The appliance doesn't matter. The methods to reduce piles of unburned coals will all work. The bottom line is that end result is the same.
So, trying to figure out if I can keep the door cracked with the cat engaged...the manual states to never open the door with the cat engaged.
I would say no, because your introducing too much oxygen to an already amazingly hot fire if the cats are going. However If that cats are going, unless your stove is drastically different than mine, i dont see how you would be in the coaling stage. Are you referring to charcoal type coals that are lumpy and not glowing like you get from black cherry? I shovel those out. If your referring to glowing coals, the cats shouldnt be rolling at that phase, and I open the damper and give them all the air I can, and usually in an hour the coals are ash.
I think I've just been reloading too frequently, and not giving the fire a chance to burn down enough. I keep getting a lot of glowing coals from the Mulberry I've been burning, and just throw more wood on top. The new wood burns first, and then I have more glowing coals...and repeat. The cat is still running in the active range with a bed of glowing coals, and I have a mosh pit of blue and green flames on top with the cat engaged and the thermostat wide open. Stove room is currently 80 degrees, so I'll just let it keep chugging along until I get everything burned down. There's certainly been a learning curve with this alien technology!
Just pull those coals to the front with a coal rake and then load the wood behind those coals...they'll be gone...
Bingo ! During the day, if I just throw more wood on top of the coals a couple times I get a big ol pile of coals . You have to pull em to the front or the coals get snuffed out with the wood ya put on top of them
Just raked everything that was left forward and put some bone dry poplar on top...glad I started this thread! You people are the best!
Also what you want to try and do is shove all the ashes back so that the coals in the front are sitting on the bottom of the stove not in a bed of Ashes, that gives the coals good airflow to burn up quicker, better, and it compacts the ashes
Yeah I've noticed that if I let the ashes build up for a few extra days, the extra raking around and "burn time" seems to reduce them quite a bit more than cleaning them out every couple days...might be a 50% reduction?
Burning down coals right now, coals pulled forward, 2 inch stick across the front, air is halfway to get a little heat out with a blower on. stove room temp raised up 4 degrees
This method works well on any stove that drafts in the front, which is most all of them with a glass window in the door. The coals get the majority of the oxygen and burn faster without burning the splits behind them too rapidly. If I rake a big coals bed forward against the andirons and fill the stove, the coals burn down quite quickly. Some people have reported good results raking the coals around a bit and throwing a handful of wood pellets in them to do what others have mentioned using soft wood- heating up the coal bed and burning it down. And in the end, introducing some air into the bottom of the stove, or especially under the grate, will pretty much eliminate the problem because the coals burn down as the wood is consumed, which basically does not allow a significant bed of coals to form in the first place. Brian
