Planned Clean Out?

Over in the "Coal" forum in the "One Match Club" thread, I see a few comments about doing or not doing their planned mid season cleanout. I was wondering why a person would let their fire go out to do a clean out if they were not experiencing any problems such as stuck clinkers.

Some years I have lost my fire sometime durring the winter and cleaned out the stove to build a new fire, but when I have not lost the fire by accident I have burned all winter with no problem or cleanout. I just shake rake and poke as needed. Ash accumulation in the stove pipe and chimney has not been a problem either.

DITTO on all that grizz:) Don't figure does it

Its thought that fly ash will accumulate at the bottom of a vertical run like at the bottom of the chimney. I only had less than an inch so I probably didn't need to do a shut down clean out. Some people also install a tee with a cap so they don't need to disassemble the pipe to get at such locations to vacuum fly ash.

Some people (like me) have a less than vertical stove pipe run so ash build up can be a concern. You have a handfired and I have Stokers so clinker build-ups are not an issue with my flatbed stoker grates. I like to clean out my combustion air holes for more efficient burn.

15 mins once or twice a season to clean my stove doesn't sound all that inconvenient from my perspective, especially after years of wood burning.

Grizz,

I don't usually clean out mid season either unless I see a drastic decrease in heat output due to ash buildup or I need to shut down for emergency service. Last season I didn't shut down until the season was over but this year I shut down in January to install the anti-explosion louvres in the stove. When I shut down this season I empty the stove out and cleaned it a bit before firing it back up.

I have a direct vent with a fairly long near horizontal run, on a nice day when the furnace is running easy I'll take the outside tee off & use a half moon disk on the end of a rod to pull some flyash out. I insert the disc moon up a short way invert to moon down & pull out ash & repeat until I am near the vertical & get most of the ash out like that. As long as I stand well back there is very little blowing ash & most just falls to the ground, about a foot or so, the furnace never misses a beat.

I tend to shut down my stove every two months. The ash build up on the sides and even in the ash door area get a bit too much. it is amazing how much difference a "clean" and a "ash-build" stove run.

Because stokers have a combustion fan there will always be more fly ash than with a hand fired.

Hand fired stove can vary widely in their tendency to generate fly ash. Partially opening the loading door while shaking will lessen the draft through the fire bed and allow more fly ash to fall into the ash pan. A deeper fire pot filled with coal will also trap more ash than a stove with a shallow fire pot.

grizzly2 wrote:Over in the "Coal" forum in the "One Match Club" thread, I see a few comments about doing or not doing their planned mid season cleanout. I was wondering why a person would let their fire go out to do a clean out if they were not experiencing any problems such as stuck clinkers.

Quick answer: To prevent problems later on.

My two Franco-Belge stoves taught me that some stove designs are more prone to ash buildup. I had problems in the spring months keeping the fire going with the stove throttled back, and it didn't burn as hot on a given thermo setting on the colder nights.

The Franco's exhaust exited the firebox via two ports on either side of the firebox, right at the front and just above the firebasket. There were rectangular exhaust chambers that ran horizontally back each side, then around the back, then they joined together in the center at the stove pipe connector. Exhaust made three 90* turns before the stovepipe. When I did my first few spring cleanouts, I found significant ash buildup at each turn in the exhaust chamber--as in a 1 to 1-1/2 inch buildup in a chamber 2" wide and about 5" high.

With spring temps causing reduced draft, especially with my chimney, I believe draft was being further restricted by the reduced passages in the exhaust chambers, thus causing my springtime burn problems.

Once I started regularly cleaning out sometime in mid-January, I had way fewer problems in March and April.

Now, the Franco was quick and easy to shut down and restart--took a day of not filling the hopper to burn all the coal in the firebox, then about an hour to clean out, and another hour to restart the fire. Where I live, we generally get a couple warmer days in January, and I did the cleanout then.

Since the DS 1500 has a direct path to the outlet, I don't see having that type of problem. I might consider a midyear cleanout if I continue to see ash buildup on the back grate next year. Hoping I find something correctable there, during my spring cleanout.

I'd say you are still in the one match club if you intentionally shut down for cleaning and inspection. You should only lose your status if your fire goes out unintentionally.

lsayre wrote:I'd say you are still in the one match club if you intentionally shut down for cleaning and inspection. You should only lose your status if your fire goes out unintentionally.

Ive seen this debated on another thread ... Personally I think one match is one match, no exceptions.. This club belongs (my opinion lol) to the elite few that know the burn. A clever coal burner would find ways around intentionally letting his fire out. Otherwise I would still be able to get a Perfect Attendance Award at work, even if I had a day off for an important doctor appointment..

Threw the last of my coal on yesterday and transitioned to wood this morning. Shook down this morning and dumped the ash pan twice, leaving just enough
burning coals to start the wood. Still one matching it since early November. A personal best.

Kevin