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

[chadihman]

I have a quadra fire 5700 wood stove and I love my burn times and heat output. My problem is I'm accumulating cherry red coals faster than I can burn them now that it's cold and I'm feeding the stove full.
My wife and I work away so I build big fires in the am and before bed. My stove puts out a lot of heat throughout the secondary burn of the gasses but after that I have charred pieces of wood that need more air to deplete them and get more heat from them.
I want to hook an electric actuator to my air control and control it with a digital timer. I'd set it so after five hours give or take the actuator would power up and open my air control while I'm at work. Then I wouldn't have try to burn so many coals down before loading again.

 

[laynes69]

Look into the smart stove controller. It's not cheap (around 300.00), but it controls the air supply throughout the entire burn. I've considered it for our furnace, but our air control does well.

 

[flotek]

I would not recommend this on an open forum because people aren't responsible ..but if you open up the air control and then crack the door open about 1/8 of an inch it will super heat the coals and burn them off . Of coarse operating a wood burner with the door not sealed is dangerous

 

[WoodTick007]

What type of wood are you burning? Maple?

 

[aarolar]

Wish I had this problem...

 

[chadihman]

Ash and oak

 

[TBrown]

I have the same stove and understand your problem. I find the best thing is to just burn off the coals in the evening with extra air. If I do this before loading at night I am fairly good in the morning before work. I am heating 2600 ft solely with the 5700 and its been below zero all week.

 

[TBrown]

An idea. I think some of the Wi-Fi little security camera set ups have digital outputs. You could check the stove by video and trigger a actuator to open the air during the day.

 

[chadihman]

An idea. I think some of the Wi-Fi little security camera set ups have digital outputs. You could check the stove by video and trigger a actuator to open the air during the day.

We must think alike. I've been also thinking about that.

 

[TBrown]

Small air cylinder and solenoid would work slick on the start up air slide. Then you could turn it off to conserve coals. I work all day with industrial control so it is second nature.

 

[Del_]

Wouldn't it be smarter to electronically control the air supply based on room temperature?

 

[Whitespider]

 

[NSMaple1]

Wish I had this problem...

It's not really a good problem to have.

Is the house cooling off during this coal period? If so, you are pretty well up against it and will not have much choice but to shovel out some of those coals at some point so you can get more fresh fuel in there. Which along with being dangerous, also wastes potential fuel. If not, there's not much more you can do beside pull them ahead & open your air & wait. A piece of softwood on top might help.

Pass the popcorn, dude....

 

[sledge&wedge]

I would not recommend this on an open forum because people aren't responsible ..but if you open up the air control and then crack the door open about 1/8 of an inch it will super heat the coals and burn them off . Of coarse operating a wood burner with the door not sealed is dangerous

I am guilty of doing this on occasion, but only when I am going to be in the living room with the stove for a while after I crack the door open. It does work, but I wouldn't call it "safe" or "efficient."

 

[dave_dj1]

I am having the same problem in these cold temps. I have a manual timer on my draft so I rake 'em up, set the timer for 60 min and repeat as necessary. If I don't have the time for that in the morning I just fill with wood and do it when I get home. Coldest we've had in the house so far is 71*. I too would like to have some way of opening the draft independent of me. My draft is hooked to a thermostat but unless I move the thermostat or turn it all the way up it pretty much never does anything, that is why I put in the manual timer, I load, set timer and walk away. So far (after two seasons) this method has worked great. I could probably set a timer to open the draft later in the day as I have it down to the hour when I need to reload. I may look into it and try it on a weekend when I'm going to be around.

 

[Whitespider]

 

[midwest_170]

What you need is a grate. I had the same problem you are talking about until I put a grate in my stove. If I want I can burn all the coals down to fine ash. I haven't taken a single piece of charcoal out of the stove since I installed the grate. My stove is probably about 30% to 50% more efficient now also.

 

[chadihman]

Get lost in the 50's

 

[chadihman]

It's not really a good problem to have.

Is the house cooling off during this coal period? If so, you are pretty well up against it and will not have much choice but to shovel out some of those coals at some point so you can get more fresh fuel in there. Which along with being dangerous, also wastes potential fuel. If not, there's not much more you can do beside pull them ahead & open your air & wait. A piece of softwood on top might help.

Pass the popcorn, dude....

Yes the house is cooling while I'm trying to burn coals. Yesterday I shoveled coals into a metal bucket with some ash in the bottom. I did it quickly and put a lid on it and took it outside asap and placed on the snow. I need air sooner or more air later.

 

[chadihman]

What you need is a grate. I had the same problem you are talking about until I put a grate in my stove. If I want I can burn all the coals down to fine ash. I haven't taken a single piece of charcoal out of the stove since I installed the grate. My stove is probably about 30% to 50% more efficient now also.

Seems like it would be a pain in the azz to clean the ashes out.