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[hondaracer2oo4]

Anybody else have the problem with the coals just falling straight down through the grates and not leaving any above? I would think that the stove would be much better off if I could have a bed of coals going? I would think that I would also get a cleaner burn if the hot coals stayed with the logs up top heating them up instead of the blower just blowing air on the logs to keep them going or get them back up to temp for clean burning. Any suggestions?

[freefour]

I haven't noticed that in my H4, are you using the different grates?

[Brad]

I find with mine that if I have too many coal up top that it does not get enough air flow when the fan kicks on.  Every once in awhile I have to rake the coal up top to get them to fall thru to the bottom so I can a better air flow to the logs.  I try and have a real nice coal bed on the bottom with enough up top to help fire the logs when it calls for heat.  This has worked so far.  I'm on my second year with an H5 and after year 1 I kind of found what works and does not work for mine. 

[slimjim]

Hondaracer, what type of wood are you using

[hondaracer2oo4]

Slim,   I burn beach and maple mostly. I get grapple loads of wood and cut them to length and only split the stuff that is over 8-10 inches in diameter. The wood that I am burning now was dropped off this time last year and was cut this past march to length and stacked up since then. My issue is that it seems as though the coals fall off and right down into the bottom of the ash clean out, they don't stay up top with the logs to help them burn. I have the 3 grate system that has two I beams on each side with the three grates down the center. I have seen this new item http://store.outsideheating.com/castirongratewnarrowslots.aspx It is the same grates as I have but with narrow slots? They still sell the wide slot grates as well. I would think that this would be for the coals dropping down?

[hondaracer2oo4]

Update, This morning I added a sheet of 1/2 " expanded metal onto the top of the grates. As of right now the coals are staying up top where they are suppose to be before the ash drops down. On a side note I have seen people talk about the fact that their fan blades on the combustion blower get covered in ash. I had been thinking for a while that the fan wasn't working very efficiently(most likely not spinning at full speed or something because of old age). Today I took a close look at the blades and they were covered in ash. I took the compressor and blew them off. Boy o boy did that make a difference! Nice hot fire now when the fan is running. It was very dismal before with the blades covered in soot. I felt silly for not taking a look at this sooner.

[d conover]

About 15 years ago I called Hardy and talked to Bobby (one of the owners) and he told me to remove the fan and  take snips and cut the grid off the fan and periodically clean those fan blades out with something.

[AirForcePOL]

I find that if I leave a good bed of coals under the grates that when the fan kicks on they get red hot and create enough heat to get the logs going again.  I've never had an issue with the ashes falling through.  However, when I clean out my ashes I usually leave about half of them in there.

[DaveWertz]

How deep is your ash on the sides of the I-beam? I have trouble also when I first fired mine because I clean all my ash out from the sides even. Now that I have been burning I now have ash build up on the sides. What I do is move all my hot coals to the sides, this prevents coals from falling threw and IMO helps to burn ALL the wood. Before I started doing this the center of my pile would be completley burnt up and wood still left on the sides that is just chared. Try it, it may work well for you also. Plus I found it to help with burning the creasote that runs down the sides instead of it creating a pile of tar in the bottom of my stove.

[hondaracer2oo4]

I'm going to try moving the coals to the side in the morning. Typically I never have any coals to move. Any coals that I did have all have dropped down through the grates when I go to load it.