Sifting the Ashes

So does anyone out there sift there ashes for un burnt coal.
I was looking at my ash pile from last year and saw alot of un burnt coal

I did last season, more hassle than it was worth!

Thought about it, never done it

Unless I have a bunch slip past the grates from shaking too vigorously, I don't bother, and even then, I just shovel the hot coals out of the ash pan and right back into the firebox. The DS does a good job of burning the coal completely.

Wow, that sounds like a dusty job lol. The only time I've tried to salvage coal is if the fire went out and there appeared to be a lot of unburnt in the fire box. But the fire going out doesn't happen anymore (knock on wood er I mean coal)..

I don't see hardly but a few sporadic pieces of unburnt coal in my ashes..

I never bothered....

lets see, $185 / ton
maybe get 10 lbs of coal out of all of lasts years ash after sifting for about 4 hours...

i think that works out to $0.92 worth of coal after 4 hours work.

I might pick an obvious large piece off the top of a pile, maybe!