Too thick of a coal/ash bed

[CowboyAndy]

So now we are burning 24/7, and at times the coal bed gets pretty thick, but there is also a layer of compacted ash underneath. I take a scoop of ash out everytime I load it up, but obviously its not enough. What would you suggest doing with it?


BTW, its a furnace, not a stove.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Turn the air on high and burn the coal bed down.

Matt

 

[CowboyAndy]

I tried that the other day... but the house was cooling down faster than the coals were burning down...

 

[savageactor7]

Andy on occasion we've just removed shovels full of hot coals and put 'em in a bucket...so the bucket radiates heat big deal, it's on the hearth pad.

Most of the time before we load up the coals are raked forward. also we only put one split on at a time while we're home and burn on the hotter side. What's the difference if the stove is burning 550 with 1 split or 5? 550 is 550.

If you leave the house or turn in for the night yeah go ahead and load it full but you have to burn the coals down using a split at a time and burn hot...it works for us I suppose you can give it a shot.

 

[CowboyAndy]

Andy on occasion we've just removed shovels full of hot coals and put 'em in a bucket...so the bucket radiates heat big deal, it's on the hearth pad.

Most of the time before we load up the coals are raked forward. also we only put one split on at a time while we're home and burn on the hotter side. What's the difference if the stove is burning 550 with 1 split or 5? 550 is 550.

If you leave the house or turn in for the night yeah go ahead and load it full but you have to burn the coals down using a split at a time and burn hot...it works for us I suppose you can give it a shot.

Did you have a lid on the bucket? I would be worried about carbon monoxide, and our bucket doesnt have a liid.

 

[mayhem]

Then you need a new bucket.

You need a good steel bucket with a lid that can be latched...shovel what you can of the coals over to one side and shovel out as much ash as you can, don't worry about the coals you're tkaing out of there. Then spready whats left around and you're good to go. Take the bucket, latch the lid on there and put it somewhere asfe fot it to cool down, it could be radiating considerable heat for hours.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Andy, there should be no need of removing ash every time you load up. It's actually counter-productive.

 

[jeff_t]

Save them coals for next summer's charcoal.

 

[CowboyAndy]

Save them coals for next summer's charcoal.

its not so much the coals, but the hearty bed of ASH that has built up... 4"+ inches.


when I have a good coal bed going, its above the bottom row of bricks.

 

[ManiacPD]

I ran into this same problem over the weekend. I use a 10 gallon trash can with a lid (available at most hardware/farm supply stores) for an ash bucket. I filled it with burning coals. I had a watering can handy and I poured water on the coals after each spade-full to keep the bucket from getting too hot. Cover it and let it sit for a while to starve the coals of oxygen and they'll go out.

I couldn't believe I didn't have more heat than I was getting. I had a nice bed of coals about 10" deep that were orange with blue flames coming off the top. It reminded me a lot of the fire in the Simplex coal boiler we had growing up. I was struggling to maintain 140F water and it was 20 degrees out with high winds. The house was getting cold so I couldn't wait any longer for the coals to burn down.

I pulled the ashpan out of the bottom and looked up at the grates and there was no orange anywhere. The ash had completely covered over the grates. There was some air getting through but not much.

So now I keep just a little bit of ash on the grates but am careful to not let it build up.

Go grab a 10 gallon trash can though...it works great. The cover fits tight and if you pull the carry handle up it locks the cover down.

Good luck!

Paul

 

[glacialhills]

I am assuming your furnace does not have a grate and ash pan? where does your air come into the stove? My furnace has air come into the firebox near the front near the door. There should be nothing but ash near the intake air. If you scoop up those ashes first, then rake the coals to that spot, put in one split and turn up the the intake to full, those coals will burn to ash fast and keep the temp up. Then when it starts to cool again that area should be full of just ash again. continue to do this till the box is empty and then load like normal. Just remember to do this more often to keep the firebox empty of ash and the stove will stay up to temp. with minimal ash/ coal build up.

 

[mikeathens]

I had this problem when my stove was too small. Now, with my mansfield, I'm rake all the coals infront of the primary air supply and turn the air control to high. This burns down the coals and keeps the stove at a good temperature. What you are experiencing is not necessarily a sign that your stove is too small, but it could be a symptom. Does your stove give you good, long burn times, like 8+ hours? If you're up every 4 hours cramming wood into the stove when it's 10 out, maybe it's too small. Otherwise, you really don't have much chioce than to shovel the coals out into a bucket. That's what I used to do, then sit it outside where it's not going to hurt anyhting.

 

[firefighterjake]

No coal issues here . . . but it could be due to the fact that I "let" (well more like I haven't been able to get more than 4-5 hours of a good burn time as defined by me as putting wood on a well established fire to the point where there are enough hot coals able to put a fresh batch of wood on the fire without resorting to adding more kindling to get the fire going again) the fire die down to just a few coals . . . and on occasion I throw in a stick or two of softwood which seems to help with the coaling issues that I might get while continually feeding the fire during a weekend.

 

[firefighterjake]

I ran into this same problem over the weekend. I use a 10 gallon trash can with a lid (available at most hardware/farm supply stores) for an ash bucket. I filled it with burning coals. I had a watering can handy and I poured water on the coals after each spade-full to keep the bucket from getting too hot. Cover it and let it sit for a while to starve the coals of oxygen and they'll go out.

I couldn't believe I didn't have more heat than I was getting. I had a nice bed of coals about 10" deep that were orange with blue flames coming off the top. It reminded me a lot of the fire in the Simplex coal boiler we had growing up. I was struggling to maintain 140F water and it was 20 degrees out with high winds. The house was getting cold so I couldn't wait any longer for the coals to burn down.

I pulled the ashpan out of the bottom and looked up at the grates and there was no orange anywhere. The ash had completely covered over the grates. There was some air getting through but not much.

So now I keep just a little bit of ash on the grates but am careful to not let it build up.

Go grab a 10 gallon trash can though...it works great. The cover fits tight and if you pull the carry handle up it locks the cover down.

Good luck!

Paul

Echoing the post . . . sort of . . . I purchased a 5-gallon covered metal pail from the local True Value Hardware Store for use in storing my ashes/hot coals. However, I store my pail (and ashes) outside on a non-combustible surface . . . and like ManiacPD the cover locks securely in place.

ManiacPD . . . your post reminded me of growing up as my Dad had a wood furnace and he would often have to shovel (or I would have to shovel) out those chunks of orange coals . . . your description of the orange chunks with the blue flames dancing above them reminded me of that old wood furnace.

P.S. Where in Maine do you live . . . and yes I agree . . . this past weekend was a bit nippy with the 20 degree temps and those high winds.

 

[CowboyAndy]

I am assuming your furnace does not have a grate and ash pan? where does your air come into the stove? My furnace has air come into the firebox near the front near the door. There should be nothing but ash near the intake air. If you scoop up those ashes first, then rake the coals to that spot, put in one split and turn up the the intake to full, those coals will burn to ash fast and keep the temp up. Then when it starts to cool again that area should be full of just ash again. continue to do this till the box is empty and then load like normal. Just remember to do this more often to keep the firebox empty of ash and the stove will stay up to temp. with minimal ash/ coal build up.

No, there is not a grate or an ash pan. The furnace has a draft inducer fan mounted above the door.

The other day I spent several hours trying to get them down with minimal success. I would rake all the coals towards the door and let em go for a while. lather, rinse and repeat.

Seems like there is too thick of a bed of actual ASH, not coals.

I had this problem when my stove was too small. Now, with my mansfield, I'm rake all the coals infront of the primary air supply and turn the air control to high. This burns down the coals and keeps the stove at a good temperature. What you are experiencing is not necessarily a sign that your stove is too small, but it could be a symptom. Does your stove give you good, long burn times, like 8+ hours? If you're up every 4 hours cramming wood into the stove when it's 10 out, maybe it's too small. Otherwise, you really don't have much chioce than to shovel the coals out into a bucket. That's what I used to do, then sit it outside where it's not going to hurt anyhting.

Well, overnight burns have been an issue, but the problem is not so seasoned wood. I would be hard pressed to believe that this furnace is too small for the house. 2000 sq ft, the firebox is 14w, 18tall and 24 deep... i can cram it full and heat everyone out of the house.

 

[mikeathens]

Well, your house is a bit bigger than mine, but I would assume better insualtion. At 3.5 CF firebox, that's a tad bigger than mine. I wonder about heat transfer effeciency compared with a free-standing wood stove?

 

[InTheRockies]

I don't know if it will work for your furnace, but someone put a link to this page in another thread on coaling and it works for me. (broken link removed to http://www.woodheat.org/tips/toomuchcharcoal.htm) Since our temps have been falling, I'm finding I'm burning more wood. Before running across the thread with this link, I was not opening the air control back up later in the burn cycle (I didn't want to lose heat). I'm now opening the air control up later in the burn and, if I think my coal bed is too thick in the afternoon, I'll follow the instructions in the link. Good luck. Seems we all have to try and find the best tweaks for operating our wood-burning heaters (and those may change throughout the heating season).

 

[OilNoMore]

I understand the point and process outlined in the link article, but I don't see how it significantly helps reduce those big chunks that we need to shovel out/push away to get to the finer ash. I have the same problem in my stove. I did go purchase another ash pan so that I can rake to one side, fill the ash pan, rake to the other side, fill the remaining side of the ash pan and then switch it out with the second ash pan. I think it might just be the nature of burning with wood stoves. I can certainly see how a metal garbage can is handy. This morning I completed the process outlined above, walked my ash pan out the door and realized I had no good place to put hot ashes. I ended up setting them on the covered section of blacktop in the rain/snow mix that was coming down and that certainly is no good solution. Stores here only sells the 35 gallon metal bucket which I know I will be lazy and let get too full, then complain about how I can't pick it up and need to shovel it out.

My other issue is that I get fine ash building up around the stove where the gasket from the glass door seals it up, making it harder to close when that ash gets packed in there. I just knock it out with a piece of kindling, but then I'm left with ash on the hearth and need to get the shop vac going. Again, I think its just the nature of wood stoves, or at least mine as I see no real solution.

Don't take my comments above as complaints, as someone already noted, a warm house equals a happy wife. She keeps telling me that putting the wood stove in was the best decision I've made in a long time...I'm thinking about trying to follow that decision up with a flat screen. Hello 46 incher!

 

[InTheRockies]

I understand the point and process outlined in the link article, but I don't see how it significantly helps reduce those big chunks that we need to shovel out/push away to get to the finer ash. I have the same problem in my stove. I did go purchase another ash pan so that I can rake to one side, fill the ash pan, rake to the other side, fill the remaining side of the ash pan and then switch it out with the second ash pan. I think it might just be the nature of burning with wood stoves. I can certainly see how a metal garbage can is handy. This morning I completed the process outlined above, walked my ash pan out the door and realized I had no good place to put hot ashes. I ended up setting them on the covered section of blacktop in the rain/snow mix that was coming down and that certainly is no good solution. Stores here only sells the 35 gallon metal bucket which I know I will be lazy and let get too full, then complain about how I can't pick it up and need to shovel it out.

My other issue is that I get fine ash building up around the stove where the gasket from the glass door seals it up, making it harder to close when that ash gets packed in there. I just knock it out with a piece of kindling, but then I'm left with ash on the hearth and need to get the shop vac going. Again, I think its just the nature of wood stoves, or at least mine as I see no real solution.

Don't take my comments above as complaints, as someone already noted, a warm house equals a happy wife. She keeps telling me that putting the wood stove in was the best decision I've made in a long time...I'm thinking about trying to follow that decision up with a flat screen. Hello 46 incher!

Actually, the technique in the article works wonders. I had been somewhat skeptical of the method and was surprised at just how well it works. I use 1 split at a time and keep it to a small split since I burn it with the air open completely (I won't over fire using a small split). If the coal bed is really large, I may need to burn a second split, back-to-back. It's important that you rake all the coals to the front in a heap--then put your small split on top of the heap.

 

[CowboyAndy]

When it comes to air control, there is a thing that lets us control how much is going in, but we have been leaving it wide open all night, because it seemed that when we closed it to the minimum (halfway) by the morning there were twice as many coals, but they were covered by a layer of ash.


I think I am going to go with the 10 gal trash can with cover method, but I have a few questions.

Can I leave it right in the basement with the lid on (concrete floor)?

In that area of the basement it stays pretty damp (poor foundation), would the little bit if water on the floor be an issue with the can?

Someone suggested putting water after eash shovel full, is that 100% nessicary? can I just dump em in and let them cool on their own, or can i seriously damage the can?

 

[johnnywarm]

Andy on occasion we've just removed shovels full of hot coals and put 'em in a bucket...so the bucket radiates heat big deal, it's on the hearth pad.

.

Bingo thats how i do it

 

[savageactor7]

Andy if you worried about water rusting out metal...which it will, just put the ash bucket on some boards. As far as a bucket cover goes my coals don't smoke like the old fashioned charcoal grills coals so even though I have a bucket cover...I don't cover it. Cause I want a fine powder to put on the garden or driveway. But if those coals smoked I would cover it to protect against CO.

HUH? Now ya got me thinking do glowing coals give off CO? Any opinions welcome. We have a smoke CO detector.

 

[kenny chaos]

It's so easy a caveman did it. First I keep the compacted layer stirred up, maybe once a day. There's a lot of little unburned coals in my compacted ash and stirring them up helps burn them off.
Then when I have just a bunch of true ash on the bottom and coals on top, I go in with my shovel, dig deep to get the ash, a little tip to dump the coals off the top, and into the ash pan.
As far as stove size, I got a 3.1 but I'm heating a stone tomb so when the temps get down there, I gotta keep the wood to it which does pile up the coals. Then I just throw a couple smaller pieces on to keep the heat up and burn all them coals. Taking coals out of a stove makes no sense unless you have other need for them.

 

[pen]

Andy if you worried about water rusting out metal...which it will, just put the ash bucket on some boards. As far as a bucket cover goes my coals don't smoke like the old fashioned charcoal grills coals so even though I have a bucket cover...I don't cover it. Cause I want a fine powder to put on the garden or driveway. But if those coals smoked I would cover it to protect against CO.

HUH? Now ya got me thinking do glowing coals give off CO? Any opinions welcome. We have a smoke CO detector.

Any incomplete combustion will result in the release of CO. So, the answer is yes, it is giving off CO. The amount of course is dependent upon a sizeable list of variables. Covering the coals in a sealed container in the house will not stop the CO from leaving. Those containers are not airtight.

Bottom line, why would you have hot coals anywhere in your house but in your stove? That is a fire waiting to happen. The only approved container to handle hot coals inside your house is your stove. Dispose of any hot coals that you happen to remove when cleaning outside immediately to a safe area and a metal closed container. Don't take chances and use common sense please.

pen

 

[mikeathens]

You can order a small bucket (I think mine is 10 gallon) with tight fitting lid, or most of the smaller mom and pop hardware stores carry them (like true value or those do it best places). Might want to think about painted steel - if you have a habit of putting glowing coals in your pail, I would bet you're gonna get 'er hot enough to cause some fuming if your pail is galvanized. So, try to avoid galvanized cans for this. As far a storage, I wouldn't even consider leaving the thin in my house, even with just ash. Not only are combustion by-products in my house a concern, but so it a hot can sitting out. I have a few bricks outside my door sitting on earth that I set it on.