What should my ash look like?

Mine has lots of crunchies, brownish red in color, in the shape of the coal. A lot of it will turn to powder when rubbed between my thumb and finger , but some is harder and crumbles. There's a small amount of pieces that appear barely burned and are hard. I was expecting mainly fine ash but, there isn't much of that. Running at 50% feed, I have around 3" of ash at the end of the chute.

Sounds just like my ash - same stove also. What coal are you burning? I'm burning Blaschak bagged rice. No problems at all, burns complete and burns hot. Lots of crunchies!

Thanks , I was a little worried that I might not be getting a proper burn. I'm burning the same stuff.

Just a little bit of difference, I get small coal cakes with the Keystoker, I think there is more on the burn grate and it clumps together more than the LL Hyfire. Most just falls apart when touched....

Here is my Keystoker, Direct Vent.


and my Hyfire I standard Chimney.

That's exactly what my Keystoker ash pan looks like, Dave.

The hard pieces you cannot crush are mostly what they call "bone" or "shale" that comes from strip mining of coal. Is nothing to worry about, if you would like to eliminate that then get deep mined coal.

I am not too worried, I am using bulk this year supposedly better coal than the bagged. He gets it from 2-3 different suppliers down in PA.

I only empty ashes about every other day or so depending on the weather.

I am getting about 10% ash, 10lbs per 100lbs of coal, roughly.