I cooked for a few years on a Akorn kamado (insulated steel with lump grate and removable high capacity ash pan/bottom). During that time I would stir the old lump and add new lump before most cooks. Every 6-8 cooks I would empty the ash pan. That process seemed normal to me but ...... Over those years I read lots of threads from people who owned various kinds of ceramic Kamados. They always talked about cleaning out their ash and fireboxs every couple of cooks. Some do this before every cook