How Do You Handle Dust?

I have been heating my home with a coal stove for over 25 years & love it except for the fine dust it creates. Two seasons ago I installed a central vacuum system in the house & find it completely solves the coal stove dust problems for us! (My stove is in the basement family room of my 44" split entry ranch) I simply vacuum the stove itself, the exhaust pipes & fittings, the nearby hip foundation wall ledges & vinyl tiled floor & whatever dust/dirt is not caught in the central vac's cannister (located in an attached shed) gets merely blown out of the house through the vent.
I am, of course careful not to suck up any hot embers, etc.

Works like a champ!

Anyone else use this or other measures for dust control?

Vacuum works very well, removing as much as possible before it has a chance to get spread around is ideal. Only trouble with vacuums is the flyash tends to clog the filters very quickly, small annoyance but better than having it in the house.

Just a large foam disk at the top of my central vac canister that I clean out every six months anyway.

We will be heating with coal for the first time this season and will be using the Hitzer 50-94 gravity fed. We hope to rarely open the front door to create the ash issue because of the top gravity fed option.

I guess when I pull the ash pan out for cleaning will be the only time for the mess but not sure how much it will create.

The best advice for dust reduction is to shake the grate then wait for the dust to settle. Then very carefully and slowly open the ashpan door, and again, slowly and carefully remove the ash pan.

Covering the ashpan with a piece of galvanized steel to keep the dust on the top of the ashes from being spread through the room as you take the ashpan outside is helpful too.

You can also wait for the ash in the pan to cool and spray it with a mist of water to settle the dust, I'm not sure how well this will work, but may be worth a try.

Hope this helps.

Greg L

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What about one of these? I am going to install one this fall to my AHS boiler. Not sure if it will work with other boilers though.
From what I gather, it is installed right above the fill door and blows the ash into your chimney with the use of a "T" in your stove pipe..

just be careful it doesn't back pressure your stove and push the exhaust back out the door or elsewhere. maybe vent it separately outside.

......"The best advice for dust reduction is to shake the grate then wait for the dust to settle. Then very carefully and slowly open the ashpan door, and again, slowly and carefully remove the ash pan. ".....

Excellent advise Greg......One thing I have learned after 25+ years of operatng a coal stove is to wait. Even though we always seem to be in a hurry, take your time & don't rush your stove. Give it time to heat up b4 adding that new layer of coal & wait a minute or so as Greg suggests when taking out the ash pan.
Most of the problems I have had over the years can be atributed to my trying to rush things. (smothering a fire, etc)

WNY wrote:just be careful it doesn't back pressure your stove and push the exhaust back out the door or elsewhere. maybe vent it separately outside.

I'm not totally sure how it vents. There is no description of how it works on the website. After reading your post I would guess you are right about venting it separately.

LsFarm wrote:The best advice for dust reduction is to shake the grate then wait for the dust to settle. Then very carefully and slowly open the ashpan door, and again, slowly and carefully remove the ash pan.

Covering the ashpan with a piece of galvanized steel to keep the dust on the top of the ashes from being spread through the room as you take the ashpan outside is helpful too.

You can also wait for the ash in the pan to cool and spray it with a mist of water to settle the dust, I'm not sure how well this will work, but may be worth a try.

Hope this helps.

Greg L

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Good idea about waiting after the shake down. I never thought about a spray on top of the ash to keep it from being thrown around. (obviously better be cool.)

The walk is not very far from the stove to our door, but any lessoning of dust flying around will be a big plus.

ktm rider wrote:What about one of these? I am going to install one this fall to my AHS boiler. Not sure if it will work with other boilers though.
From what I gather, it is installed right above the fill door and blows the ash into your chimney with the use of a "T" in your stove pipe..

My first thought would be whether that powered vent could lower the air pressure (outside the stove door) enough to defeat the chimney's draw & thus possibly smother the fire or worse..... back the stove's exhaust/carbon monoxide back into the house. (I know I can't run my whole house fan with the coal stove going for just this reason) I guess it would depend on how it's vented but I don't think I'd want to try it especialy when vacuuming (even with a small shop vac) is so easy & effective.

If the blower is universal AC/DC motor just put a simple speed controller on it and adjust to slightly faster than what's needed. Just for grins ask AHS if it's code approved and what section of the "2006 Edition International Residential One and Two Family Dwelling Code" cover's it's installation. That's the general code requirement in all of PA and at least my county in MD.

Devil5052 wrote:..
My first thought would be whether that powered vent could lower the air pressure (outside the stove door) enough to defeat the chimney's draw & thus possibly smother the fire or worse..... back the stove's exhaust/carbon monoxide back into the house. (I know I can't run my whole house fan with the coal stove going for just this reason) I guess it would depend on how it's vented but I don't think I'd want to try it especialy when vacuuming (even with a small shop vac) is so easy & effective.

Maybe Eric from AHS can chime in on this subject. I pulled the pic right off their website. I'm sure he could answer this alot better than i could. I plan on buying one of these this fall so I would like to hear from him also.
I am sick of hosing down the garage every spring to get all the fly ash out of it...

The Vermont Casting coal stove comes with a top with a handle that slips over the ash box. Smart idea. I am sure if one looked at it they could come up with something similar for their stove.

Mr. Pete--->

As Greg and Devil suggested, patience is the key for me. Before shaking down the stove, I have the ash door of my Mark III open for a few minutes to get a strong draft. Then I turn off the blower, close the ash door, open the draft knob all the way and then shake it down. I wait a minute or two for the dust to settle before opening the door again to get the ash pan out. With my Harmon, there is a bit of ash that misses the pan on the sides and I get that out with a small flat shovel. I have two ash pans, so I set this on the side to cool off before carrying it outside to dump.

Two things that will always spread the dust around for me is leaving the blower on while using the flat shovel or tripping on a cat while carrying out the ash pan!