The ones with a plug that you have to pull out so you can chase the ashes down the little hole stink. But my Kuuma has a grate with a sealed ashpan drawer, that works really well.
The Napoleon 1400 has a 4"x4" port in the bottom with a spring loaded flapper leading to an ash pan. When I get home from work and it's cooked down I rake through the ashes with the poker to separate the coals. The ashes go down the port and the coals are used to build up a fire. What are you doing with the ashes? Most of ours go in the trash after they are cold.
Mine stay in a metal bucket with a lid, outside the back door. Some get dumped around the yard, but by February or so it all goes in the trash. In garbage bags. Double bagged.
Our Jotul has an ash tray, I’ve never used it. Wife mentioned trying it this year, and I haven’t bothered with it yet. Hard for me to try out something new I guess. It also came with a scoop that has a screen in the middle, so that gets used when I see a bunch of charcoal lumps in the ash. Ours ends up in 55 gal trash cans in the yard until fall, then spread on the garden, and in the field.
This is exactly how I do it. My Pacific Energy Super 27 (2.7 cubic ft firebox) has the hole in the bottom of the fire box with a spring loaded flapper. I tried just scooping ashes into an as h bucket when I first got it and the warm ashes and warm air rising out of the bucket took fines up into the air and made a mess. I started dumping down through the hole and now I wouldn’t want a stove with out an ash dump and ash pan. It’s just so much cleaner in my experience.
My englander had that stupid square blocking firebrick over ash pan if not sealed correctly caused a blow torch air leak Easier to not use ash pan my Woodstock has grate big coal stay on top.second pan so full pan cools on hearth before compost pile
I never used to, just scoop away slowly. Id leave an inch of ash as it extended the life of the fire bricks. I had an ash vacuum that allowed sucking up of hot embers. Problem was the inside diameter of the hose would often jam with a coal and I'd have to beat the death out of it to clear up...PITA. It worked okay when it did but it did emit a smell if it got too hot. I gave up on it after a while and went back to scooping. Certain species seem to leave extra charcoal. One of my customers asks I not include sugar maple for that reason.
I'm not near as fancy as the OP. I use a metal spatula to deal with coals and ash. A few pushes at an angle to the back seems to make the coals rise and ashes drop. Then I push from right to left about 6 inches, swipe the coals off the top to the right, and push ashes to the left. It's not perfect, but it's quick, and keeps most of the coals.
You have that awesome easy to clean PSG heat exchanger design too! I like my Kuuma, but do miss the PSG HX setup!
I picked up a metal litter scoop a few years ago to separate the coals from the ash when cleaning out the Regency. Used it a few times and then just went back to using the ash shovel to push any large coal pieces or chunks around to get to the ash (if there were any). Not worth the effort to spend much time separating IMO, but that's just me. The Regency has been burning well for 16 years so no reason to change the way I am doing things. But kudos to those that do.
I was given an ash vacuum. It was a PITA due to the small nozzle, gave it to a Habitat for Humanity ReStore.
As we get into winter, I'll start hanging on to some for the driveway. It is steep, can't plow up it if there's more than 4". It does face south so ashes work well for melting ice/packed snow.
I wish I could use my ashes for that as we get a ton of ice where I'm at. Unfortunately, it's not good for the dog's paws, so the majority of the ash just gets dumped.
