Not to beat a dead horse any more but we are talking about excessive coaling not the normal amount you get with good wood, as I posted in the thread I am running one EPA stove in the house and a non EPA stove in the shop and the difference in coaling is significant.
In a nut shell if the stove is a EPA non cat and it is too small for the area you are heating and you are running it hard you are going to have more coals then you want to the point people have removed hot coals from theirs stoves and that's not a good thing.
With a small stove, I welcome a bed of coals in the morning. Open the air, add some splits, and in a few minutes comes a roaring fire. It's the days I have no hot coals in the morning that I clean out the stove, throw a few pine lumber cut-offs, and get started with more capacity with little ash. Either way, that works for me. Stone stoves take a while to lose all their heat. I never really thought about coals as a problem, but I'm not the best wood burner either. As long as I'm warm, I don't really mind either way. Maybe I'm misunderstanding in that the coals are no longer glowing and need to be burned off like any other wood. I rarely have that problem except a stray piece of wood left by itself that didn't fully burn.
We are talking about excessive coaling not the normal, its to the point of not having enough room to add wood when you need more heat. Maybe some reading this thread are not understanding that fact.
Me neither. I never had that problem. In my case, I would open the side door and burn it off in a short amount of time. That is unless the fire went out in which case a supercedar placed near the door burning for 15 minutes would take care of that problem.
If your not getting enough heat from that stove full of coals with air WOT you need a bigger stove and better insulation. Period, the problem is not the coaling, its the stove size// BTW i bet that pic was taken during the "vortex" my BK with cat and auto stat made a belly full of loals like that numerous times last year. It happens, its not a design flaw, it just happens.
I would suggest smaller loads with more air if it is a major problem. I used to have this problem until I realized I had a major overdraft issue. I would slide the primary down as closed as it would go in an attempt to keep the secondaries under control (blast furnace like, and with little success of preventing them from going out of control) once I figured out how to slow those down and better control the stove to prevent the fast off gassing I'm having way fewer coals to deal with. I attribute this to being able to leave the primary open a tad allowing more air and better complete burns. Am I losing some heat and efficiency by cutting the secondary air almost in half? Maybe but my house is staying a more even temp because the stove isn't boarderline runaway every load and using up all the energy in the first 1/4 of the burn. I think the ultra high heat caused all the off gassing to happpen immediately and left nothing for the end of the burn but coals. After getting that figured out I rarely have to contend with tons of coals. My stove (Quadra-fire) also has a rear air control I can open that helps tremendously in letting more air in to help burn them down if I do have a load that it happens. I'm also well insulated so heat output in coaling stage is still kepping me warm. So many variables in stoves, flue systems, and home insulation that I think some will have issues no matter what and others will not know what its like to deal with an overload of coals.
So if the stove is too small for the area, buying a new stove that covers the right area and burn at a moderate setting and the problem goes away. I can over fire mine by opening the ash pan, and have the ridiculous volume of coals. Over fire also can burn your house down, so I think you may want to upsize.
It sounds like we are on the same page now. I dont have it that often either but I have seen it when it's 20 below wind chill and south winds and trying to keep the house warm, I kinda just let the stove do its thing and dont push it, my Nashua loved to be pushed. LOL I would agree with that, that's why some people have never really seen the problem, their stove it sized correctly for the area its in, if you have a pre EPA stove and you like it you might be better off to keep it but if you purchase a new stove make sure its as big as the one you have now. I made the mistake of down sizing.
I had alot of coaling today too. I was burning fence posts. I think it must have been hedge. Intense heat off a small load and coaling somewhat like the picture above. I open the air control to burn it down. Burned a really long time for a small load and very hot. Was definitely not pine.
I have a Central Boiler (EP 2 Compliant), model CL 6048. I replaced a Mahoning non-epa unit. One thing I questioned up front was that the old one had a fan that sent air into the firebox. Could burn anything flammable without any coals, and all ash was the consistency of flour in the bottom. It had a handy shaker and was easy to get ashes out. Granted, I do believe it ate firewood quickly. New unit had no ash collect, you just rake coals to back, shovel finer stuff out, then rake coals back forward an reload. Big difference was no fan, only natural draft through small controlled vent in door. I questioned dealer if this was enough air. He claimed it would get longer burn times, and that the draft it provided alone was plenty. Plus I save electric from not needing fan. However, with my improved efficiency, I get larger coaling problem. What I ended up doing is on clean out day I pile coals in front by door, and leave door cracked very slightly. Upon reading your thread, I couldn't understand and still don't as to why you place two small splits or so on top of this pile. But splits seemed to help, and that coal burn down pile did manage to keep the furnace at 140 for 6 or so hours while it burned down as it was only 40-45 degrees while I did it. We all take what we do seriously, and even personally, but despite these facts, this forum helps me: 1. Do stuff better 2. Save money by hearing about mistakes people are willing to share 3. Make me pay attention to detail on my work sites, cause I know the pictures get reviewed. 4. Get to enjoy talking about my favorite hobby with people that "understand" I wouldn't take a picture of one of my saws with a dull chain on it for fear you investigators would see it.
That's exactly what I do BS, works great too. I can go weeks without pulling ash out of the stove, this thing burns so efficiently!
That's what I do also, I am sure some have more issues then others depending on their heat requirements.
