Wood burners - every day jobs?

[idun]

We had a wood burner in France and found that it worked far better when we only removed a little of the ash build up every couple of days. I got rid of the ash tray, let it fall through and had a little shovel to take a  little out, still leaving a bed of ash in the grate.

We now have a rather modern wood burner and we have found that it works best when we don't empty the grate and ash pan.

 

Our friends clean everything out every day, and I remember doing that. I think that when we had the fire on constantly in mid winter, we realised that it was working well with the ash.

 

Any comments? What do you do?

And is there any reason why we should find this the best way?

 

Incidentally some other friends told me that their son did as we do, which they don't quite approve of.

[Patf]

I think it depends partly on what kind of grate you have, and the depth of the space under the grate, and the size of the ashcan.

I keep and re-use any large cinders, but empty the ashcan every day as it's very small and the grate gets bunged up otherwise.

I was told that one of our neighbours vacuums his out every day [:'(]

And I clean the glass every day, but that's a separate subject.

[NickP]

If you have a modern wood burner Idun you will get much less ash than you got with an older one. It's good practise not to empty too often, in fact it is beneficial to keep a layer of ash on the grate. We have a modern Jotul and we empty the ash can about once a week. As for cleaning the glass, if the fire is working correctly and you are using well seasoned timber all you need is a quick wipe over with a damp cloth in the morning, needless to say when the burner has cooled down. It's good to spread the very fine ash thinly over the grass to help discourage any moss

[Mme poivre]

Idun we have just started using our stovax log burner which also runs all of our radiators, we found that the glass needs cleaning once a week and that when cleaning the ash we only take one scoop out at a time leaving a good base of ash as it seems to need this in order to work to its full potential.  It is working really well and heats the whole house.

[woolybanana]

Yes, my Scan is done about weekly and I try to leave a bit of ash in the base too.

One tip from my installer: when cleaning the glass, do not allow the liquid or spray to squirt directly onto the glass as it might get down onto the clips which hold the pane in place and cause it to rust or deterioriate, but put it onto a sponge or cloth and clean that way.

[powerdesal]

Wood fires burn best with a decent bed of ash because wood burns with air from the top. Coal on the other hand needs air from underneath.

[idun]

I was just wondering about the ash. So it isn't just us who leave ash in.

Patf, the whole grate is covered in ash and it works wonderfully well, our air intake is direct from outside into the fire, but it didn't in France though.

 

Mme Poivre, in France our foyer ferme was a Turbo Fonte which heated all our radiators and as I have already said, we left ash in that too.

 

We clean our glass with newspaper and ash, brings it up lovely.

 

[JSKS]

Sometimes the ash gets removed from our Jotul F3 daily, other times I 'forget' for a few days by which time the ashpan is overflowing.  I have not noticed any difference in the way the fire runs whether there is a collection of ash or not.

[pachapapa]

Clean ash out completely every day.

Clean glass twice a year.

Stove has a vent below the grate and a vent at top with a deflector making the air sweep down over the glass.

Fire starts with bottom venting which is progressively closed to a minimal flow with final air supply through a half opned top vent.