I have an idea on how to get rid of coals faster. What you think?

[midwest_170]

Actually my Pacific Energy Spectrum has only fire brick floor but does have about a 4"x4" spring loaded trap door that you push ash into a big collection pan that slides in underneath. So a shallow grate might work, I could still scrape the ash down into the pan. What would be the best kind of steel to make a grate out of?

Cast iron is the best.

 

[Whitespider]

Coldfront,
I took the brick out'a the floor when I tried the grate experiment in my Spectrum (about 1½ inches off the floor).
The problem with a shallow ash collection area under the grate was if filled with ash too fast, which blocked the air flow, and required lifting the grate to remove ashes, which required letting the stove burn near completely out. Still... the improvement in performance was huge until the area under the grate filled with ash... which didn't take very friggin' long. And raising the grate higher reduced firebox capacity.
I'd be interested in your results if you try it.

For experimental purposes I don't believe the type of steel or grate matters much... whatever is cheap, fast and easy... I used a cut-down fire pit grille made from welded steel rod. If you like the results, then make, or purchase, something more permanent and durable... but I wouldn't spend a lot of time, effort or cash until then.
*

 

[Whitespider]

Given that you have not tried a modern wood furnace design and yet complain about "elistist" stoves doesn't make much sense.

I don't haf'ta try one... I'm gonna' make this as friggin' plain as I possibly can for ya'...
I ain't interested in anything requiring ashes to be shoveled or directed to a little dump hole. I ain't interested in anything that requires letting the box cool, burn down or burn out to to remove ashes. And I certainly ain't interested in anything requiring cleaning, maintenance, brushing, scrapping, and such, at intervals during the heating season. I simply and plainly don't wanna' be screwin' 'round with the damn thing during the heating season... I just wanna' toss the wood in, dump the ashes when needed, and walk away. That's what I want... that's what I have... and I ain't interested in trading that convenience for anything... period.

Have you read my signature?? Burning it should be the easy part.
*

 

[fixit1960]

Well I'm currently burning Hedge, Locust, Oak and Mulberry. It's all seasoned 2 to 3 years, don't have a moisture meter, but can assure you it's dry. When I put the wood on a hot bed of coals it's in flames before I get the next piece in and it never sizzles. I'm sure it's probably not up to the standards of wood you burn, but seems to get me by.

, don't make the wizard mad.....they may come and get your stove.. you don't have the right Elitist attitude town or burn in it.

I wonder how much he actually burns his, 6 to 8 weeks between ash dumps my god how big is his ash pan?? Maybe he only burns a cord or 2 a year. Hence the no issues here response.

 

[fixit1960]

Actually my Pacific Energy Spectrum has only fire brick floor but does have about a 4"x4" spring loaded trap door that you push ash into a big collection pan that slides in underneath. So a shallow grate might work, I could still scrape the ash down into the pan. What would be the best kind of steel to make a grate out of?

I was going to suggest 1/4 or 3/8 " steel rebar. Might not last a season but it's inexpensive and easy to work with. Once you figure out the dimensions and good fit and function you could use it for a pattern and make one out of stainless round stock in a little thicker material if you have the room.

 

[Del_]

I don't haf'ta try one... I'm gonna' make this as friggin' plain as I possibly can for ya'...
I ain't interested in anything requiring ashes to be shoveled or directed to a little dump hole. I ain't interested in anything that requires letting the box cool, burn down or burn out to to remove ashes. And I certainly ain't interested in anything requiring cleaning, maintenance, brushing, scrapping, and such, at intervals during the heating season. I simply and plainly don't wanna' be screwin' 'round with the damn thing during the heating season... I just wanna' toss the wood in, dump the ashes when needed, and walk away. That's what I want... that's what I have... and I ain't interested in trading that convenience for anything... period.

Have you read my signature?? Burning it should be the easy part.
*

If it got any easier that this, I couldn't stand it!

 

[Cerran]

What am I being unrealistic about?? I'm not expecting anything more than I've had for near 40 years??
How can something that's been real for decades suddenly become unrealistic??
Because you say so?? Really?? That's just silly‼ Actually it's beyond silly...

OK... what is the best choice than??
If you know what is not the best choice, you must know what is... so... stop telling us what is not the best choice... tell what is??

Except for my current setup that I've only used for 1½ seasons, I've never had any "automatic control"... yet I've never had an issue getting (relatively) flat output (I'd add "over long periods of time"... but, again, that's a perception thing, ain't it??). The only box that couldn't/wouldn't/didn't/doesn't give me that flat output was/is the elitist box... which I also used in the house for 1½ seasons, and has now been used in the shop 1½ seasons.
So if a manual control stove is not the best choice... why have the (smoke dragon) manual control stoves always worked just as I wanted and needed them to??
If manual control ain't the best choice... what should I have been using over the past 4 decades??
Or is the answer also "unrealistic"?? Give me a break‼
*

Ahh the "this is the way we've always done it" argument. I run into that a lot in industrial boilers, it doesn't make it any less wrong.

You claim you've never had an issue but we're just supposed to take your word for it?

You claim you have a relatively flat output but again we're supposed to take your word for it?

You may not care about emissions, but at some level you have to realize that the older stoves do put out a lot more emissions than the new ones.

As with all things WS, you should use the best technology you can afford at the time. Automatic controls are becoming very cheap.

 

[Cerran]

, don't make the wizard mad.....they may come and get your stove.. you don't have the right Elitist attitude town or burn in it.

I wonder how much he actually burns his, 6 to 8 weeks between ash dumps my god how big is his ash pan?? Maybe he only burns a cord or 2 a year. Hence the no issues here response.

I have no ash pan. I burn between 3 and 4 cord a year depending on the winter we have with the majority of the wood being seasoned Doug Fir/Larch mix along with a bit of apple and mountain ash. I do burn a cord of lodgepole pine usually half at the beginning of the season and the other half at the end of the season. The stove has been burning 24/7 since late October here.

Clean wood is between 0.45 and 1.5% ash depending on wood species and various other factors so the ash generation should be relatively small. That means for the typical cord of firewood you should be somewhere between 10 and 45 pounds of ash. Wood ash is about 50 lb/cubic foot dry.

We maintain the house at a comfortable 72-74 through most of the house although the laundry room being the furthest away gets down into the 50's on really cold days since it's on the far corner of the house and sometimes the living room you can get baked out depending on how warm it is outside. When I load the stove for the last time around 10 or 11PM it runs from then until generally 7AM or 7:30 the next morning when I load it again. If it's really cold out the house dips down to 65-67 but if the temps outside are above 20ish the house will be about 68-70 at the reload.

 

[Cerran]

I don't haf'ta try one... I'm gonna' make this as friggin' plain as I possibly can for ya'...
I ain't interested in anything requiring ashes to be shoveled or directed to a little dump hole. I ain't interested in anything that requires letting the box cool, burn down or burn out to to remove ashes. And I certainly ain't interested in anything requiring cleaning, maintenance, brushing, scrapping, and such, at intervals during the heating season. I simply and plainly don't wanna' be screwin' 'round with the damn thing during the heating season... I just wanna' toss the wood in, dump the ashes when needed, and walk away. That's what I want... that's what I have... and I ain't interested in trading that convenience for anything... period.

Have you read my signature?? Burning it should be the easy part.
*

Hence why the wood stove regulations got implemented in the first place. Too many people have that attitude but unlike you they don't take the time to burn cleanly or properly season their wood.

 

[Whitespider]

Ahh the "this is the way we've always done it" argument.

L-O-L... It weren't no argument... it was a response to the unrealistic expectations thing.

...we're supposed to take your word for it?

Supposed to?? Heck man, you can do whatever ya' want... I have no expectations 'bout that.

You may not care about emissions...

Well... whadda ya' know?? We do agree on something. I'm 57 years old, and I live in Iowa where we don't have air quality problems... whether-or-not my stove, furnace, truck, car, lawn tractor, golf cart, ATV, motorcycle, burn barrel, or farts produces emissions is something I'll never care sour owl squat about. I couldn't produce enough emissions in the time I have left to equal half what gets spit in the air every time Air Force One takes off. I ain't gonna' worry squat about things that don't matter... I just ain't.

As with all things WS, you should use the best technology you can afford at the time.

That depends on the trade-off, there ain't any such thing as always... but I do have automatic forced draft and circulation blowers now.

Hence why the wood stove regulations got implemented in the first place.

Actually... that ain't why.
Heck, they didn't even "regulate" the worst offenders in the first go-a-round. I mean, c'mon, all they regulated was room heaters and space heaters (stoves)... and allowed dozens of exemptions for those, like cook stoves, camp stoves, recreational stoves (really?? seriously?? recreational stoves??), and more. Naawww... it never had anything to do with attitude, dirty burning, or emissions... that's just the whitewash for the believers.
*

 

[Chris-PA]

My wife and son are out of town so I'm on my own for the night. They left around 12:30 and my wife loaded the stove then - I know darn well she didn't put much thought into how it was set. I got home about 6hs later, the stove was fairly cool, and when I opened the door it looked like a pile of ash - nothing glowing. The basement where the stove is was about 77deg and the blower from the old furnace was off.

I shoveled out ash from the front edge, raked the glowing cols to a pile in the front, and tossed a very small tulip split on top of them. Took a couple of minutes, far less time than feeding the animals and closing in the chickens which I did first. The basement temperature has come up about 5deg in maybe 25min. That will be burned out in not too much time and I'll reload it - it's 19, going down to 9.

As I type this the blower has just kicked back on and the basement temperature is up to 85 - I've been home an hour.

 

[chadihman]

I don't haf'ta try one... I'm gonna' make this as friggin' plain as I possibly can for ya'...
I ain't interested in anything requiring ashes to be shoveled or directed to a little dump hole. I ain't interested in anything that requires letting the box cool, burn down or burn out to to remove ashes. And I certainly ain't interested in anything requiring cleaning, maintenance, brushing, scrapping, and such, at intervals during the heating season. I simply and plainly don't wanna' be screwin' 'round with the damn thing during the heating season... I just wanna' toss the wood in, dump the ashes when needed, and walk away. That's what I want... that's what I have... and I ain't interested in trading that convenience for anything... period.

Have you read my signature?? Burning it should be the easy part.
*

I read your signature. Your giant pulsating brain is a pain in my azz. Lol

So how often do yall smoke dragon burners clean your chimneys? How much do you get out in a cleaning? Most quadrafires have grates and ash pans. Shoveling ash is easily done with hot coals. I like the fact that I'm getting extra heat from the smoke that's NOT coming from my Chimney.

 

[Cerran]

Actually... that ain't why.
Heck, they didn't even "regulate" the worst offenders in the first go-a-round. I mean, c'mon, all they regulated was room heaters and space heaters (stoves)... and allowed dozens of exemptions for those, like cook stoves, camp stoves, recreational stoves (really?? seriously?? recreational stoves??), and more. Naawww... it never had anything to do with attitude, dirty burning, or emissions... that's just the whitewash for the believers.

Yes, that is why the regulations were initiated, particularity in problem airsheds like SLC, Missoula, Portland etc.. The problem is they did the typical idiot EPA kneejerk reaction and assigned the regulations to all airsheds instead of only the problem ones, or using selective enforcement.

 

[Cerran]

Cast iron is the best.

Actually inconel is the best but it's hella expensive.

 

[Whitespider]

We maintain the house at a comfortable 72-74 through most of the house although the laundry room being the furthest away gets down into the 50's on really cold days since it's on the far corner of the house and sometimes the living room you can get baked out depending on how warm it is outside.

Oh man‼
If that's what y'all like I won't put it down... but there ain't any doubt in my mind, I'd be divorced.
Between 70°-71° here, the whole house, every room no matter where it's located, every day all day no matter the temperature outside... 66°-67° at night.

...it's 19, going down to 9.

Was -17° this morning, I think we may have hit 9° for a few minutes mid afternoon... maybe.
Not sure what it's gonna' do tonight... the weather guys have been wrong on temperature predictions near every day for a week now. Heck, I think they predicted something like -3° for last night... only missed it by 15°. I reckon that ain't so bad for guess work...

So how often do yall smoke dragon burners clean your chimneys?

Well, let me put it this way...
I've lived here 'bout 23 years... except for a 5-6 year hiatus because of my daughters lung problems we've heated with wood from day one...
I check the chimney every year before firing up... never seen a need to clean it... I don't even own a chimney brush.
So, the answer is... I don't clean it. (Although, I do scoop a gallon or so of soot out'a the basement floor clean-out during the fall inspection.)
*

 

[Chris-PA]

Was -17° this morning, I think we may have hit 9° for a few minutes mid afternoon... maybe.

Iowa. I hear it's lovely this time of year.

Not sure what it's gonna' do tonight... the weather guys have been wrong on temperature predictions near every day for a week now. Heck, I think they predicted something like -3° for last night... only missed it by 15°. I reckon that ain't so bad for guess work...

I think if you look out the window and read the thermometer you'll know as much as they do.

 

[AIM]

This thread has gone ballistic and i just can't keep up. If anyone wants to start a thread about "air under or over the fire" I'll chime in there.

 

[AIM]

And just to stir the COALS a bit myself. If you want a "no mess with,,, load it and forget it,,, Get an OWB..... The ONLY reason I fuss with mine is because I like to tinker...

 

[Whitespider]

This thread has gone ballistic and i just can't keep up. If anyone wants to start a thread about "air under or over the fire" I'll chime in there.

New thread started... the floor is yours.
*

 

[tla100]

If I have a lot of coals, it is usually after work, I sift with homemade tool, leave door wide open for a couple hours, heat pours out of stove and burns down good. Throw some kindling with a couple strips of paper, more wood over the rest of coals and come back ten minutes later and close door. Stir minimal coals in AM when wake up, throw 4-6 chunks of pine kindling with a few strips of paper, load wood, leave door open for 10 minutes, close door and go to work.

I don't remember as a kid having the old Fisher's or Woodland's holding coals that long.......good or bad I don't know, was a kid.

Although, if I have coals, pine kindling and a couple strips of newspaper and ten minutes I have a great fire. Starts a lot faster than a cold start. Stove usually burns 24/7

Works for me, I like fire and don't mind checking on it.....

A grate would seem like a PITA to me.....Mine has secondaries but is far from an Elitist, it was on sale for $300, marked down from $1100 or so.......I don't allow any commie bastards in my house...