Question Before the Season Hits

If your wife can take care of your wood stove she will figure the coal stove out faster then you think , my wife likes to be warm she figured it out real fast ,( wood burning insert & hand fired coal ) she has 2 stoves to tend when I go away

HanSoSlow wrote:I like what I'm hearing about the vac.

It sounds like I still need to dump the ash vs. use the vac on all of the ash. Just suck it up in the vac and dump that.

I'm hoping to become a One Match Club member, but can that count only when I'm home and not traveling and leaving the stove to my wife to maintain?

She handles the wood really well, but this is all new to both of us.

Yes, dump the ash pan outside into a lidded metal container. I use an 11 gallon galvanized trash can that I keep outside on the down wind side of the house. It holds nearly a week's worth of ashes. The Vigilant's ash pan fits easily into this size can. Choose a metal container that fits your ash pan. To empty it I do the following with completely cool ashes, meaning I didn't add any ashes for ~ 12 + hours. I slip a tall white 13 gal kitchen garbage bag with built in tie straps all the way over the can. Invert them together so that the bottom of the bag is on the ground. The bag is a such a tight fit I brake the vacuum by slipping my hand down along the can till I reach the lip of the can. Carefully withdraw the can. Wha-la, a bag of ashes just sitting there! Cinch the straps on the bag then bunch up the remaining slack in the bag, wrap and knot the cinch with the straps. Into the big trash can and out to the curb. You don't want any hot ash to make it into the garbage truck. Bad things happen.

About the One Match Club membership, first year members get to take one, maybe two Mulligans. It's a probationary period while you get up on the learning curve.