Well, I guess this is as good as a place as any to tell on myself. Maybe since I post in a long thread in the Heatmaster room, not many of the other guys will see it.
Anyway, one critical component to cleaning the ash pan is raking the coals. I learned this the hard way, but there is a difference between leveling the coals and raking the coals. When you simply level the coals without raking them, a crust can form down in the coal bed with the fine ash and the smaller pieces of charcoal. This will choke off your air supply from below. I thought I had a fan problem as I would have smoke after 6 or 8 hours of burning, when there clearly shouldn't be after just a cycle or two. And the smoke coming out was very lethargic or anemic. I (and others based on my own descriptions of the symptoms) thought the fan was acting up. After my wife called me at 1 in the afternoon and said the water temp was 114, I thought the fan finally had died. I rushed home, pushed the charred wood aside and plunged my rake into the coal bed. When I did, I noticed this very crusty layer of charcoal/ash. I busted up the crust, shook the crap out of the grates, emptied the ash pan (which had just been emptied the day before) leveled the coals, replaced the wood, and PRESTO, she fired up like a new stove!
I think my problem was combined with going too long between emptying the ash pan and not raking the coals deep enough. Scott's 10-12 days is about spot on. I went 3 or 4 weeks one time to experiment, and I think that piled up the fine ash too much. I started emptying more often after that experiment, but I didn't clean out the grates good enough and that crust formed. So, when you refill, plunge your rake down to the grates and break everything up. The learning curve strikes again!!
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Topic: cleaning ash box (Read 12264 times)