Tricks to the wood stove

[sumi]

I was about to say when I started reading your post, watch out for small coals hiding in the ashes! I used a small brush to wipe out the ashes and it's burnt down quite a bit already.

On the free fire wood, YES! Huge benefit of a wood stove. You can save yourself a small fortune there.

 

[hqueen13]

Yes, that's true. We have a shovel that we use for getting most of it out. I think we'll only sweep it (or vacuum it) when there's not much left and we're doing a total clean out.

 

[hqueen13]

@Mini Horses Thanks for the tip! I was beginning to notice that. The part I'm still figuring out is how much to get it going while I have the doors open so that it's properly banked when I close the doors.

And yeah, all that other stuff is work, but it was way better than the pesky pellet stove! Ours ate through a bag every 24 hours on low, and it could hold 2 bags. So if we had to turn it up any more than that, we had to make sure we had plenty of bags really handy. And those buggars are HEAVY, which made it difficult for me to move them around. I could but it wasn't pretty. The BF would usually try to bring them in 8 to 10 bags at a time on a handtruck, but if the weather was really bad that was difficult.

 

[Denim Deb]

Best thing I've found for cleaning out a stove is a mason's trowel. That pointed end is great for getting in places a shovel can't, plus it's much shorter, so it's easier to maneuver. The only time I'll use a vacuum on mine is when it's completely cool.

 

[hqueen13]

Good tips, Deb!