Too many coals!

[Whitespider]

Hmmmm.... I don't care to babysit my firebox... that's why I got rid of that EPA wonder.
I'd rather just load it and slam the door until it's time to load again.
But it sure is nice to see someone else confirm, and explain, the same issue I had... even if I ain't up for babysittin' it.
*

 

[Chris-PA]

Hmmmm.... I don't care to babysit my firebox... that's why I got rid of that EPA wonder.
I'd rather just load it and slam the door until it's time to load again.
But it sure is nice to see someone else confirm, and explain, the same issue I had... even if I ain't up for babysittin' it.
*

From my reply you can easily infer that I sometimes get a volume of coals about equal to the size of one large split. This usually happens over night because I stop the stove down harder than optimal for an overnight burn and don't get up to increase the air during the tail end burn. It is hardly a problem and is easily dealt with using practices that are pretty obvious. In fact I regard it as an advantage that makes my use of wood heat as my SOLE heat source (contrary to one of your several erroneous assumptions upthread) much easier.

A fossil fuel powered central heating system would be more compatible with your expectations.

 

[Whitespider]

A fossil fuel powered central heating system would be more compatible with your expectations.

I have no problem whatsoever meeting my expectations with the current furnace... and it burns wood, not fossil fuel.
I simply load it, close the door, set the wall thermostat to the desired temperature, 8 to 10 hours later do it again (6 hours if it's exceptionally cold out)... empty the ash pan every couple days, change the air filter once a month.
It don't get any simpler, easier and "babysit" free than that... even my 5-year-old can handle it.
There ain't even any "draft setting adjustments", no "settings" to adjust of any sort... and I certainly don't have to screw around raking coals and burnin' them down.
Heck, I've only had to light it twice... once for the test fire... once when I started heating... (shrug)
It'd be a lot, a whole lot more friggin' work to run the gas furnace (the fossil fuel powered central heating system) because I'd need to keep shoveling a path to the tank so I could babysit gauge.
*

 

[leftyz]

Yeah, I'm putting more wood in my old stove like every other hour with this colder weather to try to keep the house warm, and it's a losing battle. I gotta get a furnace to replace that old dinosaur down in the basement, this stove isnt cutting it.

 

[3fordasho]

This works even better if the single split on the coal mound is a soft wood like pine. Soft woods don't coal and the stove still makes good heat while you're burning the split and the coals down.

You guys have seen this right, it is sort of the nature of the beast.
http://woodheat.org/charcoal.html

 

[Dalmatian90]

What seems to work for me and my stove and house is during the day tending the fire more often, cross-stacking with fewer pieces. Keeps the heat up but shorter burn times when temps don't get out of the teens.

Overnight pack her tight. Stove doesn't burn long, so about 2/3/4am get up and pack her tight again. If I'm away during the day push the coals to the back and pack her tight and let the wood burn back to front (I'm pretty good at knowing know how to make sure the wood will get going...if I'm gone all day I don't care if it takes three or four hours to light off and heat up the house again!)

If I'm home that day, keep a flaming fre going to help burn down the overnight coals.

 

[woodchuck357]

It is what it is, if you are in a situation where the only viable solution is to shovel coals out of the firebox to make room for a fire that will keep the house livable, get an air tight metal container (an old milk can with a tight lid would work) and put the over abundance of coals in and close it up. If you have an outdoor burner carry the can inside. The coals will smother, leaving charcoal to fuel grilling next summer and you won't be loosing all of the heat right now. CO gas will be contained in the can. A fire proof base will be needed to set the hot can on as well as gloves to handle it.

 

[leftyz]

I usually take mine, fill up 2 or 3 metal buckets, and go throw them on the ice river that is my driveway. By the time the box is full of coals, they aren't putting out enough heat to make it worth keeping them, they do much better service giving traction where it's needed.

 

[old canadian]

There used to be a thread on here about how to prevent too many coals from building up or how to deal with them. That post must be long gone, i cant find it.

Anyways thats more problem. Ive got too many coals building up not sure how i can prevent it or how to deal with it other than stir them up and put some more wood in.

Any ideas?

Thanks

This is a problem for everyone............ something to try, thinking of the old 'producer gas' technology; the idea is to introduce high temperature steam to the coals bed, and let the old chemical reaction consume the carbon while creating a combustible gas. This is just a wrinkle on what these stoves are designed to do while recirculating some of the flue gases. It goes this way...... for those of you that remember high-school chemistry. Water molecules carry one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms. So, as they pass by a glowing carbon atom, the carbon snags the oxygen, leaving hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which both burn very well. So, with the coals all glowing red, throw in a small piece of green wood....... small enough that it does not quench the fire significantly. Leave the draft open a bit, and you will see bluish flames flashing about the fire-box............. and the carbon will start to vanish. The green wood releases water vapour to the fire............ that's the trick. Repeat as the green wood is consumed, and you will soon be good to go with a new load of fresh dry wood.

 

[svk]

Keep some dry pine on hand, that will get those coals burned out in no time.

 

[Wood Doctor]

You need more air. The coals build up when the fire slows down and lacks air, so it smolders and leaves behind chunks of unburned fuel. If that ever happens, save those chunks when they cool off and throw them into the next fire along with your kindling.

 

[pauljoseph]

There’s a fine balance between how much air you need and how long you’re trying to burn. I find really dry, big splits of wood allows me to keep the draft open further so I don’t get a bunch of calls, but it also comes down the wood species and moisture. Pretty much everything everybody’s been saying. Except white spider, I think he has something out for EPA stoves....

 

[sb47]

Stir them up and let them burn up before adding wood.

My stove burns from the front to the back, I simply wait till it's burned down a good bit and rake everything to the front and open the damper all the way up and leave the door opened up just a bit for good air and let them burn up till they turn white. I can burn all week before I have to clean them out. By then it's just ashes and very little coals left at all. I can burn a half cord before I start thinking about cleaning them out.
I like a little ash in the stove because I use diesel as starter fuel and I can soak the ashes with diesel and simply light the ashes and walk away and the fire gets going in no time.
When I ad wood I always rake the coals to the front first then add the wood behind them.