Coal burn down/prep for emptying ashes

I was thinking of using a 4 tine cultivator For a coal rake, I think it would work good, but I decided on the kids rake instead

 

What is your definition of "Stove not putting out a lot" at your current temps?

 

@ 30° OAT, house hanging around 73°
I don't have the blowers on, a full load the night before &
Still have a 6" deep layer of charcoal in the bottom of the stove
At 3pm .
So I rake the coals, & let them burn down until 10 pm.

So
Between 8 & 10 pm, the stove is out of the active cat temp zone
Still hot , but not radiating much heat. ( not putting out a lot )
But the house temp isn't effected but a degree or 2.

It takes some birch bark to get it burning & longer to get the cat up to temp
Before I dial the air down for the night.

 

I just went down & looked.
Cat still just in the active temp zone
I can feel the heat radiating off the front of the stove, good heat
but not & hot cranking like when you can't stand close for very log.

It should start to cool down now, (not put out a lot) in an hour,
just a small amount of coals to burn left.

I'll let it burn own another hour, then reload.
I did get a good pretty tight full load in last night.

Just want to keep the charcoal burned down, & have room for full loads.
Mid week to start getting mildly cold again. ( low 20s day high single digits to low teen nights)

26°f now.

 

So you don't do this after EACH load? ? ?

I burn down my coals before each reload, of course I have a built in ash pan, so it's easy to just rake the coals for a few seconds (ash falls thru to pan), and then re-load. Not sure why you need to do this "special process" once in a while, what am I missing?

For a rake, I bought Woodstocks Ash rake for $25, and then cut the handle off and added about 6" to it to make it longer. Works very nicely, here's a pic of the rake:

 

Very nice.
No place for my ashes to go.

Like the rake/hoe but that wouldn't work as well as a rake for my situation.

I see you get dirty glass on the sides & corners too. Even East coast
hardwood blacken the glass, thought most of mine was from
the oily birch bark. ( I've excepted it except & moved but clean glass is nice)

Thing is , if I burned down like in your picture, no stove heat for a while.
I'd have a cool stove on the burn down & a while after the re-load.
It would be a while before it puts out enough
heat when temps are around Zero° to keep the house up to temp.

I can do that now, but we are having a warm spell, high 20°s & low 30°s OATs for days now.
Easy, fun, long burn times with no charcoal build up at these temps

When it's colder, I don't let the stove cool down & burn the coals, I reload after a 12 hours of a good hot burn.
I end up with lots of charcoal/ coals, some due to birch, some due to not letting the load burn down all the way.
After about a week of coals building up , I burn down the coals.
Takes time & more attention if it's cold out & I want to keep the house in the 70°s.

I rake forward & put splits on top to keep the stove heat output up.
Rake & a split every couple hours thru the day.

But in weather like we are having now, I get plenty of heat output from a throttled down burn & can let the load burn down
to ashes, usually 24 hour burns (sometimes more).
The burning down of the coals gives off plenty of heat with OATs in the high 20° to low 30s.
It's those long spells of temps near & below Zero° where I get a charcoal build up.

 

I don't normally burn down that much (as I pictured) either, that was just a small fire, and didn't need a re-light as it was wark. I do get dirty glass in the corners now and then, mostly when I burn pine, and/or if I do a slow long cat only burn. With normal burns, if the glass gets a bit dirty in the corners, it burns right off when it gets hot.

 

Your picture looks like my good, warm weather, clean out burn down
Just barely enough coals left to "help" start the reload (some birch bark needed for the re-light)
Leaves behind lots of room for a full load


Not familiar with side loaders.
Does you wood go in where it's E/W when looking thru the glass?
Ho long are the splits, look like over 20" would fit?
WS PH specs say 16 to 22" but what have you fond to be the best length?
Is the 16" length for if yo load N/S as looking thru the glass?

Glass on mine goes from dirty to clean to dirty thru the year as the OATs move up & down.
Leaves behind a gray hazy look when burned off on hot fires.

2 year dry spruce seems to leave less on the glass than 3 year dry birch. ? ?
Spruce burns down to ash better too. (down side is the shorter burn times & less BTUs per load )