Poll - ash try or no ash tray on Progress Hybrid?

[rsilvers]

If you were getting a Progress Hybrid, would you want to buy the optional ash tray for $195?

It requires the 10 inch legs, but I would want those anyway to get the 8 inch front clearance. If you have the short legs, the front clearance is 16 inches.

 

[BrotherBart]

None of the above,.

Just ask a question. I really, really want to do away with this poll thing.

You either want an ash pan or you don't and you want to know why or why not.

 

[fire_man]

I originally ordered my Progress without the ashpan. The ash dust around the hearth and all around the room has been pretty bad, so I contacted a bunch of Progress owners who got the ashpan. Verdict: they were all extremely happy they got the ashpan. The answers I got back were not just "yes, it's good" but were more like "this thing is great,I wouldn't want to be without it". So I recently ordered (but have not yet installed) the ashpan.

It will not eliminate ash/dust from the room, but it helps considerably. You also don't end up scooping out the beneficial hot coals, just rake and the ash drops down leaving behind hot coals. I never did master the technique others wrote about - to somehow scoop out hot ash and not get one single "poof" of dust into the air. I just never got the knack and end up with dust everywhere.

Yes, there are some negatives I considered - It's an extra gasket to leak, adds to the cost, and is one more "thing" to go wrong. But by far, the general consensus was that Woodstock has figured out the recipe for getting the ashpan right, and it just plain works as intended.

 

[Scott2373]

For the first two years we owned our stove, we used the ash drawer as designed. This year, I decided to let it fill up and I forgot about it. It worked out quite well. I wasn't traipsing through the house with a hot ash bin with ashes going everywhere once a week. I bought a small 7 gallon galvanized trash can (yes, it's rated for hot ashes) and keep it next to the stove. I shovel out the stove about once every two weeks, maybe longer, and I've emptied the can twice. No regrets here! I'll never use the ash drawer again!

 

[rsilvers]

Why not just use the ash pan as designed but rather than run through the house once per week, just dump it into your 7 gallon trash can and immediately put it back into the stove?

 

[toddnic]

I have the ashpan and would never not have it. So easy and it even comes with a lid (if you want to use it). No ashes in the house, no shoveling, holds a lot, and it is easy. If you are running the stove 24/7 the best time to dump it is about once each week in the morning before reloading. You will need stove gloves to keep the heat from getting to your hands. I remember the mess of shoveling ashes out of my old stove in the '90s and definitely have no desire to go back to that system.

 

[begreen]

For the first two years we owned our stove, we used the ash drawer as designed. This year, I decided to let it fill up and I forgot about it. It worked out quite well. I wasn't traipsing through the house with a hot ash bin with ashes going everywhere once a week. I bought a small 7 gallon galvanized trash can (yes, it's rated for hot ashes) and keep it next to the stove. I shovel out the stove about once every two weeks, maybe longer, and I've emptied the can twice. No regrets here! I'll never use the ash drawer again!

I did the same with the Castine. The stove seemed to run better and got longer burns with a full ash pan. Instead of dumping it every few days I went to cleaning out the stove every few weeks. Much less work and a better burn. I tried the PE system once and abandoned it quickly. More hassle than it was worth with little advantage.

 

[fire_man]

Why not just use the ash pan as designed but rather than run through the house once per week, just dump it into your 7 gallon trash can and immediately put it back into the stove?

Another option is to buy a second Ashpan. Pull out the full one, push in the empty one and put on it's lid, empty when cool.

 

[Scott2373]

The problem is the ashes flying everywhere. If I dumped the ash bin in the house, I'd have an unholy mess of ashes covering everything. When I shovel out the stove, I turn off the fan for as little air movement as possible. I still get some drifters from off the shovel, but I can't imagine the cloud I'd send up by dumping it. As begreen said, the stove does seem to run a little hotter for a longer period of time as well. Nothing major, just noticeable.

 

[fossil]

Don't have a PH, but I burn two stoves. My Century has an ash pan (drawer) in the pedestal, and I've never used it. In fact, when I re-bricked the bottom of the firebox I didn't bother to re-fit the removable brick section that led down into the drawer. My Lopi never had any sort of ash pan. I just use a shovel & purpose-built (double bottom) covered bucket to remove ashes from both stoves. Simple. Rick