Too many coals!

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ziggo_2

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There used to be a thread on here about how to prevent too many coals from building up or how to deal with them. That post must be long gone, i cant find it.

Anyways thats more problem. Ive got too many coals building up not sure how i can prevent it or how to deal with it other than stir them up and put some more wood in.

Any ideas?

Thanks
 
Get the air to them. In the zogger smogger, I carefully mound them up right slap dab in front of the air inlet, they woosh like a forge then. Do it a few times, down low enough for one bucket out, done.

While burning, you are maybe choking it down too much, just bite the bullet and open that bad boy up more, both the air and any exhaust damper you might have.

Species makes a difference, some wood just coals way more.
 
Depending on your particular wood burner, there might not be much you can do about it if you need the heat in the house. They'll burn down eventually, but whether you'll be able to wait for that to happen or not depends on how much your house is cooling off. With my old boiler, there were times I just had to bite the bullet & shovel some out so I could get more wood in when it was cold out. My new one burns them right up no problem.
 
Interesting that my stove seems to burn better whenever I dump the coals about every other day. Every stove is different, however. Heck, even the wind direction, temperature, and barometer all make a difference.

Ever notice that the hottest fires occur when (1) the north wind is howling, (2) the temperature is dropping, and (3) the barometer is rising? We get the best burns when we need it the most.:rolleyes:
 
Stir up and open ash door and it will burn down. My wood furnace will do that if I add would without letting burn down. Ash tends to coal up no matter what for me.
 
Interesting that my stove seems to burn better whenever I dump the coals about every other day. Every stove is different, however. Heck, even the wind direction, temperature, and barometer all make a difference.

Ever notice that the hottest fires occur when (1) the north wind is howling, (2) the temperature is dropping, and (3) the barometer is rising? We get the best burns when we need it the most.:rolleyes:

Oh for real. That last cold snap, plus the wind, the draft hit like turbo.
 
Elm is usually the wood that I have problems with, on the rare occasion that I have too many coals. I get them mounded up as much as possible near the front of the stove(air inlet at front) and then use several splits of Oak on the coals and give it plenty of air. The oak seems to need more combustion air to burn than Elm.

Ron
 
My technique is to rake 'em forward, toss a dry split of Sassafrass or silver maple(Fast burning stuff) in the back, and open the throttle all the way.

The heat generated by the split creates a killer draft, and on our Quadrafire, the incoming air is at the front.
The Coals burn HOT like that, and will burn down in 20-30 Min to the point they need to be raked again if they were deep.

Cherry is awesome for making Hot coals, but for some reason it burns down to coals pretty quickly.
Wet and Green, or dry as hell, it dosn't matter. The green stuff just takes longer to take off and get there.

If you're running Cherry when it's cold, like last week, Mix in some Oak, Locust, or Hedge if you can.
Otherwise, you're up against a big pile of coals and having to get creative.

Personally, I don't mind the Coals and work with them.
Especially when the wood bieng brought in is frozen solid.
 
Rake coals to the front, load wood toward the back every time wood is added. When there are just to many and you need to keep the heat up, split your driest wood very small and pile it loosely on the coals. Try to introduce air UNDER the fire the worst offenders seem to be down draft stoves.
 
What works for me: smaller batches, of smaller sticks, with more air, more often. Except at night- stuff it and split.
Black cherry seems to make most coals, that are reluctant to burn. The extra air nudges them.
 
I had the same problem, burning mostly Ash, I'd end up with nothing BUT coals!

I've come to realize that I was running with the flue damper close to shut off way too much, after letting it run open more often I get better heat and less coals left over, just mostly ashes now.
 
If you're around the stove all day I suppose you find yourself dealing with coals more often than the wood burner that returns to the stove after an 8hr absence.

Without an ash box the best way I found to deal with the 'too many coals to reload' situation is to; always burn as hot as possible (WOT), when ever the opportunity presents itself shovel out the inert ash and rake the coals forward before loading. Sometime it's inconvenient, like the middle of the night but that's what you have to do.

It's pretty much an ongoing situation, and that's with well seasoned wood too.
 
Without an ash box the best way I found to deal with the 'too many coals to reload' situation is to; always burn as hot as possible (WOT)...
That just made a deeper bed of coals (more coals) in my box...

My problem is just the opposite. The coals all turn to ashes before the wood is completely burnt, then the remaining wood just smoulders, producing little heat, or goes out entirely.
Sounds as if your firewood could use another year of seasoning...
*
 
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