PE Summit Excessive coals building up

[tommybro]

Hi, I know I should not be crankin about this but I think I have a funny problem.

I am burning some very seasoned pine and a mixture of good to moderatly seasoned hardwood, my problem is most of firebox is full of coals, it's hard to get a good load of wood in fo the overnight fires ( like 3 to 4 hardwood splits at most) .I do still have good heat in the morning with the blower going etc I am just thinking I am doing something wrong. Most of the time I have the fire going the air is all the way down but I do have a good fire going with the secondaries working.

I have been cleaning it out like 2 to 3 times a week so that I can make sure I can out enough wood in to keep it going well. I let the blower shut itself off, then I push the hot coals to the side and take out ash and something like unburnt coals, the kind of look like coals all black etc but just are out.

Is this normal and I am thinking too much about this or is there something I should be doing differently?

 

[Todd]

Have you tried leaving the air a little more open? Try burning a little hotter.

 

[SKIN052]

The only way I have been able to avoid that is to turn the air up full open for about an hour or so after raking the hot coals to the front. It helps to turn the coals into ash and frees up room in the firebox. Lots of heat in the coals so use it all up.

 

[WARDNEAL]

I had the same problem.

Two things caused mine.

Not fully seasoned black locust and not adjusting the air open more and more as the wood burned down.

If I keep the temp up in the 500 range and add air if it starts to drop it will burn down much better but still need to pull the coals forward at least one time per day to burn down.

Over night with air off I will have some charcoal but this will burn up on the reload.

Have a Merry Christmas

 

[tommybro]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it, I will have to start to pull the coals forward and burn them down.

It did drive me crazy throwing out the charcoal because I knew that was wasted heat / work.

Thanks again and happy holidays.

 

[iceman]

Don't close stove all the way down... could be your draft.....unless its real cold I gotta leave mine half way between L and completely closed ... my stack is short so I don't draft as well ... as well as having negative pressure in my house

 

[BrotherBart]

Yep. Leave a little more primary air open. After the load settles in it isn't gonna run away on you and in the coaling stage with a large deep firebox that air has to travel a long way to get to that stuff in the back. I had to do some experimenting with the 30-NC to find that right spot where it would cruise for ten or twelve hours or so and end up with a 200 or so stove stop and just the right amount of coals left in the back for a reload after taking two or three scoops of dead ash out of the front.

Give it a little air and get all of your labor's worth out of that wood.

 

[jotul8e2]

To the above advice I would add the only "trick" I know: Shovel enough coals away from the back to put in another split or log, then shovel as many coals back over it as space allows. As the higher temp combustibles come off the log they will help keep the temperatures high enough to keep the coals going well. You will still need more air, but perhaps not as much as you would otherwise.