake the coals that remain into a pile in that area, and reload with wood in the rest of the stove.

In my smoke dragon, I have a spin-damper in the door that directs it's airflow into the coal bed, and every day I find that the bed at the end next to the door is about 90% ash and small embers for about the first 6-8" in from the door, with the coal size and amount increasing until it's almost all coals at the end of the bed away from the door. So I dig out the ashy end, and pull all the coals that I can up next to the door, and throw the next load of wood into the stove as far back as I can get it. In between shovelings, I still pull the coaks forward into that same area, on top of the existing ashes.

It's a bit of a PITA (so is most of dealing with the smoke dragon) but it works. Definitely will put an ashpan on the desired feature list for the next stove however.

Gooserider

 

[heydan]

You can reduce the size of a coal bed pretty fast just be giving the stove a lot of air. Open your damper all the way or even crack the door a bit. The coals will glow bright and burn down fast. It also increases the heat output beyond what you'd get from a bed of coals with a lesser amount of air.

Another good technique is to shovel the coals into a mound at the front of the stove and add new wood behind and on top of the old coals. This puts the old coals near the incoming air and they tend to burn off before the new wood starts making a new bed of coals.

At least that's how things work on my stove, a Regency I2400.

 

[tonyg]

thanks for all your responses. i think my main problem is feeding my stove too frequently and not giving it a chance to burn up the coals. it's hard not to keep stoking it though when it's 10 below and the wind is blowing around 20mph! thanks again......tonyg

 

[heydan]

I know what you mean. When you get to that point that you want to add more wood but you still have too many coals, give it a lot of air, even crack the door if you need to. That will boost the heat output from the coals and also use them up quickly so you'll have room for new wood.

When you do add new wood, shovel the old coals into a mound at the front of the stove and put the new wood on and behind it so the old coals will be consumed first. That's how I run my stove when I want to push it for maximum heat output.