Build up of coals.

[Buzzsawboy]

So I just had a lopi insert installed about 2 weeks ago and have been burning seasoned hardwood slab. I bought a train load 2.5 years ago when we first bought the house in anticipation of an owb that we decided against. I love the slabs, easy to process and lots of heat but there are downsides. Burn times are shorter and I seem to end up with alot of hot coals after a good burn. Is there a way to manage this? Burning hotter or cooler? Loading more or less often, just shovel them out? Any advice is greatly appreciated. I'm brand new to burning wood.

I will add I keep an eye on burning too hot so I dont over fire the stove which I hear is a common problem with burning slab.

 

[blacktail]

Open up your air to burn down the coals. Tossing a chunk of softwood in at the same time will help.

 

[jotul8e2]

Slabs have a high percentage of bark compared to split logs. Bark has a far higher percentage of mineral content than wood, coals much faster, the coals burn off more slowly and generate more ash. At a certain point you will have to accept that your fuel choice does have a trade-off.

But, yes. Open up the air control. Add a chunk of wood, but only one and ideally one without bark. Rake the coals to the front. Keep the ash cleaned out so the coals do not have a chance to bury themselves.

There are situations where this effect is actually beneficial. It is nice to have a large bed of coals going on warmer afternoons where a stove putting out full heat would be too much. Or overnight if you like to sleep in cooler temperatures.

 

[Woody Stover]

Open up your air to burn down the coals. Tossing a chunk of softwood in at the same time will help.

Yep. My stove will maintain 300 stove top when I open up the air on the coals a bit, and that's enough to maintain room temp if it's not too cold and windy out. I give it enough air to liven the glow of the coals, but not so much that I'm flushing most of the heat up the flue.
Pine or Aspen, which I think you have up there, will burn hot and keep your stove pumping heat while you wait for the coals to burn down so you can get another full load in the box..and those woods won't make many coals.

 

[kennyp2339]

So I'm answering this from a different point of view, with both my air tube stove and cat stove I had issues in the past with coaling, my wood has always been between 14 - 18% moisture content so it wasn't a moisture issue.
My problem was that I was asking for more heat then my stove could let out, therefore blowing throw the 1st (2) stages of fire growth - incipient and growth stage.
Both stoves were rated for up to 2000 - 2500 sqft, my heating envelope at my place is roughly 1400 sq ft. afgter tinkering around a lot I finally tested my draft, I was way out of the normal draft parameter, my draft was running between .15 & .20 inches cu, when the typical draft needs to be .05 - .08, I added dampers to my setup and noticed a whole different fire, running on medium I had slower flames, slightly warmer stove top temps and reduced coals, my reasoning, the draft was strong enough that it was sucking the heat out of the stove, instead of letting is resonate for that extra fraction of seconds, if you have issues with lots of coals, and are very certain that your wood is seasoned / dry, look into your draft, the chimney is what drives the stove and sometimes they need to be slowed down a little.

 

[WoodBurnerInWI]

My stove seems to experience "extreme" coaling issues when its single digits or colder outside and I've loaded it with monster logs. I attribute it to the larger pieces of wood (which probably aren't perfect moisture wise) and my chimney system experiencing perfect draft conditions. On normal temp nights in the winter I can get by just fine on what I'd consider a half load or slightly more for my stove. I'm up every day at 5 am for work so that's when the day load gets put in. There's always coals, and I just do my best to spread them around to get the new logs on top of them. On warmer days like we're experiencing today, large coal beds are great for holding heat till later in the day when it cools off enough to warrant more logs. I too do as others recommend and add one or two pieces of something lighter on top of the coal bed to maintain it if I don't feel like giving it a proper re load.

 

[Buzzsawboy]

Slabs have a high percentage of bark compared to split logs. Bark has a far higher percentage of mineral content than wood, coals much faster, the coals burn off more slowly and generate more ash. At a certain point you will have to accept that your fuel choice does have a trade-off.

But, yes. Open up the air control. Add a chunk of wood, but only one and ideally one without bark. Rake the coals to the front. Keep the ash cleaned out so the coals do not have a chance to bury themselves.

There are situations where this effect is actually beneficial. It is nice to have a large bed of coals going on warmer afternoons where a stove putting out full heat would be too much. Or overnight if you like to sleep in cooler temperatures.

I have a bad habit of not searching post before asking questions. I knew going in I would have a higher ash build up with slabs so for now I'll just live with that fact. I did open the air full, bypass the cat, take to the front and crack the door. They were gone in a matter of no time.

It is nice having hot coals in the morning and just chucking some more wood in and watching it take off so I guess theres that.