I normally empty my ash pan from the stove twice a week. Monday and then on Thursday or Friday. I had a buddy at work who told of how he sometimes would getting red glowing coals HALF WAY up his glass. He said he just loved it that way. I often thought...Wouldn't that cut down on the normal draft ability or that wouldn't really matter...Curious as to your thoughts....Thanks
I would stick with routine cleaning. Tempered glass or not, that does not seem ideal to have coals on the glass. I keep 1-2 inches of ash on the bottom when I clean, and clean it daily during this part of heating season.
Half way up the glass? How would you open the door to feed the stove to even get that volume of coals?
Probably a side-feeder. I have one like that. I rake the coal a couple times a day. Every 2-3 days, I empty the ash tray.
I've never found that the recommended 1-2 inches of ash in the bottom helps anything. I don't try to get every last bit out, but I sift the coals fairly regularly and get rid of the ash when there is enough to make it worth the effort.
How much ash? It does pay to keep a little ash in the bottom of the stove but half way up the glass with coals? Seems a bit out of place and for sure one can not put as much wood into the stove. Keeping a lot of hot coals also prevents the proper loading of a stove to hold fires overnight. In our stove to keep the best overnight fire, we tend to rake the hot coals forward so that the piece in the rear bottom is not on the hot coals or on very few of them. Doing this, of course, means we have burned the coals down decently which also allows more wood into the firebox, which, makes the overnight fire last longer.
My wood stove has air inlets about 2-3” off the bottom so any more than that and I’m not getting full burn amount of oxygen.
I know I had to empty my ash pan more often this weekend with the constant burning and reloading. I supplement hardwood with pine and that really keeps the ash down. During the daylight hours this weekend, I burned mostly pine. Hardly any ash/coals. I keep some hardwood in there to keep some coals going.
Thought you had scored several cords of Ash, was gonna say, "never have too many pieces of Ash." I'm with most here, 2" of ashes, time to empty. Malkes room to load in more BTUs & get longer burn times
