how long before, empty ash?

the dane · Post by **the dane** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 1:48 pm

how long do most of you wait b4 cleaning out old heatbeads and charcoal? reason I ask, normally do it the next morning! but this morning I poured the left overs from the wsm into the wheelie bin! and noticed a few sparks! so gave it a good hose down! I shut her down last night around 8pm and cleaned it today at 11am= 15 hours!!

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chrisg · Post by **chrisg** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 1:52 pm

My brother melted a hole clean through his bin a few years back doing just that

I don't on my kettle empty the ash very often at all, just scrape it into the catcher. Every now and again I clean out the remains into a garden garbag that I keep near the kettle until it gets heavy

Cheers

the dane · Post by **the dane** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 2:00 pm

normally pour it into a galvanised wine ice tub, wait till its full then bin it!
but flying to melbourne tomorrow, & got a mate house sitting the dogs! and he wants a shot on the wsm! gave him 2 demos on sat & sunday! so I made sure it was all clean and shiney for him!

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titch · Post by **titch** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 2:58 pm

Had a fireman tell me that coal ash can keep heat for a long time.
Their recommendation is 10 day in a metal container.
I got a gal bucket for this reason.

Mixin · Post by **Mixin** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:10 pm

I leave mine in the catcher on the OTG until I get around to emptying it after 8-10 cooks. I usually have a week pass since the last cook before I do empty it, and if it is plain charcoal ash, it goes on the garden. However, if there's any trace of Heatbeads ash then I bin it - normally I'll have an oily/greasy foil pan I'm throwing out at the same time, so I often pour it into there - killing 2 birds with one stone by soaking up the grease as well, and preventing a spill In the bin.

Gumb · Post by **Gumb** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 5:20 pm

A mate at work got a call from his neighbour a few weeks ago and the guy next door put left over beads in the rubbish bin by hand, but they were still hot inside so the next day, the bin caught fire, that caught on the the car which exploded and then took out the carport and car next door. All because of supposedly unlit beads.

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chrisg · Post by **chrisg** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 6:24 pm

So now I and others are REALLY glad we leave them in the kettle a week or longer

Cheers

werewolf · Post by **werewolf** » Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:03 pm

Wow sorry about replying to an odd post, but my question here is - for a kettle bbq - how does regularly emptying the ash from the bottom of the kettle, verses letting it build up do to BBQ performance? I think I read someone suggest that you must empty the ash every time, as ash will "take" a lot of heat during the cook (i.e. cook runs cooler which might be good or bad.

Now that said, I know from past experience with wood fired combustion heaters in houses, it seems to be really hard to keep coals going unless you have a big build up of ash, so that tends to suggest to me that the ash acts as an insulator and keeps the heat in, making me think it is a good idea to keep a layer of ash in the bottom, but obviously not to the level of obstructing the lower vent.

Thanks!
wwolf

yakabot · Post by **yakabot** » Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:59 pm

I just push the ash out the bottom holes before I use mine. I have read that if the ash gets wet it's not good for the weber as then it's acidic or something.

werewolf · Post by **werewolf** » Sun Dec 13, 2015 8:29 pm

Mine gets stored in garage so no chance of getting wet. So no real bbq performance "need" to empty or not?

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