higher temp, less ash?

[ryjen]

Forgive me if this conversation should be in the stove section, but I felt it was more wood related...maybe?
Anyway, I recently purchased a stove thermometer (yay for me) and quickly realized that I was not getting my stove hot enough.
Before, I could have an overnight burn, and have tons of ash to deal with in the morning before a reload. Troublesome due to sifting through hot coals, etc.
Now that I am keeping temps at 350 and higher for the duration of the burns, I don't have the ash issue even after 36 hours straight. Is it really as simple as a hotter fire burning MORE of the wood than a cooler one?

Burning red oak at 15% MC

 

[gzecc]

I always thought ash production was from the type of wood. I know Black Walnut produces a lot of ash. It would make sense that the hotter the fire the less the ash, all things being equal.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

I think the largest contributor to the amount of ash is the type of wood but one thing I have noticed is that if you burn a bit hotter you have less partially burnt clunkers left over after an overnight burn. I've found that it's a fine line between too much air and shorter burn time with less charcoal creation and a little less air to leave enough coals to restart. If you have more of the charcoal pieces it looks like more ash because they take up more volume.

 

[ryjen]

I see your point as maybe it was larger chunks that were covered with ash a opposed to all ash.

 

[WiscoWoodman]

I do lots of raking to ensure those charcoals under the ash get burnt up as much as possible.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Forgive me if this conversation should be in the stove section, but I felt it was more wood related...maybe?
Anyway, I recently purchased a stove thermometer (yay for me) and quickly realized that I was not getting my stove hot enough.
Before, I could have an overnight burn, and have tons of ash to deal with in the morning before a reload. Troublesome due to sifting through hot coals, etc.
Now that I am keeping temps at 350 and higher for the duration of the burns, I don't have the ash issue even after 36 hours straight. Is it really as simple as a hotter fire burning MORE of the wood than a cooler one?

Burning red oak at 15% MC

What you no doubt are having is a lot of coals that are not fully burned. Oak is great firewood in that it does coal a lot which makes it give lots of heat over a longer period of time. For sure if you are keeping the stove at 350 or lower, you are not burning that thing hot enough. Quite naturally this brings up the question of what temperature if the flue? If the stove top is lower than 350, that flue must be a lot lower, which naturally trips the flag warning about creosote buildup in the chimney. This all goes hand in hand. So I would highly suggest you give that chimney a check and do it often. Clean as necessary. Good luck.