Bars on fire basket too widely spaced

he nuggets of black stuff are quite small, and I found that as the fire settled they

fell through the bars on the fire basket and onto the hearth. Is there anything I can

do, apart from spend £150+ replacing the fire basket, to sort this? I wondered about

chicken wire (not attractive, but would surely work).

It wouldn't last very long.

Bill

fuel. The nuggets of black stuff are quite small, and I found that as the fire settled they fell through the bars on the fire basket and onto the hearth. Is there anything I can do, apart from spend £150+ replacing the fire basket, to sort this? I wondered about chicken wire (not attractive, but would surely work).

chickenwire will simply burn through in short order.

PS nuggets of smokeless fuel are not appropriate for an open fire.

In fact smokeless fuel doesn't really burn very well in an open fire.

Use coal. Or wood.

Is a fire basket suitable for coal/smokeless anyway? I thought they wher= e really designed for logs And you'll damage the hearth with the hot ash/embers landing on it.

Well when we had an open fire burning mainly wood I spread a bit of 10mm= pitch galvanised wire mesh across the grate to hold the ash up better to= give a good bed for the wood. It lasted one if not two winters before it= fell apart. TBH I was surprised but it did last and stopped the ash falling through so quick. Thinking about that for the current wood burne= r as well as keeping a bed of ash on the grate is quite difficult.

Thanks everyone. Didn't know that a basket was unsuitable for the fuel I'm burning. Will persevere until it runs out and then switch to wood or coal.

ess fuel. =A0The nuggets of black stuff are quite small, and I found that a= s the fire settled they fell through the bars on the fire basket and onto t= he hearth. =A0Is there anything I can do, apart from spend =A3150+ replacin= g the fire basket, to sort this? =A0I wondered about chicken wire (not attr= active, but would surely work).

Old grill pan mesh? Nothing made of steel will last long. Chicken wire only an hour or so.

The grate will be cast iron, very fire resistant. Probably intended for wood hence s[aces too big.

You could put some house bricks under the grate to fill the space in a bit but it reduces airflow.

I would look for a different fuel. Bigger briquettes, wood or coke if available. Most built up areas are "smokeless zone" & burning coal is illegit these days.

BTW some of these " small black nuggets" are oil derived and burn very hot and quick.

You can get wire mesh for rendering on to from a builders merchant and this will last a bit longer than chicken wire. I have used this in the past for lining a BBQ where the metal grid I was using (old oven shelf) was too broad to hold the charcoal. May not last long, but one sheet will give you a number of grate liners.

Cheers

Dave R

I'm not *sure* that a basket is unsuitable for smokeless/coal, I've only ever seen logs in a basket. A bit of google should reveal all though.

Bear in mind that without an ash container of some sort collecting/cleaning it up will likely put an awful lot of it up into the air. A good capacity wet 'n dry vacuum cleaner is handy. I'm not sure how effective the "Ash Can" attachments you can get for ordinary vacuums are.

Or the special ash vacuum cleaner at Lidl this week!

ess fuel. The nuggets of black stuff are quite small, and I found that as = the fire settled they fell through the bars on the fire basket and onto the= hearth. Is there anything I can do, apart from spend =A3150+ replacing th= e fire basket, to sort this? I wondered about chicken wire (not attractive= , but would surely work).

I've been burning logs straight on my hearth for the last 10yrs without pro= blem having burnt through the grate the first winter we were in the house.

I bought one form Machine Mart with my last discount voucher. I presented = it to SWMBO who had hitherto simply swept the ash into a bag. She observed= that the logs-on-hearth burning leaves such a small amount of ash that it = was another example of a typical bloke solution to a simple situation that = isn't a problem. It's still in the box.

That will be why you can buy it specifically for open fires, then.

MBQ

Wood is supposed to burn best on a bed of ash, does she sweep it up for every fire? I empty the ash tray on our woodburner about once a week and never clear the ash from the grate, unless completely cleaning the interior of the stove, to check ash/soot build up behind the boiler and flue bottom.

I guess she hasn't yet noticed the fine grey layer of dust in the room or perhaps she has and doesn't worry about it?

eBay.

Out of interest, is there anything else you can burn on an open fire in a smoke control area?

Approved smokeless fuels in England, Scotland, Wales & NI:

On Friday, 14 December 2012 16:54:10 UTC, Dave Liquorice wrote: =20

No, just when it starts to spill over the draught control bar that sat unde= r the grate.

She's in charge of household cleaning! Jokes aside she vacuums after clean= ing the hearth. In some ways I'm sorry that we don't have a cast iron fire= back and grate, or even better, a Yorkshire range so that I could introduce= her to the joys of black lead. Then there's that nasty red paint for door= steps. Ah, happy days :-)

Too lazy. And I thought that it might do for when I'm cleaning up after DI= Y as an intercepter to increase the life of the filters in my Nilfisk vac.

Cheers

Richard