Bucket for Hot Wood Coals?

[mattie5960]

I'm in the middle of this freeze in the north east, so I've been running my stove hot all day. I'd built up such a layer of red hot coals that it got to a point that I had to shovel them out to make room for more wood. I use a behrens galvanized steel pail to hold my ash and coals, and have noticed that it puts off a bad smell when it gets hot. It was especially noticeable this time, since I was putting nothing but red hot coals into it. I did some googling and it turns out galvanized steel emits toxic zinc fumes when it gets hot.

So what other safe options are there?

 

[brenndatomu]

Just put or leave some ashes in the bucket first so the hot coals are not directly against the bucket...or could use some sand too I suppose.
Better solution is to pull the coals to the front, open the air, then burn some nice dry pine or poplar, something that doesn't coal up well (there's quite a number species that'll work) that will burn down the coals and keep the heat output rolling in the process.
An even better solution, if you are home to keep the stove fed, is to just burn all pine or poplar during extreme cold weather, skip the oak and stuff...yes you will have to load more often, but you will not have to scoop out hot coals so that you can load more wood...just keep loading wood and enjoy the heat!

 

[Eman85]

Why take good heat out of your stove. I just opened the air and let them burn down today before I reloaded. Gave off plenty of heat and most turned into ash. my stove has an ash pan, I stir the coals and let the ash fall. A few hours later there's no hot coals in my ash and I dump it into a small galvanized trash can outside.

 

[mattie5960]

Why take good heat out of your stove.

The coals don't put off near as much heat as a fire does, even with the air all the way open. I'd built up so many coals there was no "rake them forward" option. It was like 6" deep red coals the entire bottom of the firebox, on top of a couple inches of ashes.

I guess as long as I'm sitting in the room I could just open the firebox door and really let 'em dump heat into the house.

 

[ABMax24]

Only load one or two pieces on top of the coals and turn the air up, that way you still get the heat out of the stove and have enough airflow to burn the coals out.

 

[Newbie78]

I open the door and/or or put the firescreen on to take advantage of the immense amount of heat a huge coalbed puts out.

 

[cahaak]

If your stove is coaling up that much, then basically you are trying to get more heat out of it than it can deliver over time. As others have said, you should rake the coals forward, or expose them otherwise and open the primary air and finish combusting them to ash. You will get quite a bit of heat out of the coals if you open up the air and burn them. If you continuously are burning on relatively high and keep reloading, yes you can easily get coals, I had the same issue with my Myriad. Now I have backed off a bit and let the coals burn down and do scoop out ash with some coals in there, but I have a small rake separator that deals with much of that. If you know you will be getting into this issue, leave ash in your ash can bottom(my is just black painted steel on the outside).

 

[maple1]

There are times that no matter what you do, you need to get rid of coals. Depending what you're burning in. Coals give nowhere near the heat that wood does, and if your house demand is at or beyond the capacity of your appliance say due to the infamous polar vortex, the coals might have to go. I was always fighting that in cold snaps with my old boiler. But the new one eats them all up no problem.

 

[mattie5960]

Thanks for the advice, all. What Maple1 described is the situation I'm in. 3000 sqft house and the stove is barely raising the temps at all. It was about 60 upstairs when I went to bed last night and it was 48 when i woke up at 6:30 this morning! I've been running the stove hard all day and it just doesn't produce the heat I need unless it's going at 100%. Shoveled out again once already today. At the moment, I've got the firebox door wide open letting the bed of coals dump heat into the house. This seems effective for using the heat, at least, rather than letting it go up the chimney.

Another thing I'll try when I load more wood in is to open the primary air vents in the stove so that the coals get air from under them. The primary air is on a metal Thermostat on the stove, which I've always kept low just to help get the fire started. The manual said these are intended primarily for use when burning coal in the stove, but I bet if I'll set it so they open up as soon as the stove starts to cool off, that'll help manage to coals, too.

 

[jatoxico]

Make some kindling and throw 2-3 smalls sticks on. You'll get plenty of flame and heat for a 1/2 hour or so and the coals will burn down. Do that in between full loads so you don't create too much coal.

 

[brenndatomu]

I've been running the stove hard all day and it just doesn't produce the heat I need unless it's going at 100%. Shoveled out again

That's why I suggested burning some "softwood" all the heat, none of the coals

 

[mattie5960]

That's why I suggested burning some "softwood" all the heat, none of the coals

I'll have to add some soft wood to the stack for next year. This is my first full season burning and I focused only on getting oak and maple. I have a bit of ash that I've been throwing on top to help burn this coal bed down, but even that coals up a bit.

 

[Montanalocal]

Thanks for the advice, all. What Maple1 described is the situation I'm in. 3000 sqft house and the stove is barely raising the temps at all. It was about 60 upstairs when I went to bed last night and it was 48 when i woke up at 6:30 this morning! I've been running the stove hard all day and it just doesn't produce the heat I need unless it's going at 100%. Shoveled out again once already today. At the moment, I've got the firebox door wide open letting the bed of coals dump heat into the house. This seems effective for using the heat, at least, rather than letting it go up the chimney.

Another thing I'll try when I load more wood in is to open the primary air vents in the stove so that the coals get air from under them. The primary air is on a metal Thermostat on the stove, which I've always kept low just to help get the fire started. The manual said these are intended primarily for use when burning coal in the stove, but I bet if I'll set it so they open up as soon as the stove starts to cool off, that'll help manage to coals, too.

I had a similar situation where a stove would not heat my 3600 sq. ft.house. I could not extract heat fast enough to replace the losses when cold. So I came up with the solution that now very adequately heats my house. I added some external fans. I have one that sits above the stove and blows directly down onto the top of the stove where the catalytic hot spot is. Then I have two more fans directing the heat generated and taking it up the stairs to the upper floor where our living area is.

The key is removing the heat from the stove. If it does not get removed fast enough, the thermostat will not tell the stove to generate heat fast enough. The thermostat will only tell the stove to open up when it cools off, which it will not do if the stove and the air around it remain very warm. This warm air right around the stove will not get into the rest of the house if it is not moved there by some means, and the wimpy built-in fans on most stoves are not up to the job.

Again, the key is to have a strong fan blowing directly on the stove. This forces the stove to generate heat faster, and also distributes the heat to other parts of the house.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

A little more air during the burn will usually take care of the coals.

 

[brenndatomu]

I have a bit of ash that I've been throwing on top to help burn this coal bed down, but even that coals up a bit.

Yeah ash will still coal up pretty decent...my Kuuma wood furnace has a whole belly full of ash coals right at the moment...just loaded some red pine to burn those off and keep the heat rollin...I usually have some poplar and boxelder around that works pretty well too, but non racked up and at the ready right now, but the pine will work just fine.

 

[Eman85]

I have a 4-6" bed of coals in my stove right now, air wide open STT 550-600 with cat at 900. I don't have a problem getting heat from my coals before I reload.