Tired of Knifing from the top of the coal!

Hi All,
I have a Efel Arden/Bayard/Nestor Martin Harmony III Belgium, hopper fed, 55,000 BTU cast iron coal stove. I've had this one for five heating seasons and also had another 30 years ago. It's an absolutely gorgeous stove and burns quite well. However, the shaker is an absolute joke and totally useless. Everything about this stove is old-school/low-tech. To drop the ash you have to knife through the front knife port like a madman, but that will only do less than 50% of the job. If you don't open the door and knife from the top of the coal, the stove will plug and go out eventually. Knifing with the door open is a nasty job from many perspectives - hot/sweaty and no matter how careful you are, now and again a piece of hot coal will fly out. But here's my real problem; no mater how careful you are, fly ash will come out of the firebox and escape and fly to the ceiling. I have a log home with an open truss and a purlin roof system. The fly ash collects on surfaces everywhere and looks like hell. My ceiling is about 24 ft high - very tough to get at and clean. Yes, I close the damper and even put a piece of paper over the baro to maximize draft through the open door. I've had it. If I'm away for a day my wife is not able to knife well enough for a good burn and I'm sick of the ash mess.

I'm looking for advice from owners of other stoves (Hitzer? DS?). I'd like to understand what models work completely using the shaker and never require open door knifing from the top. Thanks in advance...

You close the damper? With decent draft fly ash or fumes should never escape from the open door.

Yes. Damper closed. I run with .05 draft and when I put a piece of paper over the baro it goes to at least .1 i.e., plenty of proper draft.

Ossa wrote: ↑

Mon. Dec. 21, 2020 5:09 pm

Yes. Damper closed. I run with .05 draft and when I put a piece of paper over the baro it goes to at least .1 i.e., plenty of proper draft.

By "closed" I understand means maximum blocking of the flue passage. It should be open for maximum draft over the fire to direct any fly ash toward the flue. By "damper" do you mean the baro or additional manual damper? Even with .05 draft there should be a torrent of air rushing into the stove with open door.

With drawing the slicing poker from the slots can carry fly ash with it.

Ossa I know first hand the Hitzer 983, 55, 30/95 all shake well and make no mess while tending. I’ve been running my 983 for two years I’m kinda a neat freak when it comes to my home and I couldn’t be happier with Hitzer stoves.

When i ran my Bayard for a few years I rarely had to open the front door as I had a side door on my stove. If I did open the front door i do remember ash coming out but mostly it was ash that was sitting on top of door parts like gaskets and the window channel.

Yes, the shaker was useless. I used a hacksaw frame with a better bend in it instead of the tool that came with it to get to the corners slicing. Anyway, i wouldnt blame you if you switched to a good shaker design stove as I got awful sick of slicing myself. But thats up to you.

Thanks for the comments everyone. Any DS Anthramax owners out there with a comment on the shaker?

Ossa, I do not own an Anthramax, however, it appears that most conventional grate systems on modern American made coal stoves are quite similar in nature & function. I own a Harman & never had a dust issue & only poke from the top when shadows appear in the ash pan. I can understand your being gun shy because of your current stove; But it would be a very safe bet that if you went with DS, Hitzer, Harman or Keystoker that you would be pleasantly surprised; as none of these recommend regular poking or slicing.
Jim

Excellent feedback. Thank you Jim!

Ossa wrote: ↑

Mon. Dec. 21, 2020 3:30 pm

Hi All,
I have a Efel Arden/Bayard/Nestor Martin Harmony III Belgium, hopper fed, 55,000 BTU cast iron coal stove. I've had this one for five heating seasons and also had another 30 years ago. It's an absolutely gorgeous stove and burns quite well. However, the shaker is an absolute joke and totally useless. Everything about this stove is old-school/low-tech. To drop the ash you have to knife through the front knife port like a madman, but that will only do less than 50% of the job. If you don't open the door and knife from the top of the coal, the stove will plug and go out eventually. Knifing with the door open is a nasty job from many perspectives - hot/sweaty and no matter how careful you are, now and again a piece of hot coal will fly out. But here's my real problem; no mater how careful you are, fly ash will come out of the firebox and escape and fly to the ceiling. I have a log home with an open truss and a purlin roof system. The fly ash collects on surfaces everywhere and looks like hell. My ceiling is about 24 ft high - very tough to get at and clean. Yes, I close the damper and even put a piece of paper over the baro to maximize draft through the open door. I've had it. If I'm away for a day my wife is not able to knife well enough for a good burn and I'm sick of the ash mess.

I'm looking for advice from owners of other stoves (Hitzer? DS?). I'd like to understand what models work completely using the shaker and never require open door knifing from the top. Thanks in advance...

I have a DS Comfortmax in my house, And I have a Hitzer 50-93 in my garage. The DS has been doing well. I find I do have the shake the grates pretty hard to clear the ash. The Hitzer I dont have to shake as much. But the Hitzer loads up ash on the sides and corners and I do have to poke down through the firebed almost every other day to clear the ash. On the Cmax, ash collects in the front of the firebox over top of the cast iron side vents. I poke that down weekly or so. I will say the Hitzer shakes down better or at least faster than the DS. The Hitzer seems to produce alot more fly ash though. But both stoves you can shake down with the ash door and load door closed if you please. The DS does not have any air vents in the ash door, so I open it a bit so I can see when red coals are falling. The Hitzer you can open the ash vent to watch for red coals. I open both load doors about an inch when shaking, it keeps the glass cleaner and I dont have ash in my house other than a small amount of dust from sliding the pan out. I would like to add that I bought a small ash vacuum to clean out the DS. I find the ash on the right side misses the pan and every week or so I have to shovel some ash out of the ash pan 'housing' and then I use the vacuum to clean put the rest. Really not that big of a deal. My house is far lest dusty compared to burning wood. I recently had an issue with the Hitzer, I could not get it to burn below 350°, figured out my ash pan vent had warped, I made a block off plate, drilled holes and put bolts in to hold the plate in. Works great now, stays between 200° and 250° above the door now. New ash door is $100, sheet metal, stove cement, and hardware I had in stock so it was a free fix

Thanks very much. This is excellent detail and very helpful!