How often do you clean out ashes

[Richie]

Last year I was burning two year locust and man the charcoal that builds up is a pain in the ash. It seems like last year I was scooping it out every 3 days during the real cold snaps. Maybe two years is not enough. I have quite a bit now but have been burning black birch for three weeks. Much better however we have not gotten into the real cold stuff.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

I don't clean any of the charcoal chunks, I only clean ash. I've found that if you stir around the hot chunk coal bed and open the air up it quickly burns down the coals. When I got home from work today it was 11 hours since I loaded the stove. The stove was still warm but no visible coals. I opened the door and scooped out 3 scoops of ash and then stirred the rest of the ash bed and the buried coals came to life. A little kindling and some pine splits and I was back in business.

 

[midwestcoast]

Yeah, I sometimes have to burn down coals from oak, locust or mulberry. Pull them to the front, add some kindling, lumber scraps or silver maple… give it plenty of air & they burn-up, throwing useable heat while they do.
I don't like wasting the coals & I don't really want them in my ash can anyway.

 

[Hills Hoard]

I only burn on the weekends in winter and last winter i was cleaning out the ash every 3-4 weekends....i tend to leave an amount of ash and coals as mentioned above too. Sweep it to the sides, add kindling and load her up. Seems to be more efficient than completely cleaning it out

 

[Cory S]

Clean out firebox every 3-4 days, empty into ash box below. Take out ash box every 8-9 days.

 

[Oregon aloha]

I burn mostly fir and only remove the ash every couple of weeks. I remove the ash while the stove is still hot and I remove all the cooler ash and only leave the hot stuff. My ashbed grows quick enough. Add a couple of new splits and I am back to burning.

 

[firefighterjake]

Right now . . . I'm emptying my ash pan once a week. Thanks to the great grate and ash pan almost everything in the ash pan is ash.

When I start to really start cranking the heat and get serious . . . I'll be emptying the ash pan every 3-4 days.