The 1st thing to remember if you are going open you ash door is to shut off the blower (ie: air wash) then remove your ash pan. 2nd, if you plan on bringing your coal into the house is it pre-wetted? (ie: Blashak etc) if not then plan on dumping it into buckets and doing this yourself.Compared to Wood, Coal is the cleanest fuel I have experinced...well Propane was wicked clean but at $4.00 a gal!!!