I've been lazy and letting the ashes collect

[NWfuel]

dougfir produces very little ash. I fill one 5 gallon can a season, that is at the end of the season when i clean it out.

MSG, These logs are Doug Fir and Larch

any idea what it would cost to ship a ton to colorado? total cost with logs?

Cost of logs 185.00 plus I would guess 350.00 for shipping. This would make a great Duel in Colorado.

Cord of Hardwood from the east and energy logs from the west. Which one leaves the least amount of ash when it is all said and done. Loser pays for everything and MSG gets free btus.
Thomas

 

[Roospike]

I am probably gonna regret starting this but......... what are the btu's per pound on those Energy logs?

Without opening the can of worms , here is the thread read on BTU ans such.

Ole' Thomas (NW Fuels) and i have been down that road and dont think its needed to go back again. ( he was honest with his answers )

As Thomas said they are what they are. Pellets , Bio logs and cordwood are there own fuels and its what ever works best for the user.

I like to stick an elbow in a rib once in a wile but on this subject its best just to read the threads.

Here is the BTU thread with Biobricks. again, what ever fuel is best for each user is going to be different.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/4308/

 

[Roospike]

dougfir produces very little ash. I fill one 5 gallon can a season, that is at the end of the season when i clean it out.

MSG, These logs are Doug Fir and Larch

any idea what it would cost to ship a ton to colorado? total cost with logs?

Cost of logs 185.00 plus I would guess 350.00 for shipping. This would make a great Duel in Colorado.

Cord of Hardwood from the east and energy logs from the west. Which one leaves the least amount of ash when it is all said and done. Loser pays for everything and MSG gets free btus.
Thomas

HA , Sorry MSG ! They would have to cross Nebraska to get to Colorado , I'll let know know how they work once we hijack your order. ;-)

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

wait.... im west of you and there coming from the west.. did i miss something?

 

[GVA]

I was just wondering BTU's......... jeez............
I think they would probably bridge over in the hopper or at least jam the auger on my stove though.... :cheese:

 

[got wood?]

Perhaps the F3 ashpan works differently from my Morso, but I never have to scoop ashes out of the stove. The coals get "stirred" in the morning and before reloading and the ashes fall into the pan. I may be wrong, but if you have a thick layer of dense ash (clinkers?) on the grate, it sounds to me like you're on the verge of overfiring it. I'd get that dense layer out of there. I think your stove will burn better without it.

I do get the dense layers of ash at the bottom of one of my stoves...I break them apart with my poker when restarting the fire sometimes...not a lot, just something the size of a deck of cards, maybe larger...sometimes it has a brownish color to it. Definitely not charcoal at this point. Are these the `clinkers' that you are referring to? How do they relate to overfiring? I burn 24/7 and I thought it was the result of overnight buns that peter out slowly...

 

[Roospike]

wait.... im west of you and there coming from the west.. did i miss something?

O' Damn ! Your right. Well , there goes that idea.

Then Forget hijack , we'll try..........buddy O' chum, O' pal...... ole' good friend Ryan. ;-)

 

[MrGriz]

Ok, back to the original question.

Like Hal, about once a week or week and a half, before I fire back up in the morning, I'll rake the coals to one side and scoop most of the ash then rake to the other side and scoop most of what's left. I do like to leave between 1/2 and 1 inch of compressed ash in the bottom of the insert. I think it burns better and heats quicker with the ash in there.

I also don't get all worried if I scoop out some of the coals with the ash, I just try to keep that to a minimum.

 

[begreen]

I am probably gonna regret starting this but......... what are the btu's per pound on those Energy logs?

8,600 BTUs/ lb.

 

[begreen]

Lets open another can of worms...

This is the reason that i think ash pans are waste of time!! Pack those ashes down untill its like a concrete floor in the bottom of your stove and enjow much easier secondary combustion!
LMAO, this is going to be a fun thread.

I tried that, but soft maple creates a lot of ash. Also, after a week or so I start getting these hard mineral clinkers forming (compressed logs). The clinkers don't work too well in the garden. FWIW, the Castine seems to burn better with a moderate ash bed, but not a big one. It's got a fairly low front lip so it doesn't take a lot to start spilling out the front.

I'm looking forward to getting back into doug fir, but right now between my neighbor and me we have a couple-few years worth of free maple to burn.

 

[hilly]

BeGreen,
I too am burning soft maple. Do you find the clinkers attach to the firebrick?

 

[begreen]

I was guessing that the clinkers are coming from the various compressed logs that I have been trying out the last month. Are you getting clinkers as well? If yes, then I'm all wet.

 

[hilly]

Yes, I've been getting a bunch of them. When I tried to chip one out, it took some of the fire brick with it! I have been burning hot, but I'm quite certain I'm not overfiring.

 

[begreen]

Hmm, well, my apologies to the compressed log folks if this is the case. I'll burn pure wood this week and will see if I can repro the clinker problem. I like to burn hot as well. Typically I'm getting 550-625 stove top temps at peak burn with soft maple.

 

[laynes69]

I take it none of these stoves have air below the fire? Im used to my furnace and I have the shaker grates, but I always shake the ash out of the firebox when I'm burning. Must be a whole different animal. I never have ash in the firebox.

 

[got wood?]

I was guessing that the clinkers are coming from the various compressed logs that I have been trying out the last month. Are you getting clinkers as well? If yes, then I'm all wet.

LOL OK these clinkers must be something else...I was confusing compressed ash with clinkers then. I get cakes of ash that pack and bond like dried mud in my stove...no grate, just scoop `em out

they sound nasty...never burn compressed logs, so these are new to me.

 

[begreen]

The clinkers remind me of the fused ash and minerals I used to get in the pellet stove burnpot. That's why I associated them with the compressed logs. But that sounds like it may be a red herring. I'll be burning soft maple only this week. We'll see if they still show up.

 

[precaud]

I do get the dense layers of ash at the bottom of one of my stoves...I break them apart with my poker when restarting the fire sometimes...not a lot, just something the size of a deck of cards, maybe larger...sometimes it has a brownish color to it. Definitely not charcoal at this point. Are these the `clinkers' that you are referring to?

Sounds like the same thing.

How do they relate to overfiring? I burn 24/7 and I thought it was the result of overnight buns that peter out slowly...

Well here's my theory, based on some experience... on stoves with grates, some leakage air comes up from below the grate, which turns the bottom layer of coals to ash while it's burning. In my opinion, it's why stoves with grates don't have as much a problem with coals buildup. For example, my Morso burns off the coals at the same rate it produces new ones, because of the grate. Anyway... those clinkers impress me as being super-insulators, having been created by compression in the presence of extremely high heat. I think that they would kill the interaction of the coals bed with the grate described above.

I've never seen clinkers in the Morso. But I see lots of them in grateless stoves.

It sounds good, eh? But is it true? Who nose...

 

[begreen]

Great theory, but the Jotul has a grate.

 

[precaud]

Great theory, but the Jotul has a grate.

Yes.. and?
That's why I suggest he remove the clinkers and stir up the coals bed every time he reloads. Maybe the F3 grate is different, I have never seen it. You used to have one BG, did you have this problem?

 

[Roospike]

Maybe the wood ?

I had the flat crusty clinkers in the Summit for 3 days last year ........never before that and not once sense. Maybe it has to do with sap and wood or something but for what ever reason i had them it was just a 3 day fad.

No grate here , just an "ash hole" ;-)

 

[begreen]

Great theory, but the Jotul has a grate.

Yes.. and?
That's why I suggest he remove the clinkers and stir up the coals bed every time he reloads. Maybe the F3 grate is different, I have never seen it. You used to have one BG, did you have this problem?

Nope, this is new with the Castine. But we were burning different wood then too.

 

[NWfuel]

I get it also, could it be the Super Cedar. If so it does make it a cleaner removal. Less ash floating!

Thomas

 

[got wood?]

I do get the dense layers of ash at the bottom of one of my stoves...I break them apart with my poker when restarting the fire sometimes...not a lot, just something the size of a deck of cards, maybe larger...sometimes it has a brownish color to it. Definitely not charcoal at this point. Are these the `clinkers' that you are referring to?

Sounds like the same thing.

How do they relate to overfiring? I burn 24/7 and I thought it was the result of overnight buns that peter out slowly...

Well here's my theory, based on some experience... on stoves with grates, some leakage air comes up from below the grate, which turns the bottom layer of coals to ash while it's burning. In my opinion, it's why stoves with grates don't have as much a problem with coals buildup. For example, my Morso burns off the coals at the same rate it produces new ones, because of the grate. Anyway... those clinkers impress me as being super-insulators, having been created by compression in the presence of extremely high heat. I think that they would kill the interaction of the coals bed with the grate described above.

I've never seen clinkers in the Morso. But I see lots of them in grateless stoves.

It sounds good, eh? But is it true? Who nose...

ok...I buy that...except the overfiring part. You are saying this should not be happening if the stove were not overfiring? When you burn your grate-less stove `optimally' you never see these? I make a good effort to not overfire my stoves but I do get these clinkers every week or so. Are your clinkers brownish and look a bit like particle board?

 

[begreen]

I don't have any on hand to take a picture of, but they were ashen grey colored and looked a bit like blobs of fused sand. Some were as large as 2"x2"x1/2"