Never had me an open fire and this house where I’m dog sitting has one as the only heating.
Now the grate is inches deep in ash… I know it isn’t supposed to be like that, but what do you do with the ash?
Fire’s going nicely now, but should I clear the ash out for when the old bird gets back?

We used to put ours on the drive…

Wait til it’s cold (tomorrow) and bag it up and stick it in the bin.

Sounds like a plan! Cheers

Usually have a dedicated place put it, but if not in emergency situations double carrier bags tie a secure knot and stick it in the bin ( obviously if its not hot !!! 🙂 )

edit Damn my slow typing

Now the grate is inches deep in ash… I know it isn’t supposed to be like that

[panto]
Oh yes it is*
[/panto]

* If you’re just burning wood

All our ash goes in the black wheelie bin (once cold).

h yes it is*

Yeah, but when ya blow ya gets a face full !

I salvaged an old ash can (dustbin) from my folks garage.

Ash generally gets emptied there – have been known to use it on the ice outside in winter.. good grip.

Chuck ours on the roses. Think they like ash, not died yet anyway !

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=621

our ash usually gets sprinkled in the garden.

distributed in the garden or the bin

Depends how much you have but yep, useful for some jobs in the garden, good to counter acid soil

This is volley fire. No ashes but lots of zulus
[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P2dE74RiFqA[/video]

We have an open fire. I have a metal waste paper basket (no bag) next to the fire and shovel it in there then tip it straight in the wheely bin every so often. It can still have hot embers in it for surprisingly long so good idea to make sure it’s cool before binning.

Open wood fires are supposed to have a good bed of ash, they work much much better for it, if look at them you’ll see the ash glowing red hot as well as the wood itself

Oh yeah that’s true. We find you need a clear grate to get coal going and burning thoroughly, The wood in some ways burns too quickly with a clean grate and you get flames going up the chimney rather than a nice glowing embers.

Good to kno, wood burning types.
I shall tidy the fireplace (the bit in front of the grate, whatever that’s called) and leave a nice bed for the wood 🙂

Open fire; 10-25% of the heat into the room.
Stove; 70-80% of the heat into the room.

Which means a whole load less wood, and a whole load less ash 🙂 Makes sense…

Open wood fires are supposed to have a good bed of ash, they work much much better for it, if look at them you’ll see the ash glowing red hot as well as the wood itself

If too much ash builds up under the grate then theres too much localised heat and the grate gets FUBARed quicker

At this time of year…. ash from the fire makes a surprisingly good non-slip scattering on snow and ice if you don’t have any salt about – especially on packed down snow or part thawed and re-frozen slush