Jim K wrote:

On Jan 4, 12:43 pm, Ronald Raygun
wrote:

You should
empty the ashpan *before* riddling, when it will have had 8-12 hours to
cool down from the last riddling.

"cool down" ? inside a 200degC metal box runnning 24/7 as you say?
erm....

Erm what? Would you not agree that 200degC is a lot cooler than red hot?
The idea is that when the ashpan comes out of the stove, it should not be
at the temperature of the red hot embers but at the cooler temperature of
the stove itself. That's phase 1 of the coolong down. Phase 2 (described
below) then cools the ashes down further so that they could be dumped into
a plastic bin without risk of melting it.

My routine was to remove the full ashpan and put it down underneath or in
front of the stove, onto the (relatively) cool hearth plinth for 20 mins
or so while making breakfast. Then they were cool enough to be tipped
into
a plastic bin. Then replace ashpan, riddle, top up fuel. Without this
cooling-down step, the ashes would have had to be tipped into a metal
bucket first, which generates quite a bit of dust.

how big was your ashpan?!

Why do you ask? Can't remember exactly. In inches it's something like
7x10x1.5; it has to fit through the small lower door. It needed emptying
only once a day when using phurnacite.

I now live with a 2-oven (pre-1974 "Deluxe") Aga range with water heater.
The ash pan on that is much bigger than the Squirrel's, some 6x14x4 in3,
because it uses more fuel (around 15-20 lbs a day), but still needs emptying
only once a day. I tip that into a metal bucket in the back door vestibule
and quickly close the kitchen door to keep most of the ash dust out. This
bucket holds about 3-4 days' worth of ash.

The Aga ash pan often has the odd red hot chunk of not-fully-burnt fuel in
it even before riddling, so the ash needs to cool in the metal bucket for a
whole day before I empty the bucket into a bin liner.