Better way to use an ashpan - don't rake so often!

[fire_man]

I've been using my ash pan wrong all these years (bought stove in 2012).
My usual routine is every time I reload, I scraped most of the ash with a rake thru the grates into the ash pan and just left heavy bright coals behind.
This worked fine, except the pan filled up every 3-4 days when burning 24/7.
The trick is to mostly stop using the raker! The coals burn down to a finer powder and tend to sift themselves thru the grate just by reloading. Now I just do a LIGHT raking every couple days instead of after every reload.
I was filling up the pan with bits of unburned coal and giving myself more work emptying the pan too often. Now I'm emptying it about half as often.
Jeez it only took me how many years

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Just let the ashes sit in the bottom until you can no longer fit the amount of wood you want in. It’ll keep reducing until it no longer can, then it’ll compress down into a surprisingly small amount! When you eventually do scoop it out you’ll be amazed how much fit in there! lol.

I’ve taken 6 gallons out of my NC30!

 

[fire_man]

I actually wore out the latching mechanism in the pan's door. It needs fiddling and extra care now to latch properly.

One thing you DON'T want is an ashpan door that is not latched properly.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Latch it and leave it! Just scoop the ash out as needed.

 

[Woody Stover]

I noticed this when I started burning the coals down further. I can still get a good amount of heat when I open up the air a bit on the coals at the end of a load. The bright coal radiate against the sides of the stove, releasing heat into the room. When I finally get to the point that I need to load to keep the stove burning without using kindling, the ash is reduced down to the fine powder you mentioned.
I know what you mean about the .
Many times I don't come up with the good ideas, I stumble upon them. 😏

 

[fire_man]

Latch it and leave it! Just scoop the ash out as needed.

The ashpan has cut WAY down on the dust in the room since I added it. That's why I refused to put a Fireview in the living room, too much dust.

Some say it's easy to scoop up ash without making dust. My poor draft says otherwise.

 

[Woody Stover]

Latch it and leave it! Just scoop the ash out as needed.

Not scooping; The grate is great! 😏

 

[Woody Stover]

Some say it's easy to scoop up ash without making dust. My poor draft says otherwise.

Yep, it takes good technique to slip the ashes off the shovel into the pan without creating much dust, but it helps to have good draft. When I had the Fireview, I tried not to remove ash unless it was cold out and the draft was pulling hard.

 

[Todd]

Here’s my Fireview ash pan. I scoop out the ash and gently let it slide off the shovel. The fly ash gets sucked back into the stove through the door by the draft.

 

[EbS-P]

I like my ash pan. The less I touch it the more dense it gets. I push it away from the door and the boost air.

 

[barnaclebob]

Good tips here. What did you have to file to get it to slide smoothly?
It's probably just the picture throwing me off but it looks like you barely have 7" clearance from the rear heat shield to the wall.

I actually wore out the latching mechanism in the pan's door. It needs fiddling and extra care now to latch properly.

One thing you DON'T want is an ashpan door that is not latched properly.

Ha. I opened my ash pan door for like 5 seconds once when the wood was already burning good on startup just to see what would happen. Holy crap, it was like tossing gas on the fire.

 

[begreen]

Our ashpan has been empty for 16 yrs now, except for an occasional bun warming.

 

[fire_man]

Here’s my Fireview ash pan. I scoop out the ash and gently let it slide off the shovel. The fly ash gets sucked back into the stove through the door by the draft.

That works with my Palladian which has a tall flue and great draft.
Not so good with the anemic flue on the Progress, ash gets blown back into the house.

 

[Max W]

It didn’t take me that many years to solve my stove’s coal / ash problem but it might well have without some good advice. The solution means I take out some ash more frequently but with the benefits I don’t mind a bit.

I replaced our long time cookstove with a newer version three Falls ago, same design but with different grates. The new full sized grate has spaces large enough for more ash and coals to drop through into the ash drawer making it harder to keep a fire and leading to more cold starts. In the last couple of weeks I’ve been letting the ash tray fill up to and above the grate. Now I’m gettin great beds of long lasting coals. That means I can go a lot longer between loads and start with stove sized wood.

I have space to let the ash build up quite a bit but the air intake is through the spin damper on the ash door. I make a little space through the ash for the draft. This means running a tool under the grate to push and pack some ash aside or taking out some shovel fulls. The ash drawer is five sided with no front so it can be pulled out a little and still be pushed back in through the ash at the back

 

[bigealta]

The ash pan is one of the best things on my f400.
I pull it, dump the ashes in the street, and put it back.
Job Done in 45 seconds.
Way Way less ash dust in my house and the air in the house.

And the stove burns just fine both with an ash bed, and without an ash bed. It makes little, if any, difference with the set up here.
Maybe i just got lucky with a good ash door that seals properly?

 

[John Lehet]

The ash pan with spare and cover is one of the best things about the Woodstock Progress. With the fire low or coaling, slide the old ash pan out. Slide the cover off the spare and put it on the full one. Slide the spare one in and close up. Walk the full one out to dump on the garden or under the fruit trees.

If you have a Progress without the ash pan, in my opinion it would be worth retrofitting it to get the ash pan, and get the spare with cover as well. The spare with cover is only like $30 extra.

 

[fire_man]

It absolutely was worth adding the ash pan to the Progress. My only problem was after 13 years, the latching mechanism busted. It's not as simple and bullet proof as the Palladian's ash pan door.

The latch consists of two ears that catch pegs which pulls the door closed. Something broke inside the handle that prevents the ears from evenly engaging the two pegs. Not a fun thing when you are trying in vain to close it with hot coals going nuclear. I have to fiddle with it and wiggle the handle until something inside the handle releases and it finally engages the two pegs evenly. There must be a rod inside the handle that broke or somehow is loose.

When burning season ends I'll take it apart.

 

[John Lehet]

Oh, that sounds hair raising.

 

[DBoon]

My usual routine is every time I reload, I scraped most of the ash with a rake thru the grates into the ash pan and just left heavy bright coals behind.
This worked fine, except the pan filled up every 3-4 days when burning 24/7.
The trick is to mostly stop using the raker! The coals burn down to a finer powder and tend to sift themselves thru the grate just by reloading. Now I just do a LIGHT raking every couple days instead of after every reload.

My usual routine as well - gonna give fire_man's tip a try (makes sense).

With the fire low or coaling, slide the old ash pan out. Slide the cover off the spare and put it on the full one. Slide the spare one in and close up.

Gotta second that - 2nd ash pan with the cover makes things simple and safe.

 

[fire_man]

Ok I am convinced. Stop raking coals so often.
I started this post Feb 5 it's now Feb 20 with me burning 24/7.

I may have 2-3 inches of ash in the stove with very little in the ashpan after 2 weeks.
I have not raked or emptied the ashpan once. I previously raked down to coals on every reload and had to empty the tray twice a week.
It's definitely better NOT to rake until the ashes get too thick.
The ash will burn finer and compress more if you just leave them alone.
No wonder I wore out the door latch on my ashpan!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

See, for me, I was just being lazy, lol.

 

[gthomas785]

I had a mulberry tree come down in my yard a few years ago. Burning through it now and I've been impressed by just how much ash it produces compared to other species. When burning oak I typically empty my ashpan every 1-2 weeks; wth mulberry it fills up practically every day and does not reduce in volume if I leave it in the stove!
Love that this wood was free but I'll be glad when it's gone.

 

[Sealcove]

I empty my Liberty once a day and did the same when I had a Jotul F600. For me, I find it only takes me about a minute and keeping the ash level down in the stove noticeably reduces ash particulate in the house. I tried letting ash build up in each stove and found no benefit in terms of burn length or quality, just a messier stove and more potential for ash dust in the air.

 

[fire_man]

I empty my Liberty once a day and did the same when I had a Jotul F600. For me, I find it only takes me about a minute and keeping the ash level down in the stove noticeably reduces ash particulate in the house. I tried letting ash build up in each stove and found no benefit in terms of burn length or quality, just a messier stove and more potential for ash dust in the air.

Funny I find just the opposite, the less I mess with the ash, the less dust I make. But I have lousy draft in that stove so it doesn't get sucked up. I kept reading about people that empty smaller ash pans than me once a week compared to my every two days so that's what got me thinking I was doing something wrong

 

[DBoon]

I tried this for a couple of weeks. I'm not finding too much of a difference. I have a smaller stove with a small firebox and I really need all of the firebox I can get when it is colder outside, so I'll rake more thoroughly. When it is warmer, I am now raking less but I am not finding that I need to empty the ash pan much less often.