OWB - Big ash cleanout

[Scootermsp]

Yesterday afternoon I took the equivalent of 20-25 gallons of ash out of my 5036. The coal bed was starting to get 8-12" above the floor of the firebox. I think all the ash had an insulating effect and possibly took away 25-30% of the firebox exposed inside. My burn last night was extended by a few hours with LESS wood. It was about 18F here. In the future I will not be waiting as long to cleanout ash. I may do so on a weekly basis due to my satisfation with increased performance. Any thoughts on this?

 

[chainsaway]

absolutely right, ash is an excellent insolator!
cheers! alain

 

[Laird]

Makes sense to me. How often had you been cleaning out the ash? I do mine about once/month.

 

[Scootermsp]

Not much

Since September I've pulled about 20 Gal out, not including yesterday.

 

[bowtechmadman]

I clean her out atleast once a month or whenever the mood strikes me (ususally couple times a month).
I notice a little increase in wood usage till I get 3 - 4" of ash/coal built up.

 

[hawken08]

I waited to long myself. this is my frist rodeo with an OWB and i waited about 7 weeks till ash it out. never again, my 1st burn after a heavy ash removal i since a huge difference in burn time. to think i wasted all that wood by not attending to the ash like i should have. I still load every 12 hours, however there is still wood in the firebox from past load.

 

[Laird]

Less ash = less insulation + the stove will hold more wood = longer burn time :monkey:

 

[cleanburn]

I have a heatmor and auger mine out about every week just to keep things neat and tidy I auger out not even half a gallon every week....Too bad you guys have to shovel yours out

 

[blakey]

Interesting I never thought about losing efficiency with ash buildup, only losing capacity in the firebox. I will have to keep the ash level down a bit more and monitor wood usage. I actually have been removing them more often this year anyway. It may make more of a difference in a Central Boiler with no firebrick than one with firebrick.

 

[Skiboat Dave]

I have a CB 6048 and I am not sure how to separate the ash from the coals.
I often rake the coals around but the ash seems to just kind of mix in. A couple of time I shoveled out a wheel barrel of coals/ash. Any ideas how to do this better?

I think I have figured out how to reduce my coals. I wait until a weekend when I'm around and have the time to play with it. I let the wood burn out and mix rake the coals around then pile them near the door. Then I throw one small dry log in the middle just for flame. Then tree of four times I re rake the coals. It does seem to reduce them. By night time I am ready to load her up with a fresh load of wood.

Still learning.

 

[Laird]

Every time I load I rake the coals to the front. When I clean out ash I rake the coals to the back and scoop out the ash. I then rake the coals back to the front prior to loading. Takes all of 5 min about once a month.

 

[motoman3b]

Every time I load I rake the coals to the front. When I clean out ash I rake the coals to the back and scoop out the ash. I then rake the coals back to the front prior to loading. Takes all of 5 min about once a month.

I hear alot of people doing this but your setup must be different from mine, Inside my firebox the flue exits out the top and rear of the burner with a baffle that makes the hot air travel to the front before exiting to increase heat exchange. So I do the opposite and push most the coals to the back to get the most out of them.

 

[Geez]

Interesting I never thought about losing efficiency with ash buildup, only losing capacity in the firebox. I will have to keep the ash level down a bit more and monitor wood usage. I actually have been removing them more often this year anyway. It may make more of a difference in a Central Boiler with no firebrick than one with firebrick.

If you think about all the different ways manufacturers try to increase the heat transfer surface area inside the OWB's like air or water tubes passing through the burn chamber, you soon realize that the ash buildup more than cancels these improvements out. As stated in a different thread, since mine has an ash door below a grate, I clean mine out as often as possible. Like every other day.

 

[ngzcaz]

Well, this must be the time for all those ashes to accumulate. I've taken less than a 5 gallon pail since October since I started burning. In the last week the wood started having an upward angle to it. Tonight I checked and there are excess ashes in the rear of the stove and also the sides to a degree.

Unfortunately, we are starting a rain/sleet/freezing rain/snow event for 2 days. And then temps barely reaching 20 for a couple days. I tried raking them forward a bit to fall thru the grates but I'm going to have to do a better job soon.

:jawdrop: :bang:

 

[jcappe]

I usually clean out about once a month. There is a period towards the end of the cycle that the ash seems to be to much but for the most part I just stir everything up before I load and it seems to work pretty good.

 

[Blazin]

I clean the ash out of mine usually once a month. I push the hot stuff to the back and shovel from the bottom (usually it's half a wheelbarrow load) and then rake the coals around real good while pulling them back to the front. A layer of some real dry pallet wood gets the new bed fired up nice and ready for a load of wood.

 

[ant]

shoveled out mine for the first time this season (oct 3 she went on line) and i got about 35 gal. out of her.