No Separate Door for Ash Pan

HI everyone!

I got a ESSE coal stove, all cast iron make for anthacite - and it works but I am a bit confused on
how to control the heat using the round ash control knob, it kind of looks like a round combination lock on a safe, and you can turn it clockwise to close it
and counter clockwise to open the draft. I used to have a different stove that had a separate door to open the ash pit from, so if I needed to heat things up I could open the ash door and the coal would heat up - this stove has only one door, and I am not sure how to work the bottom ash pit, control knob to work as the fire once it gets going sometime during the night it ashes up and gets too cold, even opening up the knob and leaving it this way all night.!!

I thought maybe I bought a bunch of bad coal.... but now I think I am not used to working this stove right. The stove sits free standing. The pipe vents out the back through the chimney using black stove pipe. I have a elbow damper thing that I can open or close manually that sits about 2 feet or so from the rear going towards the chimney to add more air to the draft if needed. The draft is good,no smoke in the house! Anyone know what I am doing wrong with my stove because I am unfamiliarwith how to control the heat as it should!! Thanks to anyone that can help! A picture of my stove is located at this url!

http://www.esse.com/stoves/multifuel_wood/500.html

Looks to be more of a Wood Stove than a Coal Stove . I think burning coal in them is an exercise in frustration,you would be better off using an appliance designed to burn Coal.

Unfortunately, the link shows a nice photo of the stove, but not with the door open so a person could see how the vent in the door is 'ducted' to the area below the grates. Does this stove have shaker grates?? if so how do you shake them? Is ther an external handle??

I have to agree with the above comment about the design of the stove... it looks like it is really designed to burn wood first, and other solid fuels second.. So the design of the air vent is a compromise for burning coal..

I would try making sure the ash is pushed away from the vent as much as possible before a long overnight burn, maybe even empty the ash pan before an overnight burn so the chance of ashing-over the air vent is lessened.

Without a better description or a photo of the back of the door and the ashpan and grate area, this is the best I can do to help... Post some photos if you can

Greg L

Wrong Post Sorry

If you open the door you can see the grate is about 3 inches below the bottom of the bank plate. The shaker is built in and has a key that grabs a nut outside the stove on the right side it shakes down. The stove had a sticker on it saying "anthracite only". There is a ash pan about a foot by a foot that the shaker key can grab onto. The stove seems a bit small, but when it gets going it puts out a lot of heat. The grates are about the width of keyboard keys and have enough space to almost let you finger
go through. It can burn nut or pea. Pea coal seems to get stuck in between the grates.

I know this is a very old post but if you had any success please let me know. I have an ESSE ironheart and wanted to try anthracite in it as the manufacture says it is designed to burn it. But the instructions are very lean. Not sure how to de-ash efficiently with no shaker grate.

Rigamarol wrote:I know this is a very old post but if you had any success please let me know. I have an ESSE ironheart and wanted to try anthracite in it as the manufacture says it is designed to burn it. But the instructions are very lean. Not sure how to de-ash efficiently with no shaker grate.

With no shaker grate you will have to use a flat poker to slice just above the grate to make ash fall.

For more advice take and post pictures of the stove inside and out.

the cutaways in the brochure do a better job than my photos but i'll try to get some of my own too. thanks for the advice about raking. that's just the kind of specific technique I'm not finding in the manual!

http://www.pivotstove.com.au/assets/dynamic/attac ... manual.pdf

The 500 has a shaker set up, yours does not. If you use it daily ya got lots of poking & slicing to look fwd. to. If it were me, I'd use wood, that's what the stove was designed for. She's purty!

Rigamarol wrote:the cutaways in the brochure do a better job than my photos but i'll try to get some of my own too. thanks for the advice about raking. that's just the kind of specific technique I'm not finding in the manual!

http://www.pivotstove.com.au/assets/dynamic/attac ... manual.pdf

Very handsome and lovely stove.

Yes I see what you mean. The directions are for wood.

There is reference to both primary and secondary air controls and how you use for wood. the opposite will be true for coal. Coal needs air from under the grate for the most part.The exceptions are when first firing or when re-loading coal it will give off gas that needs some secondary air to burn and avoid puff backs which can happen if unburnt until enough accumulates and then burns all at once (explodes). Once initial gasses are burnt off then just a tiny amount of secondary air is good to burn off any carbon monoxide formed.

Read the thread "Basics of a hand fired stove" to get started.

Basically you will start a wood fire and when that is well established you gradually add layers of coal until at least a minimum of 6 inches for pea coal and about 8 inches for chestnut or nut. it can be sloped higher toward back if necessary. Assuming anthracite coal. Don't use anything else. Do get a carbon monoxide detector.

For clearing ash go to hardware store and buy a 1/8 inch thick by 3/4 inch wide piece of steel at least 30 inches long. Once deciding on a comfortable length you can bend over an additional 8 inches on itself for a handle or add two slabs of wood instead. To bend heat the area to be bent red hot and bend over a piece of pipe with a hammer.

You will have to slide it under that fuel bar to do its work and reach all the way to the back of the fire box, so the fuel bar has to have a gap under it to use the poker or slicer. It can work very well and much better than the usual inadequate shakers on European stove when provided.

Be prepared for at least 5 times the ash of wood and never ever let ash build up in the ash pan to grate level because that will destroy the grate.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Welcome Rigamarol.

As Fred says, it's really a wood stove first. To clear coal ash without a good shaker grate (and not all designs work well) your going to have to poke/slice up through the grate, and/or, do the same from the top, to get the coal ash to move down into the ash pan. In which case it becomes an ash-pain !

You might try contacting the stove manufacturer. Some of the foreign made stoves have optional grates available that are better suited to coal. If they do very often they can be swapped into the wood models.

It's not uncommon that sale people in this country to push these foreign made stoves as "multi-fuel" that will burn our hard coal when they are not really designed for our hard coal. The coal in the UK tends to be soft coal which burns more like wood.

This problem comes up here a few times a year with foreign built stoves sold here in the USA. And some stove salesmen in this country kinda leave out that the stove is not really set up well for hard coal, because they are wood stove people. They don't really understand what the differences are. However, some will mention that shaker grates are available if the buyer wants it to be truly multi-fuel.

And keep in mind, unlike wood, coal burns best with almost all it's air feeding in under the grates (primary air).

Paul

They say definitely not to use Bit or Coke--but can use solid fuel??? You got some playin to do to figure what the combination is for that purty lady.

Seems similar to my 503 hitzer...