Jim K wrote:

On Jan 4, 2:00 pm, Ronald Raygun
wrote:
Jim K wrote:
On Jan 4, 12:43 pm, Ronald Raygun
wrote:

You should
empty the ashpan *before* riddling, when it will have had 8-12 hours
to cool down from the last riddling.

"cool down" ? inside a 200degC metal box runnning 24/7 as you say?
erm....

Erm what? Would you not agree that 200degC is a lot cooler than red hot?

so what? still too hot to handle without metalware/dust (whatever
colour it is)?

My point was that if I take out the ash pan and sit it on the stone hearth,
it stands a better chance of (within 20 minutes) ending up cool enough to
put it into a plastic container without risk of melting it or setting fire
to the wooden floor underneath, if said ash pan contains 200 degree ash
than if it contains red hot ash as it would if you riddled the stove before
taking out the ash pan.

Even if you use a metal bin/bucket so that you could, at a pinch, dump red
hot ash into it without risk of damage, red hot ash is more volatile and
dusty than 200 degree "cool" ash, so there is always an advantage in
riddling just after emptying compared with riddling just before emptying.