Retaining Ash Bed & Embers in a Jotul F3CB

[davemill]

A Jotul F3CB stove came with our new house. Aside from the lack of a smoke outlet and the flue pipes installed crimp-end up instead of crimp-end down, it heats our great room nicely. But the bottom grill design allows all the ash and embers to fall into the ash drawer, so we don't get a nice glowing ember bed and the stove requires frequent attention.

I solved this by cutting down an unused stainless BBQ tray to cover the bottom grill. The slots in this tray are a lot smaller than the slots in the stove, so the ashes and embers stay in place. The stove works a lot better now!

This is the tray before cutting it to size:

This is the tray cut to size. Notice the difference in the size of the holes, compared to the woodstove grill behind it.

The new grill in place.

The start of an ember bed!

Suggestions welcome.

 

[begreen]

I just let the ash pan fill up with ash on ours. It definitely held a coal bed better then.