choosing new grill - are charcoal ashes good for soil????

[canesisters]

Hey @MontyJ (grillmaster!) , are charcoal ashes good for soil?
A few years ago my BIL left a HUGE gas grill at my house (they were moving) and said "You can use it but dont' you mess up my grill". It intimidated me - and seemed like a huge waste to heat up for 2 burgers - so I never used it except for family or neighborhood cookouts. It's gotten rusty and sad from lack of use - and is still too big for just 2 burgers..... So I'm looking at getting a little charcoal grill for the deck.
Does anyone know if I can dump the ashes into the compost pile?
I mean... yes - I CAN dump them... but will it help or hurt the compost??

 

[journey11]

I would think the briquettes themselves would be fine, but most are treated with an accelerant to make them light faster and I would think the petroleum residues might not be good in the garden. If I burn coal with my firewood, I can't use those ashes, but the plain wood ashes are good on the garden if spread very thinly. Maybe just dump them in an out of the way spot to be safe.

 

[annageckos]

I use lump charcoal in my grill and put the ashes in my compost. Hasn't seemed to hurt anything, but it's not really that much ash.