One year old

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DuketheSuperLab

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Apr 18, 2012
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My wife and I have a one year old daughter. As we are approaching our burning season, we are concerned with her getting too close to the stove. I was wondering if anybody has had any experiences with gates around their wood stove? Thanks in advance.
 
We have a KidCo Hearth Gate setup in front of our stove. Really like the quality construction, not flimsy at all. Very easy to setup and adjust. Would rather not have to deal with the gate for stove maintenance and reloading but it's better than my son (who will be one in January) learning the hard way. He always seems to go straight for it, loved to play with the air control. We of course discourage him from playing on the hearth but it only takes one time of not being fast enough for them to get seriously burned.

http://www.kidco.com/products-page/fireplaces/
 
I heat with a wood stove as my parents, grandpa rants, ect did. I have three kids that love siting on the hearth and I have never fenced a stove. The kids learn quick and I have never seen a bad burn.
Just let em learn.
 
Kids learn pretty quick about hot and cold.
 
I grew up with a VC Vigilant and Defiant in our home, burning at damn near 120% all the time. My brother still has burn scars, lol. I guess he just had to make sure ya' know. ;)

My wife put her foot down and said "We need the gate!" so well, ... , you guys know how that goes.:oops:
 
I grew up with a VC Vigilant and Defiant in our home, burning at damn near 120% all the time. My brother still has burn scars, lol. I guess he just had to make sure ya' know. ;)

My wife put her foot down and said "We need the gate!" so well, ... , you guys know how that goes.:oops:

How many times he do that? :eek: Myself I would have climb the fence!
 
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I have a 8 year old that loves fire. We moved into the house last year and he didn't realize how hot the glass and other surfaces would be after me constantly telling him to stay away from the stove. Long story short he learned the hard way and got some blisters on his fingers. If I had a one year old I would definitely put a gate.
 
I definately understand the "let em learn" mentality, but I also realize this is a toddler mixing with fire. I just don't see how somebody would expect a toddler to "stay away" from a wood stove. I think a little safety could or would go a long way here. I just don't want something to happen that i could never forgive myself for, especially something that could have been avoided for a couple hundred dollars. So, thanks for your input, but this is not a debate on whether or not a gate is needed. This is a question concerning which gates people have used, and what their experiences have been. Thank you.
 
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Ok here what the gf son done for the same reason as you!!!!!!!! It comes out about another foot wood the stove is fired. I think its a modd.ed steardy dog cage.
 

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I have also always been of the mentality "nothing teaches like burned fingers" UNTIL we got our insert going. Our daughter is going to turn 2 next week. She knows to stay away from the stove, but it is in a well traveled room of the house so even if she knows to stay away there could easily be an accident - tripping, excited dogs underfoot, fuzzy socks on hardwood floor, etc.....and the consequences of her landing face first on a piece of 750 degree metal makes my skin crawl.

None of the gates or screens I could find seemed to be adequate. They all seemed too light to keep from moving/falling, yet heavy/sharp enough to hurt if they fell on her.

I built a big square "cage" that clips onto the walls on either side of the hearth from chicken wire and pipe. I used 3/4" OD pipe and 4 of the heavy duty spring loaded clips that you might otherwise use to store brooms and rakes and such. If I want to get inside, I unclip one side and rotate the thing out of the way using the other side as a hinge. I can reach over the top to adjust the air control or do a quick reload. It goes in the attic for the off season. It looks like a damn hockey goal, but it is strong and would certainly deflect her if she crashed into it for some reason. The chicken wire doesn't have enough thermal mass to ever get hot - even if the stove is cranking it feels cold when you touch it. The pipe across the top does get a little warm but I'm not worried about it. It's also great to hang my socks and gloves on after shoveling the driveway. The whole project took less than 2 hours.

The other thing we've done from the beginning is to not let her touch the stove EVER, even all summer when it's not on, and are 100% consistent with this all the time. Yes I want to teach her about how to build a "perfect fire" etc. but there is plenty of time for that when she is .....3? 5? But sure as hell not when she's 1. She never tries now. Someday, it's going to be a big day when she gets to, maybe like when my dad let me use the chainsaw for the first time.


Not having to worry every time the stove is on is great for our peace of mind...isn't that why we burn in the first place? I don't want to be stressed every time I have a fire.
 
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My wife and I have a one year old daughter. As we are approaching our burning season, we are concerned with her getting too close to the stove. I was wondering if anybody has had any experiences with gates around their wood stove? Thanks in advance.
http://www.amazon.com/KidCo-kidco-Hearth-Gate/dp/B000058DJG
http://www.amazon.com/North-States-...B000U5FOT2/ref=pd_cp_ba_1/182-6486867-0452413
http://www.amazon.com/Regalo-Metal-Play-Yard-White/dp/B003VNKLIY/ref=pd_cp_ba_0

Any of those three will work. All can be affixed to the wall and have a gate for easy acces to reload. I know where you are coming from, I have a 5 and 1 year old. It's not that you can't teach them to stay away from the stove (hell it's hot and they can feel it) but at least in my case, the stove is in the family room and accidents happen. As was mentioned above, I'd have a terrible time living with myself if one of my children took a face first digger into the side of a hot stove and was permanently scarred because of it.
 
We used one like mastermech posted last year when our son was 2. This year he's 3 and will have to fend for himself. He touched it yesterday just to see if Dad was lying and ended up with a real mild burn (luckily). Bet he won't touch it again lol.
 
I grew up with a woodstove in the house and got a few burns. I'm still alive with all body parts intact and don't harbor resentment toward my parents for letting me learn the hard way.

With that being said, I have fenced off my stove, but not to protect the kids. Our stove is in an area where one of their toys could easily roll up under/against the stove. Since they play in there unsupervised a lot, I'm more concerned about a toy touching the stove and catching fire.
 
We use one of those 8 section play yard gates and just barricade an area 6'+ from the stove since our stove is at the end of a room and it works to keep our little almost 2 yr olds at bay. They walk up to the gate which never gets all that warm and stare at the stove and move on (we have twins). We also put a thin metal folding gate right in front of the stove to deflect any toys that may get tossed in that direction. Hasn't happened yet but it only takes once. Oh yeah, we only had 2 shoulder season fires yet this year so far too but... Good luck! As others have mentioned, learning hurts... :)
 
We use one of those 8 section play yard gates and just barricade an area 6'+ from the stove since our stove is at the end of a room and it works to keep our little almost 2 yr olds at bay. They walk up to the gate which never gets all that warm and stare at the stove and move on (we have twins). We also put a thin metal folding gate right in front of the stove to deflect any toys that may get tossed in that direction. Hasn't happened yet but it only takes once. Oh yeah, we only had 2 shoulder season fires yet this year so far too but... Good luck! As others have mentioned, learning hurts


Thanks,
this is kind of what i was thinking, just hop it works as well as I foresee it.
 
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