Lilly wood stove excessive ash

[pcc2826]

Lots of great information on these forums, thanks to all.

I have a big Lilly industries wood stove in my house. This thing works wonders as my furnace always seemed to run before and never got the house past 62 during these zero degree temperatures. This stove can easily keep the whole house comfortable and my furnace hasn't come on once since it was installed. However, it seems to be burning through an excessive amount of wood and producing too much ash. If I load the box full I can only get about 5 hours burn time out of the stove and it produces approximately a 2 gallon pail of ash every day. Anyone have any possible reasons for this or is this just something to put up with on an old stove? Thanks...

 

[Adios Pantalones]

An older stove shouldn't produce more ash- the amount of ash depends on how much wood, and what percent of that wood is combustible.

2 gallons of ash per day?? I doubt that I produce that in 3 weeks. Are you pulling a LOT of coals out as well? What kind of wood are you burning?

 

[Prof]

My guess is that there are significant coals in what you are throwing out. Depending on the type of wood, I typically get about 5-7 galons of ash per cord (not face cord). I find that on the cold days I load the stove more often and that can lead to significant coal build up.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I think that most people clean out every few days, maybe more depending on how much wood and if they have an ash pan. Pull coals up front and open the draft- you will get a lot of heat out of those coals, more efficiency, and not have a lot to clean out.

 

[fbelec]

it funny how some wood has a lot of ash and some doesn't. when i burn pine i could go a month with out cleaning the ashes out. the walnut i'm burning now is ash heavy.