Oak coal bed growing to fast!!!

[Rick1]

Hello, I live in Minnesota and its been -10 to -20F the last few days. I have a drolet austral with a outside air kit. The stove puts out really really well. It heats my my 1,900 sq ft home from the basement with basement temps in the 80's and upstairs around 70. The problem i have is that the coals build up to quickly and make reloading problematic due to the deep coal bed. Just to clarify, Its not ash build up its red hot coal build up. I am burning fairly dry Oak firewood

I guess my question is what do you readers do with this problem if you have it. Thanks, Rick.

 

[ckdeuce]

1. You can let it cycle longer and get the heat from the coals.
2. Add more air towards the end of the cycle to help burn them down.
3. Wood might not be as dry as you think.

I have had the same problems....... Been there, and asked that...... Good Luck.

 

[JustWood]

Rake them towards the door and let them burn to ash. May have to rinse and repeat.

 

[Rick1]

Wow, great and fast reply, thank you.

When I load my stove it erupts into a great fire ball of heat for a couple hours, then it settles down to large chunks of red hot coals. If i open up the air it still just burns red hot coals in front of the stove for hours. The temp goes from 650 and sometimes more in the flame ball (a couple hours) down to 200 with the coals that burn for hours and hours. I have resorted to shoveling out the medium to smaller chunks enough to fill the ash removal pan in order to be able to refill the stove. My problem is that the Oak coals burn to slowly. I can rake them twards the front and they grow even more red but still take hours and hours to turn to ash.

 

[Soadrocks]

I noticed that if you put a couple small splits on the coals, it helps burn them faster/hotter. It's part of the cycle.

 

[Chettt]

Throw some scrap wood like cut up pallet pieces on half the coals and leave the other half with nothing on them. The scrap wood will give you plenty of heat while the naked coals will burn to ash.

 

[iceman]

use a couple of big pices and then small pieces when loading
actually start using smaller sounds like you are putting to much in for the amount of time you want ...

 

[jpl1nh]

All of the above is good advice that will help but there is just plain a limit to how fast your stove (and all stoves) can burn wood, and coals burning to ash is part of the cycle of burning wood. That's when you know you are up against the top heating limits of your stove. I think most of us run into that in the coldest weather unless you've nicely oversized your stove set up for just those occasions.

 

[RIDGERUNNER30]

sure wish i would got a bigger firbox, mine ok but having the extra room sure don't hurt, alot of stove dealers talk people out of bigger stoves and i know they probably mean well , but most wood burns are looking for one thing in mind long burn times and not refuling all the time , I'am impressed with the englander 30 stove big firebox, made in the usa and at good price.

 

[woodhound]

I always tell the people in the store. You can burn a small fire in a big stove but you cant have a big fire in a small stove.

 

[tfdchief]

All of the above is good advice that will help but there is just plain a limit to how fast your stove (and all stoves) can burn wood, and coals burning to ash is part of the cycle of burning wood. That's when you know you are up against the top heating limits of your stove. I think most of us run into that in the coldest weather unless you've nicely oversized your stove set up for just those occasions.

That's what I have found when it is really cold like it is now. If I can be there with the stove, like on days off, I just open up the drafts (1982 Buck, no secondary burn) and I can keep the temp up with just coals while they burn down. The bottom line is, when you are firing it hard and fast, you are going to to get a lot of coals and ash.

 

[weatherguy]

I rake my coals to the front in a pile and throw an ecobrick on top, bought a couple cases (10 per case) and I only use them for that purpose. Keeps the heat up pretty good while the coals burn down.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I had a HUGE bed of coals this morning. It seems I've hit a wet spot in my wood stack. No idea how that happened as I split everything at the same time, The past two days I have every third piece of wood sizzle on me. Could just be that I am at the bottom of one of my stacks, so, that may be the reason for the 'wet spot'.

Still burning a lot better than last year, but I really notice the difference when I hit some wet wood.

 

[Battenkiller]

Take the biggest chunks out and put them in a covered metal can to extinguish them. When they are cool, spray them with water, let them dry and pack them away for summer BBQ.

Or do what everyone else says and rake them toward the intake and build a new fire on the other side.

 

[Hogwildz]

Wet wood is a big culprit.
In my experiences, Oak, even when dry, leaves coals longer than most of the other wood I burn.
I have changed my loads to include a few pcs of Oak, and a few pcs of other stuff that leaved more ash & less coals in the same burn cycle.
Been working pretty good, and still getting same heat for the most part. And less waiting time waiting for them to burn down.
The other thing I changed, is I am not loading the stove to the gills. At night for long burns, I been putting 3 large rounds/splits in, and having plenty of coals & heat in the morning, but not tons of coals that are taking up space and not putting enough heat out to keep house temp from dropping.
Also don't put more splits in till the previous load is burnt down.
The biggest help for me has been burning with a lil more air open, and mixing Oak with Cherry, Maple etc.

 

[Battenkiller]

The biggest help for me has been burning with a lil more air open, and mixing Oak with Cherry, Maple etc.

Hickory can leave some nasty coal beds as well. Been mixing in cherry with the hickory since cherry doesn't make a lot of coals. Makes the hickory burn hotter and faster as well. In my experience, continual feeding of a few small splits at a time can build up coals fast. You end up gasifying the small splits and not getting anything but more coals and no flame.

In cold weather I continually feed if I'm around, but I run in more air and keep the box full of big splits. Works fine, but eventually the fun has to come to an end so I can sleep for a few hours. Then I wake up to a box full of coals that I have to burn off.

 

[ICY99]

Another thing which will help immensely is to run your blower on a high setting. If you don't have a blower, set up a fan to blow across the stove. This will utilize much more of the heat and your coal bed will actually work to heat your house. Do this in combination with the other suggestions above. I have a PE Summit and have found that this can keep the house 10-15 degrees warmer during very cold weather.

 

[wellbuilt home]

I bought a grill / smoker and like cooking on a wood fire .
I just shovel the Cole out of the stove and bucket them to the grill.
I have 8" of Cole's now . Its time for a BBQ .
The only problem is standing on the porch cooking .
I burned 1 cord of oak last week . The temps have been hanging in the teens with lots of wind .
John

 

[Ken45]

I burned 1 cord of oak last week .

Ouch! We went through about a cord for the whole month of December.

Thanks for the suggestions, folks, I've been having the same problem with too many coals.

Ken

 

[Lanningjw]

I bought a grill / smoker and like cooking on a wood fire .
I just shovel the Cole out of the stove and bucket them to the grill.
I have 8" of Cole's now . Its time for a BBQ .
The only problem is standing on the porch cooking .
I burned 1 cord of oak last week . The temps have been hanging in the teens with lots of wind .

John

Making Lump Coals....

 

[pen]

This time of year I end up w/ a lot of hot coals. About once per day, I leave the door cracked for an hour or so and rake the coals around 2-3 times during that hour. This usually burns them down good for me. When it's not so cold, I just let them ride and enjoy being able to go 12 hours between loads.

All in all, we are having this problems because our stoves really should be bigger, at least for this time of the year. If we had the right sized stove, we wouldn't need to push it so much. However, if I had a bigger stove, I'd never be able to light it the other 5 months I need it for heat as it would just broil us.

It's always a compromise.

pen

 

[mnowaczyk]

I get the opposite problem when opening my ash pan to get the fire roaring. I've been doing this because I think some of my wood is too wet. I like to make sure I'm charing all sides of my splits quickly. Too many coals seems like a great problem to have... unless you can't fit in some more wood... which I guess is your problem.

Won't those coals fire up instantly if you open up the ash pan to let in some air for a few minutes when you reload?

 

[Ken45]

Too many coals seems like a great problem to have... unless you can't fit in some more wood... which I guess is your problem.

Won't those coals fire up instantly if you open up the ash pan to let in some air for a few minutes when you reload?

No ash pan here and yes, the coals are getting too high in the stove. Even risky to rake them around, I've had a couple fall out! It's good to have a tea kettle of water handy to quickly douse those!

It's a shame to clean out the stove and have loads of thumb sized and larger chunks of charcoal. But we can't keep the house warm on the coals alone. The pellet stove kicked in early this morning to make up the difference

Ken

 

[Rick1]

I agree that it is a shame to empty out good coals. The drolet austral has a 3.1 cu ft fire box which is a pretty decent size. Rakeing coals and emptying out some almost requires one of those fire suits you see in the movies, man it gets hot. I regularly have some role out on to the cement floor when rakeing. Well im glad to see that im not the only one with coal buildup problems in sub zero temps. I just cant heat the home on coals, so i guess ill just have to keep shoveling some out every so often and deal with it untill minnesota warms up a little.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Rakeing coals and emptying out some almost requires one of those fire suits you see in the movies, man it gets hot.

Great for hair removal, though.