Coals Won't Die

I loaded wood like crazy all day and now I can't get in there to clean-out ash. I haven't reloaded for a couple hours and it's still an inferno. Need some welding gloves

 

I do hot empties with welding gloves. Leather gloves & long sleeve shirt (not synthetic) will help.
Possible to burn on high for an hour or 2 then empty ?
Get the bucket of hot coals outside quick, they'll set of the CO alarm .

Several hours of heat left in the charcoal.
Maybe load if full, the best you can for the night & burn down the coals & empty tomorrow.

 

I usually let my coals sit in the ash bucket with the metal lid on. My thoughts are the heat will radiate for a while and I hate dumping hot coals outside. I guess I could set the ash bucket outside, but I'd be losing the radiant energy stored in those coals.

It's too late. I already emptied out in order to get that great overnight burn load. Otherwise, I'm sitting at a solid 2-3 inch ash bed and my firebox isn't that large.

 

Sounds good. CO alarm will let you know. My new one is sensitive.

My bucket / no lid. Empty in the snow, in the garden between raised beds. Bugs hate them

 

I got a cheapo metal mini trash can with lid at Tractor Supply I think. Couldn't have been more than 10 or 20. Great purchase. I think it may be galvanized and it's holding up well so far.

I know ash can be really good for the garden. Gardeners used that at one time to change the ph in the soil I remember reading.

 

I normally wait to empty the stove when it's warm enough outside that I can let the stove go cold. Makes much less mess shoveling out cold ash since it doesn't float around as much.

I would NEVER think about leaving hot embers/coals in a pail in the house! There is a possibility of the coals re-kindling and catching on fire... pumping the house full of smoke and carbon monoxide.
Even just sitting in the pail "cooking" is releasing fumes.

 

I would like to get some sort of big cast iron pail with a screw on lid to help use up these coals. Also, in power outage scenarios would be helpful for keeping upstairs bathroom thawed (we have an Infrared heater that runs up there on the second to lowest setting-- lowest setting doesn't dry our bath towels!)

 

That makes sense to me. The only thing I wonder is...once you starve the coals of oxygen...will the radiant heat end quickly?

 

Worst that happens, I have charcoal.