Ash Shaking Preferences.

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joeq
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Post by joeq » Sun. Dec. 14, 2014 4:01 pm

(And yes, you did read that right. "Ash" shaking) :D
Once again, I have a new poll, in hopes of finding the "perfect" stove. There are many stoves with different methods of clearing the fire bed of accumulated ash. There's the "Poke and stab" method. The "rock and roll" method. And even the just "scoop it and run" style. And I'm sure they all have their pros and cons. I'm not too familiar with them all, but maybe some of you experienced burners can lend some incite to the most "reliable", and "desirable" methods out there. My stove has a skewer and a poker from below, that doesn't really seem to rid as much ash I would want. Then the stoves with the rockers, seem to be prone to jamming. Any thoughts or preferences from the team? Are there any other ways of dumping ash from a hot coal bed. Which stoves are the most "enjoyed" when performing this highly required function? Of course this is aimed at free standing stoves, and not furnaces.

 
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Post by franco b » Sun. Dec. 14, 2014 4:08 pm

The triangular grates of the Glenwood are by far the best in my experience.

 
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joeq
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Post by joeq » Sun. Dec. 14, 2014 4:47 pm

Care to elaborate franco? I'm not familiar with these "triangular" grates. How does this benefit shaking, and if memory serves me right, these stoves have a "rocking" rig attached to a handle, to shake the ashes down?

 
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Smokeyja
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Post by Smokeyja » Sun. Dec. 14, 2014 11:26 pm

franco b wrote:The triangular grates of the Glenwood are by far the best in my experience.
I second that and here is a photo of the underside of them In my Glenwood 6
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The grates are each shaped triangular and there are 4 which mesh together . There is a gear which turns another gear so you can "shake" or turn two at a time to crush and break up most anything . Not to much jams in here to be honest . A quick shake of each is all you need in this stove though and you don't need to shake them with the wood grate on top which is an option for burning wood .

In my WM 414a I have a shaker style grate which a lot of the older stoves had . It's round and you place a handle into it and shake it back and fourth. Eventually the ash and clinkers built up enough for shorter and shorter burns resulting in a shut down and clean out once every two weeks .
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Also the glenwood doesn't ever need poking or slashing or any of that stuff I used to have to do with the WM . The WM needed careful slicing and poking and so on.

 
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Post by tmbrddl » Mon. Dec. 15, 2014 12:30 am

Smokeyja wrote:In my WM 414a I have a shaker style grate which a lot of the older stoves had . It's round and you place a handle into it and shake it back and fourth. Eventually the ash and clinkers built up enough for shorter and shorter burns resulting in a shut down and clean out once every two weeks .
If I got three days using that style of grate I thought I was doing well. Having to clear the stove and start from scratch every couple of days was common for me.

I went to great pains to make sure the pot was lined as smoothly as possible when I restored my Glenwood Oak 30 but the ash will still bridge requiring some poking. Other than that, triangular grates are vastly superior in my experience.


 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Mon. Dec. 15, 2014 6:34 am

Another vote for triangular grates.

And Glenwood was not the only stove maker who thought they were good. The first two pix are of the base section of my Anthracite Industries hot water heater. The grates are so much like those in the Glenwood cylinder type stoves that I thought they might interchange, but not quite.

Many furnaces and boilers used triangular grates.

Another style that worked well for grinding up clinkers and dumping them down into the ash pan was the "claw" type. The last pic is of the claw section of the grates in the girlfriend's family National Acorn range. I'm told they did a very good job of breaking up, scooping, and dumping clinkers when rotated once or twice a day before shaking. Being that the teeth of the two grate bars form opposing scoops, any hard clinkers, stones, or shale, have much less chance to jam them, as I've had happen with the triangular grates.

Paul

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Post by northernmainecoal » Mon. Dec. 15, 2014 7:21 am

The combination of a round firepot and triangular grates make for superior ash clearing. I've been running my Herald for about a month now and have no unwanted ash building up anywhere.
I also have a Hitzer with the rocking style grate. Ash will build up around the edges over time and is difficult to clear out

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Post by coaledsweat » Mon. Dec. 15, 2014 12:39 pm

:shock: I thought there was going to be a twerking video in this tbread!

 
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Post by Lightning » Mon. Dec. 15, 2014 2:16 pm

coaledsweat wrote::shock: I thought there was going to be a twerking video in this tbread!
Well, we should make it right then...


 
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joeq
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Post by joeq » Mon. Dec. 15, 2014 4:41 pm

LOL Lee, (Even tho I'm not old enuff to view it ;) )
It just clicked, in that it now makes sense how a cylindrical grate can be superior to a square or rectangular one. There are no corners for the ash to hide in. The same reason the wife tells me we should live in a round house. (And I'm not talking about the ones at our favorite rail yards).
And Paul, I'm not sure how you acuate the "claw" type. I see your picture of the basket grate with the handle next to it. Is it used in a rocking motion, (back and forth), or do you actually rotate it 360*?


 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Mon. Dec. 15, 2014 5:30 pm

joeq wrote: ..........................................................................................................................
And Paul, I'm not sure how you acuate the "claw" type. I see your picture of the basket grate with the handle next to it. Is it used in a rocking motion, (back and forth), or do you actually rotate it 360*?
Yes, 360 degrees with this claw type to clear clinkers. But, only 120 degrees with the triangular type. Both types get shaken briskly to just clear ash.

What you can't see is, there are two grates parallel and facing each other. They have flat grid tops for the coal to sit on which allows air to come up through from the ash pan area.

When the grates are in the flat tops up position for burning , the "claws" are pointing down like in the picture.

The shaker handle goes on the square stub end just visible at the right side of the picture sticking out of the front of the range firebox.

As the grates are turned through one complete rotation, the top surfaces move up and outward, as the claws are moving down and toward each other. The clinkers and ash are pushed up and outward, then mashed between the grate tops and the firebox sides. The claws come up and break up any clinkers that are too large to fall through between the grate tops and the fire box walls, scoping them down into the ash pan.

Paul

 
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Post by joeq » Mon. Dec. 15, 2014 5:59 pm

Sunny Boy wrote:........................................................................................................................
As the grates are turned through one complete rotation, the top surfaces move up and outward, as the claws are moving down and toward each other. The clinkers and ash are pushed up and outward, then mashed between the grate tops and the firebox sides. The claws come up and break up any clinkers that are too large to fall through between the grate tops and the fire box walls, scoping them down into the ash pan.
Paul
To "mash" these clinkers into minute particles, does it require the strength of Hercules, or the grip of Arnold Schwarzenegger?

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Mon. Dec. 15, 2014 7:34 pm

The claw grates in the picture were occasionally operated by my fiancée when she was a young girl. As did all her siblings help with operating the stoves (both range and cylinder parlor). Plus, they had help to shovel coal (her Dad says they used ten tons a year) and clean out ashes.

If you need the strength of a body builder to work the grates, your gonna be replacing broken grate bars.

Paul

 
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Post by ddahlgren » Tue. Dec. 16, 2014 2:51 pm

Has anyone ever put together a list of stove with superior grate systems such as triangular that are simple to use and require no slicing or poking except for once in a blue moon for some odd combination of events? I like the Crane 404 a lot but hate the lay on the floor to poke and slice.

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