Do You Save Your Coals?

[Srbenda]

Maybe all of the new fancy efficient stoves burn everything, but my older clunker leaves ash and coals after every fire.

I shovel my ash out, and then later sift the ash and get the leftover coals. These are usually between golf ball size down to almond size, and I save them in a metal bucket.

When I start a fire, I always use a handful of coals as they begin to burn again quickly, and easily help the fire get started.

Does anyone else do this?

 

[wendell]

I do save them but only because my children haven't been very good this year.

 

[rdust]

Sounds like a lot of hassle! Why not just leave the coals in the stove for the next fire?

I think you'll find a lot of us never let the stove go cold this time of year. I shovel out ash when needed but leave the rest in the stove.

 

[Shari]

Maybe all of the new fancy efficient stoves burn everything, but my older clunker leaves ash and coals after every fire.

I shovel my ash out, and then later sift the ash and get the leftover coals. These are usually between golf ball size down to almond size, and I save them in a metal bucket.

When I start a fire, I always use a handful of coals as they begin to burn again quickly, and easily help the fire get started.

Does anyone else do this?

Ouch! Do you have a cover on that bucket and is it sitting outside on a non-combustible surface? If not, it would seem to me you are risking a possible fire outside of your woodstove. If your bucket sits inside without a cover you could be emitting carbon monoxide into your living environment.

My coals stay in the stove. Normally I don't have many coals as I allow them to burn down a bit by adding more air between fires. If I'm ready to stoke another fire, as in when burning 24/7, the coals just start that next fire.

Again, I never remove coals from my stove.

 

[Srbenda]

Our fire goes out every night about 3 hours after my last load of wood.

So every morning, I shovel out the ash and coals, and yes, I take them outside into the metal bucket.

 

[Shari]

Our fire goes out every night about 3 hours after my last load of wood.

So every morning, I shovel out the ash and coals, and yes, I take them outside into the metal bucket.

I guess all I can say is: Why?

Leaving ash in the woodstove actually helps your next fire's heat last longer.

Shari

 

[Srbenda]

Our fire goes out every night about 3 hours after my last load of wood.

So every morning, I shovel out the ash and coals, and yes, I take them outside into the metal bucket.

I guess all I can say is: Why?

Leaving ash in the woodstove actually helps your next fire's heat last longer.

Shari

Because I end up with 1" of ash, and my airflow into the firebox gets choked.

(It's a really old stove!)

 

[Joe Matthews]

Our fire goes out every night about 3 hours after my last load of wood.

So every morning, I shovel out the ash and coals, and yes, I take them outside into the metal bucket.

I guess all I can say is: Why?

Leaving ash in the woodstove actually helps your next fire's heat last longer.

Shari

Because I end up with 1" of ash, and my airflow into the firebox gets choked.

(It's a really old stove!)

and why does a load of wood only last 3 hours? That would drive me nuts. I never empty coals. I knock them down and put wood on top. Coals release a lot of heat, so why remove them? They reduce to minimal ash anyhow, so I see no need to remove them. I did read a recent post about someone removing some to place in their grill for a steak. I am thinking about removing some soon to try that out....

 

[CTYank]

Our fire goes out every night about 3 hours after my last load of wood.

So every morning, I shovel out the ash and coals, and yes, I take them outside into the metal bucket.

I guess all I can say is: Why?

Leaving ash in the woodstove actually helps your next fire's heat last longer.

Shari

Kinda, sorta. Most significantly, leaving some of the ash insulates the fire from the grate/bottom of the stove, keeping the temps up.

Firebox hotter -> more complete combustion- a very, very good thing.

The same reason many stoves have fire-brick or fused vermiculite wrapped around the firebox.

And ... IMHO, leave all coals, maybe remove some ash.

 

[48rob]

I've saved some for use in the barbeque grill next summer.

I have no idea if it is a waste of time and effort, but charcoal costs money, and the stuff in my stove is free.

Come summer, I'll have the answer...

Rob

 

[billb3]

You don't scrub the firebricks after every fire ?

 

[basswidow]

I understand what you are saying.

If your stove has gone cold by morning - these coals are not hot. In the shoulder season - I let the stove run out and just do night burns - some of the chunks are cool enough to pick up and position bare handed. Burning 24/7 now, my coal bed is always red hot.

I used to take out ash daily, until I got better advice here. Now I go about 4-5 days, sometimes a week. I also do not want the ash to cover my air inlet either. My stove is brick lined. I don't see how it's possible to go all season without taking out ash - seems like it would fill the fire box. When I travel, the wife never touches the ash (2 or more weeks) and it's not an issue. So what do I know?

When I take some ash out, I rake the coals to one side and then scoop out the amount of ash (not all). Then the coals are positioned for the new fire - they're hot and ready to go. No lighter necessary. The ash actually helps to insulate the coal bed - so you have great coals come morning.

Even when I do scoop ash out, I prize the black chunks and keep them in the firebox. Only the dark grey powder and fluffy white ash gets scooped.

I don't sift it - that would be a major mess and I would imagine kicks up alot of dust. I do love those black chunks. They are the best. Doesn't take much to get them to glow orange/red again.

Maybe Hearth.com can offer some tips for you to get longer burn times? It's an old stove - but what's the set up? What kind of wood are you burning? I can't imagine a stove could go cold in 3 hours.

 

[tonelover]

Yes! I thought I was the only one crazy enough to do that. When the ash bucket got full I used to sift in a fine screen one or two shovels at a time. Anything that didn't make it through the screen was saved in a bucket for assistance in new fire starting and the ash was for spreading on the lawn. That was a slow and dirty process that I started to get tired of though. So I upped my processing capacity by making a big archaelogical sized sifter with 1/4 inch screen. Now I go out in the woods, dump the whole ash bucket in at one time. Shake for five seconds, dump the coals for reburning in to the bucket and go back inside. A much more efficient process than how I used to do it. I take pride in trying to keep waste at an absolute minimum.

 

[Shari]

Okay, guess I'm confused here, what are we talking about? I assumed the OP was talking about 'hot' coals.

Shari

 

[Skier76]

Kinda sorta....

I start fires a lot at our weekend place. Usually, there's some leftover coals (cold of course after sitting all week) in the firebox. I usually use those to lift the bottom logs up for airflow. Anything that doesn't fall through the ash grate stays in the firebox for relighting.

 

[ChrisNJ]

I often think of this myself, I fill up the furnace before I go to bed and in the morning when removing the ash there are sometimes a bit of black cold coals, like this morning, when I get home tonight I will get one of the sifters from the sand box and try and recoup some from the can and toss them on the fire I started this morning that the wife keeps going through the day.

 

[mayhem]

My stove runs for about 7-10 hours on a full load of wood and the air control shut all the way, depending on what kind fo wood goes in there. In the morning I've always got a nice hot bed of embers waiting for the next peice of wood.

I tend to burn all my coals down to ash, but eventually I get about 4-5" of ash in there and I have to shovel it out. Inevitably I take some hot coals out with it, they all go in the steel bucket and sit in there for about a week before I dump them out in the yard.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I flick the obvious ones back in the stove. the rest get spread over the lawn/garden with the ash (I let it sit a few days in the bucket until I clean out again).

Charcoal is very good for soil (supposedly). Look up terra preta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta) .

 

[Battenkiller]

I've saved some for use in the barbeque grill next summer.

I have no idea if it is a waste of time and effort, but charcoal costs money, and the stuff in my stove is free.

Come summer, I'll have the answer...

You will be glad you did, especially if you are burning hickory, oak, apple or cherry.

Years ago when the local apple orchard went to the new smaller trees, they cut down hundreds of trees and ended up with countless cords of old, gnarly apple wood. The temporary Jamaican pickers he hired talked him into making charcoal out of it. They used traditional techniques and ended up with mountains of the best durn grillin' charcoal you've ever seen... I mean tasted. Very dense, too, burned hot and long. Without a retail outlet, the guy just sold it in wooden veggie crates, right out of the farm stand. I think I bought the last 20 crates or so at a real good deal and they lasted me for a few years. Man, I miss that stuff. You can really taste the difference.

I've saved plenty myself, but only when they got away from me (as in 6" at the bottom of the stove). I used it mostly for blacksmithing (cleaner and hotter than coal in the forge). Put the biggest chunks in a closed metal bucket and put them outside. Make sure the cover is tight and heavy enough to not blow off (I use a rock) or the wind can whip that stuff up to a frenzy in no time.

 

[Srbenda]

I understand what you are saying.

If your stove has gone cold by morning - these coals are not hot. In the shoulder season - I let the stove run out and just do night burns - some of the chunks are cool enough to pick up and position bare handed. Burning 24/7 now, my coal bed is always red hot.

I used to take out ash daily, until I got better advice here. Now I go about 4-5 days, sometimes a week. I also do not want the ash to cover my air inlet either. My stove is brick lined. I don't see how it's possible to go all season without taking out ash - seems like it would fill the fire box. When I travel, the wife never touches the ash (2 or more weeks) and it's not an issue. So what do I know?

When I take some ash out, I rake the coals to one side and then scoop out the amount of ash (not all). Then the coals are positioned for the new fire - they're hot and ready to go. No lighter necessary. The ash actually helps to insulate the coal bed - so you have great coals come morning.

Even when I do scoop ash out, I prize the black chunks and keep them in the firebox. Only the dark grey powder and fluffy white ash gets scooped.

I don't sift it - that would be a major mess and I would imagine kicks up alot of dust. I do love those black chunks. They are the best. Doesn't take much to get them to glow orange/red again.

Maybe Hearth.com can offer some tips for you to get longer burn times? It's an old stove - but what's the set up? What kind of wood are you burning? I can't imagine a stove could go cold in 3 hours.

Phew.

I'm glad some people know what I am talking about.
These are "cold" coals, or black chunks of burned through wood. They take no time to red-hot again when starting a fire, and they make the whole process easier.

Now, I will be happy to take tips on how to keep my stove burning longer.

I have two small damper slides on the bottom of each door, and that is my only air-intake regulator.
I also have a lever at the top of the stove that controls airflow out. I always leave that wide open, unless you tell me otherwise.

I am burning white oak, red oak, and mulberry that has all be seasoned about a year.

I'll post a photo of said stove in a few.

 

[Srbenda]

Photo of the stove.

Note the handle in the top middle that I leave fully open, and the two small sliding "doors" at the bottom.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I understand what you are saying.

If your stove has gone cold by morning - these coals are not hot. In the shoulder season - I let the stove run out and just do night burns - some of the chunks are cool enough to pick up and position bare handed. Burning 24/7 now, my coal bed is always red hot.

I used to take out ash daily, until I got better advice here. Now I go about 4-5 days, sometimes a week. I also do not want the ash to cover my air inlet either. My stove is brick lined. I don't see how it's possible to go all season without taking out ash - seems like it would fill the fire box. When I travel, the wife never touches the ash (2 or more weeks) and it's not an issue. So what do I know?

When I take some ash out, I rake the coals to one side and then scoop out the amount of ash (not all). Then the coals are positioned for the new fire - they're hot and ready to go. No lighter necessary. The ash actually helps to insulate the coal bed - so you have great coals come morning.

Even when I do scoop ash out, I prize the black chunks and keep them in the firebox. Only the dark grey powder and fluffy white ash gets scooped.

I don't sift it - that would be a major mess and I would imagine kicks up alot of dust. I do love those black chunks. They are the best. Doesn't take much to get them to glow orange/red again.

Maybe Hearth.com can offer some tips for you to get longer burn times? It's an old stove - but what's the set up? What kind of wood are you burning? I can't imagine a stove could go cold in 3 hours.

I'm not sure about your stove in particular but it sounds to me like you are leaving the main draft fully open. This would explain why you can not get a longer burn time.

One thing you might experiment with would be on reloads, try leaving the top one open full and the door drafts shut until the fire gets established. Then open the drafts on the stove door full open or half open and close the top one to half or thereabouts. It might take some experimenting as some of those older stoves were a bit weird.

On the big coals, usaually that is caused by burning wood before it is properly seasoned. It's been my experience that burning dry wood will stop that problem.

Good luck.

Phew.

I'm glad some people know what I am talking about.
These are "cold" coals, or black chunks of burned through wood. They take no time to red-hot again when starting a fire, and they make the whole process easier.

Now, I will be happy to take tips on how to keep my stove burning longer.

I have two small damper slides on the bottom of each door, and that is my only air-intake regulator.
I also have a lever at the top of the stove that controls airflow out. I always leave that wide open, unless you tell me otherwise.

I am burning white oak, red oak, and mulberry that has all be seasoned about a year.

I'll post a photo of said stove in a few.

 

[dlatheman]

Looks like you have a Buck insert that was made in the early eighty's, I have the smaller version.

The smoke outlet damper should be almost closed if you want good heat. You want to keep the smoke in the firebox as long as possible but not so much that it chokes the fire. I run my damper one notch from the fully closed position. This keeps smoke/heat in the firebox so it warms the metal interior before proceeding up the flue.

Glass doors really help to understand what is happening inside the stove, you may want to explore adding a piece of glass to at least one door.

 

[CALJREICH]

my stove has an ash pan under it so I'm glad I don't need to shovel ash out of my stove. I just keep burning.

 

[Srbenda]

Looks like you have a Buck insert that was made in the early eighty's, I have the smaller version.

The smoke outlet damper should be almost closed if you want good heat. You want to keep the smoke in the firebox as long as possible but not so much that it chokes the fire. I run my damper one notch from the fully closed position. This keeps smoke/heat in the firebox so it warms the metal interior before proceeding up the flue.

Glass doors really help to understand what is happening inside the stove, you may want to explore adding a piece of glass to at least one door.

Hey, that's it! I just found the "Owners manual" on their website.

Thanks a bunch!