On the Englander 17-VL I'm having trouble with too much charcoal building up. I use this technique to reduce it: http://woodheat.org/charcoal.html , but I am still not satisfied with the result. Is there anything else I can do?
too much charcoal
- Thread starter Charles2
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The linked post is pretty good. I might add that you should be opening up the draft a few hours into the burn - especially after the secondaries finish igniting. Also keep your splits small - they burn quicker.
Heavy build up of coals are usually caused by:
Burning wood that is not dry enough.
Loading split after split on top of existing coals, in an attempt to keep a flame present.
Impatience of reloading before the previous load has fully burnt down.
Cutting the air back before it has reaches a temp that sustains the burn.
Or combination of any/all of the above.
Load it full of good dry wood, get it up to the temp where is doesn't drop in temp quickly(air back too soon, smoldering). Cut the air back as far as you can without causing smoldering or rapid temp drop.
Let it alone for several hours, only reloading when there are enough coals for reload. Repeat. If you continually add spits every 1/2 hour to hour, you're going to have a mountain of coals.
Burning wood that is not dry enough.
Loading split after split on top of existing coals, in an attempt to keep a flame present.
Impatience of reloading before the previous load has fully burnt down.
Cutting the air back before it has reaches a temp that sustains the burn.
Or combination of any/all of the above.
Load it full of good dry wood, get it up to the temp where is doesn't drop in temp quickly(air back too soon, smoldering). Cut the air back as far as you can without causing smoldering or rapid temp drop.
Let it alone for several hours, only reloading when there are enough coals for reload. Repeat. If you continually add spits every 1/2 hour to hour, you're going to have a mountain of coals.
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
Besides the unseasoned + 20% wood moisture comments which are very true, if you need a constant flame to keep warm then your stove is undersized for the job, like others have said loading upon loading just to keep a flame will cause rapid coal growth.
A good method that I have been using is to rack the coals forward then place 2 smaller splits on top, keep the air open and let here rip the whole burn, it reduces the coals, you get fast heat and you set your self up for larger long burns. I usually do this everyday when I get home from work, I let the stove go, then Im ready for the big night load, I also sometimes do this in the morning if I have enough time.
A good method that I have been using is to rack the coals forward then place 2 smaller splits on top, keep the air open and let here rip the whole burn, it reduces the coals, you get fast heat and you set your self up for larger long burns. I usually do this everyday when I get home from work, I let the stove go, then Im ready for the big night load, I also sometimes do this in the morning if I have enough time.
JA600L
Minister of Fire
Get a bag of wood pellets. Sprinkle the pellets heavily over the coals and let it ignite. Some use kindling. I find wood pellets to be a cheap and easy way to do the same thing. Remember that some of that is ash so make sure you manage that too.
He has a grate on the floor of the stove. Just run a poker through the coals and the ash falls through the grate into the pan. Coals stay in the stove, and you dump the ash pan later, when the stove is burning low.
The grated systems are the most convenient, but the ash dump on the Buck 91 was usable. It had a flip-up hinged lid on a large opening (about 3.5 x 5.5".) The dump was off to one side of the box, so I could skim the big coals to the other side and just scrape the ash/smaller coals into the pan.
My Keystone has a grate, and also a small hole in the ash pan housing which feeds some air into the coals and keeps them in check for the most part. But when it's cold out and I'm burning hard, coals can still be an issue.
I don't have real good results tossing more wood on top, either. With the small box on my stove, I've had decent results doing as @fire_man suggests; Opening the air a little when the load gets to the coaling stage keeps my stove temp up, pumping out heat, and burns the coals down faster. You may have to shovel out sooner than you would like with the small box. About the best you can do is shove everything to one side, skim the big coals to the other side, then shovel out the ash and smaller coals as best you can.
NoGoodAtScreenNames
Feeling the Heat
What I do with the coals depends on what I'm planning to do with the next load - if any. I'm a nights and weekend burner so I'll do each one of the following depending on the time of day and need for heat.
- Let the insert coast down to cold. Open up the air and keep the coals glowing as much as possible. This gets them down to nothing but ash. This is basically my weeknight / overnight routine.
- Get ready for another load. If there's not too many I pull them forward to help ignite the next. If I force a reload on too many coals in the front the insert goes nuclear and is hard to control. If I find there's too many I may just leave them there and come back later.
- Need space in the stove and need the heat now. Pull them forward and put some small splits on. Leave the air pretty open and put the fan on high to get as much heat as possible as they burn down to make room for the next real load.
- I timed things wrong and I won't get them burned down before the overnight. I'll rake them all together but instead of pulling them forward I'll arrange them in a pile in the middle and front to back, almost like a split of coals. Then I'll load the stove as normal on the two sides of the coals with a smaller split on top of the coals.
I guess with all these my primary thing is to keep the coals from building up and from the insert from getting out of control. The worst thing I've ever done is spread a big batch of coals all over and place a big load on top. Never doing that again...
- Let the insert coast down to cold. Open up the air and keep the coals glowing as much as possible. This gets them down to nothing but ash. This is basically my weeknight / overnight routine.
- Get ready for another load. If there's not too many I pull them forward to help ignite the next. If I force a reload on too many coals in the front the insert goes nuclear and is hard to control. If I find there's too many I may just leave them there and come back later.
- Need space in the stove and need the heat now. Pull them forward and put some small splits on. Leave the air pretty open and put the fan on high to get as much heat as possible as they burn down to make room for the next real load.
- I timed things wrong and I won't get them burned down before the overnight. I'll rake them all together but instead of pulling them forward I'll arrange them in a pile in the middle and front to back, almost like a split of coals. Then I'll load the stove as normal on the two sides of the coals with a smaller split on top of the coals.
I guess with all these my primary thing is to keep the coals from building up and from the insert from getting out of control. The worst thing I've ever done is spread a big batch of coals all over and place a big load on top. Never doing that again...
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I agree with Hogz, when I run into coaling problems its usually from burning Ash that is close to 20%. I need to keep my air open further which just wastes heat up the chimney. I usually run into this problem in shoulder season, when I cut and burn straight out of the woods. I hate to waste my prime cuts on a 30 degree day.
If I'm in a hurry or it's cold, I'll use the handy machete to push the coals to one side, ( I load front/back.)
I use pine splits when I'm burning down coals for quick heat and pine doesn't coal, if it's really cold I put two bio bricks on top of the coals, they burn nice and hot for good heat.
I wonder if wet wood is the cause in most all cases like this. I have a small stove as well and when it's really cold out all I do is open the air up a bit when the wood reaches coaling stage. I maintains my house temp for a few hours like that and then I spread the coals out flat over the bottom and do a normal reload. During the week I mostly burn at night so in the morning I stir the coals and ash around and pull them forward to finish burning down. This usually leaves me with almost all ash and no chunky coals. And as far as scooping out ash, I don't have an ash drawer and my stove belly is relatively shallow. I've probably burned around one cord of wood so far and I think I've taken out maybe 3 gallons of ash - but it was all ash, no chunky coals.
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