Wood stoves with no cleanout chamber

[Don P]

I don't care if it has active flame  :D. Swipe right to knock the big stuff that way, drag left and start shovelling into a stainless pail. That gets a lid and set outside on gravel till cleanout time again. It works best if there is enough of a glowing coal bed to have a good draft pulling the fine ash up the chimney.

[Nathan4104]

The day before you know you want to empty the ashes, burn some Poplar, or spruce for the day.  You won't have a coal problem in the morning! 

[stavebuyer]

The day before you know you want to empty the ashes, burn some Poplar, or spruce for the day.  You won't have a coal problem in the morning!

I had a stand of mostly 100 y/o hickory that was devasted by an ice storm. My firewood stacks probably ran 75%+ straight hickory for several years. Was hard to find ashes among all the large coals. Too much of a good thing

[Joe Hillmann]

I use and old boxwood stove.  Originally I thought the lack of a grate or a clean out would be an issue.  In practice it isn't.  When the ashes build I rake the ash towards the front of the stove and push the fire and coals towards the back. Then I shovel out the ash(a few coals included) and pull the fire and coals back to the front of the stove.

I have also used several stoves that had a grate and ash shaker that had melted or broken parts so they no longer work.  I kind of like the simplicity of a flat bottom on a stove.  There is nothing there to break.

[SwampDonkey]

I clean the ashes once a week here into a galv 3 gallon pale. She's dumped in the ditch on the snow or if no snow on an old burn pile I use every spring from brush. ;D There no swipe left of right, just shovel, straight in, ash. ;D

Are you guys into the charcoal business or something?

[hedgerow]

The Earth stoves were made in Waco NE. Good stoves

Back when I sold firewood in the 80's and 90's a lot of my customers had earth stoves as they were built in our area. Back when I burned wood in a stove I had three Lincoln stoves that were built in Lincoln Ne. No ash clean out on them. They looked like two propane tank ends welded together. They were a good stove and still a lot of them in the area. My Garn has no ash clean out on it but you batch burn it so I clean it out after every run. 

[stavebuyer]

I clean the ashes once a week here into a galv 3 gallon pale. She's dumped in the ditch on the snow or if no snow on an old burn pile I use every spring from brush. ;D There no swipe left of right, just shovel, straight in, ash. ;D

Are you guys into the charcoal business or something?

You will be if you put hickory in a gasifier. Coals are great for BBQ but you need some flames to get serious heat from a gasifier.

[SwampDonkey]

You will be if you put hickory in a gasifier. Coals are great for BBQ but you need some flames to get serious heat from a gasifier.

Sounds like I might need a lot more wood for one of them things.
I seen my neigbor go through 32 cords of maple with an OWB one winter to heat water for the greenhouse and I assume the house. That soon ended after the 3rd winter. And that wood was all bought. I was surprised it lasted past the first.

[stavebuyer]

You will be if you put hickory in a gasifier. Coals are great for BBQ but you need some flames to get serious heat from a gasifier.

Sounds like I might need a lot more wood for one of them things.
I seen my neigbor go through 32 cords of maple with an OWB one winter to heat water for the greenhouse and I assume the house. That soon ended after the 3rd winter. And that wood was all bought. I was surprised it lasted past the first.

Maple and Ash don't coal like Hickory does. Hickory puts out more BTUS but you will also have a serious amount of live coals versus ashes the next morning compared to most other species especially in a low draft EPA gasifier.

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, hickory has more energy for sure. Was just wondering what folks was doing with all the charcoal. I burn mostly less dense woods here, softer than maple or ash for 99% of it. They most always burn complete to ash like I said earlier. All kinds of sugar maple around here, have burnt a mountain of it the last 50 years I've been on the planet. But I just burn what I thin these days, I tend to promote hardwoods by leaving it to grow and cut the poor ones if need be. My father used to cut sugar maple and ash, both for tool wood. A lot better money than pulp.

[farmfromkansas]

I burn some hedge, but can't put a lot in my wood stove.  If I burn all hedge, it sparks up when you open the door to add wood, like to set a fire if you are not careful.  A piece or 2 with other woods, no problem, the coals last longer than other woods if you want to wait a while to add wood, in case the weather warms up a bit.  

[KEC]

When I remove ash from the stove I do it when the fire has died down and I CAREFULLY scoop, carefully lift the shovel and place it in the metal ash bucket. Then slide the ash shovel out from under  the ashes. Then you don't have all that airborne ash. 

[John357]

To seperate the coals from the ash I use a cat litter scoop.  Made of aluminum it works great.  Took me a while to find it. 

[customsawyer]

I have a ash pan on mine. I can have it carried out, dumped and put back in before y'all are done raking. I've had one stove in my old shop one time that didn't have a ash pan. I won't be doing that again.

[Corley5]

My requirement of grates comes from burning sugar maple.  It makes lots of charcoal in stoves with no grates.  It was always an issue with the old stove we had when I was a kid and the stove that we had originally in this house.  It was to the point that I avoided cutting sugar maple preferring beech or ash instead.  It was a routine that every Saturday the house was cold to allow the coals to burn down some so a five-gallon bucket of them could be shoveled out.  Which made much dust no matter how much care was taken.  That stove was replaced with one with stationary grates.  A real improvement.  I've also found that sugar maple burns better with combustion air coming from under the grates.  That holds true with our OWBs as well.  The Heat Master gets it air from under the grates.  The Heatmor comes in at the front over the grates.  I much prefer the under grate air.  Both OWBs have shaker grates.  That was my reason for buying the Heat Master and when Grandma was in the market for one she went with the Heatmor with the "coal" option shaker grates.  Both have been good.  Next summer I need to pull them out of the Heatmaster and re-pin the shaker linkages.  No signs of degradation of the grates themselves.  The stove is over ten years old and has been used pretty hard.  I was told by my ancestors to "keep the fire off the grates".  Leave ash and coals between them and the burning wood and they'll last.   

[OH logger]

I've got a blaze king catalytic stove that has a small-ash pan under a small plug. Thought it would be great.  Never used it. Too small. Maybe the size of a shoe box. No grates. I just shovel ashes out every three days or so otherwise not enough room for a days burning of wood.  I burn ironwood sugar maple and oak. Way to many coals or "klinkers". My quadrafire high efficiency non catalytic fireplace upstairs  burns the same wood with no grates and all that's left is FINE ash. I blame it on cat vs. non cat. I'd that true or What am I doing wrong??

[SwampDonkey]

My furnace I use has a two stage burn. No catalytic. Uses a four stainless steel tube combustion system to achieve a secondary burn cycle. Horizontal jets of super heated secondary air are mixed with the fire's smoke to burn off released smoke particles. You can watch the torch-like secondary flames just below the ceiling during the burn resulting in more heat, cleaner air, fast start up.

[Firewoodjoe]

This is exactly why I bought the hearthstone Bennington stove I bought today. I hate no grates. I wanted grates, a bottom ash pan door and a end load door. This will take 23" wood from the end. 

[kelLOGg]

The day before you know you want to empty the ashes, burn some Poplar, or spruce for the day.  You won't have a coal problem in the morning!

I may not have a coal problem but I would have a cold problem. ;D

[SwampDonkey]

The day before you know you want to empty the ashes, burn some Poplar, or spruce for the day.  You won't have a coal problem in the morning!

I may not have a coal problem but I would have a cold problem. ;D

Why cold in NC? That's mostly what I burn, never been cold yet. I don't think 75-80F is very cold. If you're cold, I'm sure I can push to 90F with no trouble. :D

[Spike60]

Every now and then I'll do a partial cleanout on a hot stove to get the coals down. Typically on a real cold weekend where I'm letting it run more than half throttle and filling more often. By now there's always a good snow cover on the ground, so no problem getting rid of the hot coals. Never thought of this as being a big deal, just something that occasionally needs to be done.

[DMcCoy]

Discussing burning Hickory for firewood while out here on the left coast I bought a little bag of blocks for my BBQ.  Have you guys no shame?  :D

[kelLOGg]

If my fire in the wood stove gets so low that there are no hot coals in the AM the the house temp goes below 60F and that feels cold to me. 

[SwampDonkey]

furnace here, so coals does not always mean hot enough to trip a fan. Never been cooler than 68F here when I throw a stick in in the morning. And be 75F in 10 minutes. Much adoo about nothing. Up here we have real cold, 0F not 30F most winter mornings. Poor Jeff at -30F the other morning in northern MI and he's measuring propane bottles. 'I need more wood'!!  :D