This is probably a really basic question. I have a Drollet Myriad stove. It has an ash pan underneath it, and a cast iron plug in the floor of the firebox. What is the proper way to use the ash pan feature?
I wait for the wood to get down to coals, then pull the plug after raking the larger coals to one side. Push ash and small coals down the hole, then I use an old high temp spatula to clean where the plug goes before putting it back. I also give it a couple little twists to make sure it seats. I also wear gloves. Englander NC30 here.
What he said, but I use a koal keeper-- think kitty litter scoop for ash and coals. The coals are the turds. I have the same stove, btw.
I find that no matter how careful I am (and I'm very careful), I still get a slight bit of ash puffing up from the ash bucket/hod when I scoop. When I use the ash pan setup, all that crap stays in the stove or goes up the flue and lands on someone's car or cat (mine & mine) .
Hence the need for a draft inducer: when I rake my ashes around, the fly ash goes up the chimney also but lands at least three neighbor's away. As my neighbors three houses away upwind does not burn wood, it is a win-win for me. Of course with a proper size draft inducer, maybe 35 Hp or so, there would be no need to stir anything around at all- just start her up, crack the door open (use two hands 'cause it will be hard to do) and viola! everything but the inside the stove except the firebrick (the whole firebricks, not the broken ones) will be gone! Brian
I was using the pan on the 30 for a while, but it just seemed like such a chore. I don't know how big the hole is on the drolet but on my 30, the ashes would get backed up around the hole. I'd have to constantly stir around the hole to get them to go down to the pan and then shake the pan to level the ashes out. What I use now is a little metal bucket (about a gallon size). I move all the ashes to one side, set the bucket in the stove on the cleared side and then fill it with the shovel. I then wait about 30 secs for the ash to settle and then take it out to my big ash can. One bucket full usually empties the stove. Works well and I get no ash dust in the house. A metal coffee can with a bail attached might even work better.
I've yet to use the ash pan on mine. shovel & bucket for me. Gonna have to try it , maybe I'm making it more difficult but seem to be emptying a hot stove. Bucket is much easier to handle.
I think the next time we get a warm up, I'm letting my stove go cold and welding a cover over that hole. Once again, I knocked the plug around when I was shoveling ashes out today, and now I have an air leak. It will be fine by tomorrow, but it always seems to happen when it's fairly mild outside and I need a lower burn. Right now, with a fresh load, it's at 600° with the thermostat at 1.5, and a bright flame coming up from the bottom middle of the firebox
First insert that I used had an ash pan. Except the dump hole didn't work, just got plugged up. It had its use though. It made a great tray. Pulled it out and put the pail on it when I shoveled the stove. Kept the mess from the inevitable shovel spill to a minimum. I would also pull it out before opening the door if a log rolled forward and left a pile of ash against the door.
My last three stoves had ash pans. None of them ever got used. They were stupidly small and difficult to fill from teh firebox through some sort of plug. If the ash pan held 5 gallons of ash then perhaps it would make more sense but I easily fill a full sized galvanized bucket (2.5?)with each ash emptying job.
Yea, about the same I seem to always have a hot stove full of ashes, to dig thru to find & open the plug. Cumbersome ash pan full of hot ashes & coals would sseem to be difficult to carry up the step & outside. Marketing feature more than a useful feature. Now design a stove base with a metal trap door & vacuum chute ....>>> dreaming LOL
I would agree with all of you folks regarding an ash pan being pretty useless if the ash pan housing is not sealed, and the stove does not have a grate. Most, if not all of the big cat. stoves I looked at had that very arrangement with a plug in the bottom of the firebox, and that was really a deal- killer for me. But a stove with an ash pan that is sealed and has a grate so the ash can just drop into the ash pan is really a great way to go IMO. There is no shoveling of ash, no waiting for the fire to die to dump the ash pan and it really keeps the fine whited dust all over the house to a minimum. To go a step further, I have always had two ash pans for my stoves so they can just be swapped out in a few seconds; the ash pan with the hot ashes in it can then be put somewhere (obviously someplace with no combustibles under or around) to cool down for days and then it can be dumped with no risk of any hot coals left. Brian
Our coal stoves we had in WV & PA had grate, with a shaker handle & ash pan or compartment that we shoveled into a bucket. Had to pick out the clinkers on top of the grate now & then.
So the IS has a grate system where the ash can just fall away from the fuel all the time? Isn't that contrary to the common advice to leave an inch of ash in the firebox for better burning?
Well, yes and no. Yes, the grate is a steel plate with slots cut through it. Ash and anything else is free to fall through the grate at any time into the ash pan. No in practice because the slots are far too small for that to happen. During the first part of a burn the grate is covered by coals and then ash, and the ash will continue to build up exactly like a solid base stove. Virtually nothing will fall through on its own because the slots are too thin- about 1/4" wide with maybe 1 1/2" between each slot. To get the ash into the ash pan, the coals and ash have to be raked back and forth over the grate, quite a few times actually to get most of the ash out of the stove. So the grate acts like a solid floor stove in all cases and all use. It does provide a way to separate and remove the ashes but only with pretty vigorous scraping on the part of the owner, and virtually no coals fall through the slots. Brian
I'm going to pull my plug and put a piece of sheet metal over the hole, then cover it with a fire brick. Tired of the plug getting in the way.
It does not make the white dust cloud in the house that shoveling ashes out of a woodstove does, or at least always has done when I have done it. When the ash pan is removed, it is covered first so again, no excessive, clouds of dust in the house. There ashes are easily and automatically separated from the coals and only the ash is removed from the stove. Ashes can be removed at any point in the loading or burning cycle so the person operating the stove is free to clean out ashes when the stove is half- full and needs to be topped off before a very cold night for example. My very first woodstove required being shoveled out. I found that task ridiculous: get the ash container, frolic inside a hot stove with the hot coals and ash, separate the ash such as can be done and dump shovel fulls of ash into the container, each time making a mini- volcano of ash inside the house. I would not own another stove that did not have a grate and sealed ash pan design. We obviously have different opinions but it seems to me that only one of us has tried both methods. I guess we do agree that one method is certainly less desirable than the other though. Brian
