drywall in an OWB?

[Jon E]

OK, before you all think I'm totally nuts, hear me out.

Central Boiler sells this stuff called Ashtrol, which I don't use often because it's expensive. They don't give out their recipe, for some reason... Anyway, I've read somewhere (maybe here) that the stuff is mostly gypsum.

I also have a stack of clean, unpainted drywall scraps that are nice and dry and have been sitting in my basement, and I don't really want to pay to dispose of them. I was going to bury them. But, drywall is just gypsum, with binders, and paper, right?

What would it hurt to toss a scrap of drywall in the OWB every couple days, on a good hot fire, and when the ash gets cleaned out it's already got the gypsum in it. Good for the compost and spreading in the woods, no? That way I get to skip using the Ashtrol and also get rid of my excess drywall.

OK, somebody shoot this down - the only way I can think that this would be bad is if there were some chemicals in the drywall that shouldn't be burned.

 

[ericjeeper]

Just toss it out

Onto your garden area. Over the winter the snow and rains will soften it.. Then till it in.. Burning will remove the paper and I suppose soften it up a bit..

 

[November Wolf]

I just looked on my Ashtrol container and it has no ingredients on it. I have seen on other forums that Ashtrol is just Lime. I really don't know for sure but Ashtrol is quite expensive at $24 for 6lbs.

 

[Jkebxjunke]

I believe if you ask them for a MSDS sheet on the product.. they have to supply it to you by law. .. I believe I am right on this.

 

[November Wolf]

I believe if you ask them for a MSDS sheet on the product.. they have to supply it to you by law. .. I believe I am right on this.

I think you are right but I cannot find nothing on the msds website.

 

[Jkebxjunke]

I think you are right but I cannot find nothing on the msds website.

talk to your local fire marshal or fire dept... they should know... and see if you cant contact the company

 

[ngzcaz]

If heated to a sufficient degree ( 343 C ) it will fuse together according to a " burning gypsum search on google..

 

[Jkebxjunke]

I read in another forum that they used soda ash or sodium carbonate... and could get it for about $25 for 50lbs...i am looking into that

 

[Circle B MN]

IIRC it was discussed here before and I as well as others thought it to be the equivalent of barn lime, available inexpensively at any feed store, and used to control / modify ph levels.

 

[bushinspector]

Worked at a gypsum plant for 30 years and the gypsum is used to mend soil. If you can just peal the paper off and till it in. Nothing in the gypsum stuco that is harmful to the enviroment.

 

[blakey]

What exactly is the Ashtrol for? To reduce creosote or prevent corrosion inside the firebox? I bought a jug of it with my CB OWB 7 yrs ago and never finished it. I haven't seen any corrosion in the firebox when I clean out, it still looks in very good condition.

 

[windthrown]

No need for it. I ran a CB for 3 years and never used Ashtrol. Dealer said it was a waste. I never saw any rust in the ash pan area. And the rest of the firebox area was covered in creosote. I looked up creosote in a corrosion of steel engineering text a few years ago, and it is very very low. Not enough to worry about. Just keep the water out of the firebox and you will be OK. Rake the ash back and forth with a garden hoe and it will be enough to keep any water trapped in the pan from doing any damage. Sluff off the creosote as it builds up in the box too.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

My dealer sez use ag lime (wink,wink!)

 

[Mike Van]

At the end of the season, clean all the ash out of anything your burning in. When it gets damp, it makes some lye type of :censored: that will eat through most any metal.

 

[Jon E]

So the Ashtrol is lime, not gypsum. OK. Still probably won't hurt to put it in the OWB, it will burn off the paper and powder up the gypsum and sulfur in it. Only problem I see is that I will have a massive ash + gypsum buildup if I do this.

I burn year round as my OWB heats my domestic water, so I have to clean ash out when I get an opportunity. Usually read the weather reports and plan a couple days in advance for a decent Saturday or Sunday weather condition, and then let the fire go out and burn propane for a couple days (I have a Dual Fuel boiler so the firebox is always hot). That lets all the wood go to ash and I can clean out the firebox 100%.

 

[windthrown]

I cleaned the ash pan out of the CB the frist summer, but after that I just left it with an inch deep of ash through the summer with a 5 gallon bucket over the stove pipe. That way I had a bed of ashes to start the heating season off with the following year. The Ashtrol thing is overrated, and yes, it is basically just agricultural lime from what I read on the MEN forum. After 3 years of use I cleaned the firebox out completely (last summer) and the ash area of the firebox was amazingly smooth steel. No rust in there at all. None. Then I gave it a coat of WD-40, dumped in a bucket of ashes, and left it. So from my experience anyway, the ash area is the least likely to be a problem in a CB OWB. Stainless steel would be a waste of money as well.

During the heating season, we only had the CB for heat. So we could not have a down day for cleaning the thing out. We waited for a warm dry spell to clean the ashes out. Usually I would put in less wood the night before and use dry small alder or fir that would not coal up. Then the next morning, I would scoop all the ash out of one side, then rake the coals into that area, and use a flat shovel to scoop the ashes out. I nailed a woven piece of metal hardware cloth on a 2x4 wood frame about 3ft by 2ft. Then I put that on a metal wheelbarrow and dumped the ashes over the screen, and sorted out the nails and coals and charcoal. The nails and odd bits of metal went into a bucket and and the coals went back into the boiler. I always left at least an inch of ash in the bottom for the fire to coal up and burn in, pulled the coals back into the center of the firebox, tossed in a new full load of new wood, and that was it. All done, no down heating time, and easy to do. The ashes were allowed to cool for a day in the wheelbarrow, and then distributed in the gardens, orchard, and vineyard. It is good fertlizer as long as you do not use too much.