Foresight Technology Ember and Ash Separator, Wood Stove Accessory, Embersieve

I purchased an ash vacuum but it kept clogging with the large charcoal-like chunks, so I had devised something like this in my mind which I intended to make. I was searching online for possible ideas when I came across this item. Yes, it is probably a French fry basket painted black, but it is sturdy, large enough to hold all the coals, and priced right. It has a number of improvements over what I was going to build and works perfectly for separating large chunks from the powdered ash. If I could make one improvement, it would be to make the handle longer, but to me it still merits five stars for build quality and functionality. Combined with an ash vacuum, this device makes quick work of cleaning out a wood stove and has the side benefit of not wasting any heating value from the charred wood chunks.

I've been using the EmberSieve for a few weeks now, and much prefer it to my old method (shoveling ashes and live embers into a bucket.) The sieve allows me to keep live embers in the stove, increasing efficiency; it also keeps them out of the ashes, so the ash bucket cools much faster and fills up more slowly. My method of using it is a little different than the documentation suggests, though, so I'll explain it here in case it might be useful to others: I use an ash shovel to scoop hot embers and ashes to the right side of the stove, then scoop up a load of embers and ashes with the sieve. Then, holding the sieve over the front left portion of the stove floor, I tap the sieve with the shovel so the ash falls onto the floor. Then I dump the live embers from the sieve into the back left port of the stove floor. I repeat the above until I've sifted all the embers/ashes that I had scraped to the right side. Then I use the shovel to scrape the live embers back to the right side of the stove, and an ash scoop to get the ash that's still on the left side. Some things to be aware of: 1. You need to let the fire burn down fairly low before doing this, or you won't have enough room for the serarate piles of stuff. 2. I do this once every couple of days when I'm using the stove heavily; if you burn more wood, you might need to do it every day. 3. It takes me 4 or 5 minutes, not "less than a minute" as the description on Amazon says. I tried doing it as they suggest (shoveling embers into the sieve), but it didn't work as well for me.

The Embersieve works quite well, but I think it's worth noting that the basket itself is huge. Due to its size, I find it a bit awkward to use in my 18"-deep wood stove. I emailed Joel at Foresight about my concern. He told me how to use it, working from side to side rather than front to back, as was my custom. I've also seen the youtube video, which makes it look easier and quicker than it is. For one thing, he was dealing with a small amount of ash and embers in a fairly big stove-box - and he also showed no regard for any ash puffing out of the stove. Using it: I imagine that different people will develop their own specific technique, so I won't fully explain mine, other than it is working from side to side as in the video. I fill the basket no more than half full, and it takes 4 or 5 half-fills to do most of the sifting. The whole process takes up to about 5 minutes. You wouldn't think it would take that long, but it does. Prospective buyers should know that the basket (not including handle) measures 10" long x 6.25" wide x 4.25" deep. Consider if something that large would be maneuverable inside your stove box. I find that it works well, but there's a fair amount of banging around and up against the baffles at the top of my stove box. If a half-size version came out, I'd buy that in a flash. This one seems sized to do too much at one time, but it's harder to maneuver and it's heavy, especially once it's filled with ash and embers. The wires comprising the mesh are spaced 1/4" apart, leaving open squares that are 3/16" square. This seems the right spacing to sift out the ash and still retain any embers. Well built, strong, promises to be plenty durable, no black paint burn-off. One star taken off only due to overly-large size (although size may not be an issue for some other people.) It weighs 1 pound 10 ounces.

I had high hopes for using this with the Jotul Greenville wood stove that we got last fall. The wood stove works greats and goes several days or more with a fire constantly burning in it. So the ashes, and coals, start to build up. So I got this Ash Seperator to try and separate the coals from the ash when there were live coals. First I have to say the handle is too short. Even when there is nothing but a few coals, the stove is hot and a longer handle would be nice. Also, the basket is kind of big once it is inside of the fire box. Finally, trying to sift out the coals and separate them from the ashes, so the ashes could be scooped out proved problematic. I like the concept, but I think that the product design needs some refinement to be useful. 1/29/21, Update. I started using this only when the fire is out (or only a few small coals remaining) and I now find it useful. I still think that it has some of the limitations mentioned above, but am finding it more useful. I find that I am removing more just ash and leaving the charcoal behind for the next fire.

This is literally one of the best utilitarian tools I have ever purchased. I wish I'd thought to buy something like this decades ago, because it makes wood burning so much easier. With it, a huge useless pile of ashes and embers in the morning are quickly divided into fine ash for removal and a concentrated bed of hot coals that fires the stove right back up with just a few pieces of kindling. Even if the coals aren't hot enough to start the fire, the little pile of charcoal still helps get a new fire going more quickly. So simple. So perfect.

I love it! We ordered two, one for each wood stove in the house. Both stoves are really narrow (one is actually round bottomed) so the side to side method of using it does not work as well for us. I just rake the coals over the ashes from back to front with the poker, then scoop as much as I can, do a tossing sift inside the stove, then scoop the ash out. It works great. I thought the price was excellent, and they appear sturdy built. If you have two, you can scoop with one, do a tossing sift, and dump into the other. We heat our home exclusively with wood, and fill a 3 gallon bucket with ash every night now that its cold, this helps us make the most of our fuel. Great product.

I like the concept, but not easy to work with in a smaller stove. First, after moving all of the coals to the right side of the stove which took up half of the stove floor. Then putting the Separator on the left side there was no more room to dump the already separated coals except dumping them on top of the pile that still needed to be sorted. The basket left only about an inch behind it, but since you are sifting back and forth in order to dislodge the ash, it covered the whole left side. I would like to see a smaller version of this for smaller stoves. Also the height could be about an inch shorter as I found that filling the basket to capacity did not allow for efficient sifting and found that allot of the ash was trapped in with the coals. Smaller loads sifted easier are were more complete. Edit: After communication with the company, I was told that they were making the next batch with the basket an inch shorter. I really like the basket and how well it does the job, it's just awkward working it in a small stove. A shorter basket will definitely make it easier to work. I was impressed by the speed of communication from the company.

If you are going to heat your home with wood you need to get something that will allow you to save the coals and separate the ashes. I still find it amazing how far a fire can burn down and still have live coals. You have to have the right tool to get to those live embers and get what you need for the next fire. Even if you only have the cold coals left having them can make the difference between having a new fire going HOT in 3 minutes as opposed to starting from nothing and 10 minutes later having a warm fire. I purchased this to replace the aluminum frier basket that I was using to separate coals. It turns out that sitting live coals together in a basket like that can get so hot that the bottom melts. I have eliminated that risk with this ember seperator. Understand that this basket is not that big BUT you don’t need that many live coals to get your fire going. It is sturdy and does the job well.