Weird stuff in the bottom of my gas fireplace

[GasFireplaceNoob]

Hi all,

New house, my first gas fireplace. Actually, I think it was a regular wood fireplace when the house was built in 1970, gas installed later. Anyway, there's some stuff in the bottom that looks like the kind of insulation that's in the attic. Should be a pic attached to this post. I read somewhere that there's supposed to be sand in the bottom, but this is clearly not sand. Is this insulation-looking stuff there for a good reason? Sorry if this has been asked & answered elsewhere, but I didn't know which words to search on other than "insulation" and "bottom" which turned up nothing on the topic. TIA

 

[DAKSY]

That looks like rockwool. It glows when it's engulfed in the gas burner flames to represent glowing embers.
There is a sand base in the burner to diffuse the gas if you're burning NG.
With LP gas that base material is usually vermiculite.
The rockwool ember material sits on top of the base material

 

[Fsappo]

That looks like rockwool. It glows when it's engulfed in the gas burner flames to represent glowing embers.
There is a sand base in the burner to diffuse the gas if you're burning NG.
With LP gas that base material is usually vermiculite.
The rockwool ember material sits on top of the base material

Come on, Bob. That was an underhand pitch. Couldn't let one of the beginners handle that one?

 

[Fsappo]

Speaking of weird stuff, I once got pulled over with a bag of that on the passenger seat on the way to a service call. A big bag, like a quarter pound looking bag. Young cop, thought he was on TV. "Now sir, you can just make this easy on yourself and tell me what you were planning on doing with that" I had to play along and said " Well, I use a little bit each stop I make, but I don't charge for it" Anyhow, after about a half hour, an older cop showed up and things were o.k. Just one of 2 times I was caught with embers on me.

The older cop knew exactly what is was when we opened the bag. Things like that make for cute story's and make the day go faster.

 

[DAKSY]

Geez, Frank, I left it alone for almost 4 hours...

 

[Fsappo]

Its Frank, and I know that must have been a trying 4 hours for you!

 

[DAKSY]

Its Frank, and I know that must have been a trying 4 hours for you!

Yeah, I knew that. A soon as I saw the alert, I realized what I'd done. I'll change it...

 

[GasFireplaceNoob]

Thanks for the info. I was hoping it was something that actually belonged there, but based on some of the other crap I found in the basement / attic / crawlspace, it's entirely possible that the previous occupants were putting things in the fireplace that didn't belong there.

Thanks!