Coalpail.com Forum

I have another question for you guys. What do you do with your ash? Mine is piling up outside and our local dump doesnt accept it! Also, when you are shaking your stoves, about how long does it take to get to the "glow". It seems like (when I have a fire going...) it takes forever to shake it down, sometimes a full ash pan at once. Is that normal? Thanks!
Shellie

I spread ash on a dirt road. Got a dirt driveway? There you go!

Ash Disposal?

about how long does it take to get to the "glow". It seems like (when I have a fire going...) it takes forever to shake it down, sometimes a full ash pan at once. Is that normal?
I get a full ashpan with every shake down. Shake each grate vigorously, for about 10-15 seconds, before "the glow" begins to appear under the grate.

I'm getting a lot of ash too and so far the plan is to build up an area to park on. Should make a good base for gravel on top of it.

My driveway is paved but old and cracked so I've been using them in the middle so far. Got a bit of a hill if I take a right out of my drive and since the town does a such a wonderful job plowing I usually have to put the truck in 4WD to make it up. I did a good scrape down and got some hot ash that I dumped tonight, pretty cool effect.

Sometimes when I shake only a little fine dust falls through so I have to poke the corners to settle the burning pile down then I shake again until some embers fall into the pan.

About every 3 days or so (about 300-400 pounds later) I have to give the firebox a good scraping. From what I gather this is called raking? I pull all the coal to one side and work the ash down through the grate, then pull the coal back and work the other side, then front then back. I get a lot of buildup in the corners.
Oh ya I got a pair of heavy welding gloves on when I do this (and it can still get pretty hot)

I put an ad on Craigslist a month or so ago offering to give it away. Now, I can't make enough for the demand. Seriously. And they pick it up and take it away for me.

The guy who usually gets here first has a 3/4 mile long driveway and he uses it for traction.

tvb - brilliant

tvb wrote:Now, I can't make enough for the demand.

Ohhh, noooo, **smile** next, a price on it, then, eBay!

One thing that's counter-intuitive:

I just cleaned out & restarted my stove a day ago.....Normally I get fine, powdery ash for a few days after starting a new fire & running it at low temps. (coal bed settles nicely, all by itself)
Now that I am running the stove fairly hot, I find the same nice Blaschak coal bridging like crazy & stuck together badly, needing to be poked like an "old" fire??

I would have thought that the hotter the fire, the more powdery the ash, but it's just the opposite! (I wonder why??)

tvb wrote:I put an ad on Craigslist a month or so ago offering to give it away. Now, I can't make enough for the demand. Seriously. And they pick it up and take it away for me.

The guy who usually gets here first has a 3/4 mile long driveway and he uses it for traction.

I tried this and got no response at all! I was all excited when I saw this suggestion a few weeks ago.

Oh, you need to make that ash sound real special - market it nicely about what a great job it does for traction etc. I'll see if I can find the ad I posted.

I also live in a semi-rural area where lots of people live on several acres and have long driveways.

All-Natural, Organic, Bio-Degradable, Super Traction Aid, Made in America by Americans!
Package it properly and you may be heating you house/barn/shop for free!

As far as how much shaking and how much ash should you get:

I am a "first year" coal burner. I have heard time and time again that "every stove is different...." In that respect, I was shaking until I see red coals, but I have found that is NOT enough. Over time, performance would begin to suffer and it would get worse and worse. I found that the ash would start to accumulate and choke the fire. I now (at least in my set-up, yours may be different) have the following mantra:

COAL INTO STOVE = ASH REMOVED FROM STOVE

Basically, it means that I now have a general idea how much ash is produced by a certain amount of coal....I make sure I remove "x amount" of ash when I had added "y amount" of coal, depending on how much coal has been burned. On nights where I have really loaded up the stove more than usual....the next day I make sure I get extra ash removed during shakedown.

Freddy wrote:I spread ash on a dirt road. Got a dirt driveway? There you go!

I hope you start your fire with nail-free kindling wood

The one town nearby takes the ash and actually has a nice place for you to drive by and dump and they use it for bad weather. Lately, I have been placing it on our dirt road to help with the ice and snow. My one neighbor is beggin for it as well.

Dan