Progress Hybrid Ash Pan question

[Slow1]

The Ash pan itself gets wonky when hot. or becomes out of square . switching out pans is a good 24/7 idea.. thin 1/4 in strips on bottom pan would keep it flat n str8 when hot.. Cracking Ash door brings up flames IMED.. It takes time to build up heat in the progress .. I bet the New Steel stove heats up Fassssst.. Woodstock been out of Ash rakes for 8 months now or so.. cant get one. gonna just bend an extra cast fireplace shovel..

Hmmm... I've not had a problem with the ash pan going "wonky" - but then perhaps this is because I generally change out when the stove is (relatively) cool - for example this morning the stove was reading about 200 surface and while I had coals in the stove, there was not a large pile (more than enough to re-light though).

Cracking the ash door to light up? This is a very bad idea. IF you are needing to do this in order to get up to temp then something is wrong here - either your draft is very weak or your wood is not dry enough. Seriously - you should fix whatever the issue is and your enjoyment of the PH will go up I'm sure. Case in point - this morning after changing the ash pan out I loaded up with 12 splits (filled but not 'packed' (I say this so you get a sense of the size splits I'm using). Coals had been moved to the front of the stove. After loading I closed the door and opened air full. Within 1-2 minutes I had good flames and reduced air to about 75%, then let it cruise to 250 in about 10 minutes. I had stove cooking along with good secondaries, air down to a crack, and stovetop around 500 (needed the heat, cold morning) within 30 minutes. Perhaps slower than a pure steel stove, but not anywhere near "slow" enough to take the risk of opening the ash pan door.

 

[Slow1]

This ash pan thing is getting a little silly. It is a nice feature for convenience, but that's it. It have experience with both since I do not have one and my dad does. The stove burns no different with or without. What you get with the ash pan is the convenience of not having to shovel ash out of the stove. You also get the appearance of the ash pan, one more gasket to maintain, and one more place something could (however unlikely) fail and damage the stove. That's it. Different strokes...

I dont' know about silly - it is interesting to many of us who, for whatever reason, hang out on these boards. I spent a lot of time trying to decide if I wanted the ash pan option or not. In the end the convenience is well worth it to me. I'm glad to hear you have first hand experience that it doesn't make a (noticeable?) difference in the burn. This is the sort of info I'd have liked to read prior to making my final decision.

Besides - those of us who have bought into the Cat stove mentality can't debate cat/non-cat between ourselves so we need something equally trivial to debate eh? ha!

 

[Waulie]

I dont' know about silly - it is interesting to many of us who, for whatever reason, hang out on these boards. I spent a lot of time trying to decide if I wanted the ash pan option or not. In the end the convenience is well worth it to me. I'm glad to hear you have first hand experience that it doesn't make a (noticeable?) difference in the burn. This is the sort of info I'd have liked to read prior to making my final decision.

Hey, don't mind me. Feel free to carry on!

Besides - those of us who have bought into the Cat stove mentality can't debate cat/non-cat between ourselves so we need something equally trivial to debate eh? ha!

Well, we do have both a cat and a secondary burn system so maybe there is room for debate after all!