St Croix Element

I'm not familiar with the Element, but assume it's similar to the Afton Bay. The top does get quite hot, it will burn you.

The shaker plate, by which I assume you mean the bottom of the burn pot, slowly moves back and forth to help keep the burn pot clean. It's not necessary for burning pellets, IMO, but I do leave mine going anyway. It's run by a motor that turns a cam that moves a shaft back and forth that moves the plate. See a parts diagram for specifics on the St Croix site.

Hope this answers your question...

I don't have an element either, but I have a lancaster, which is a previous version. I was at the dealer's checking out an element today actually!

The top in front of the hopper is a heat exchange area and will get hot, depending on the setting you're running the stove on... 1 or 2 will catch your attention but I dont believe it will leave any sort of burn. Any higher and you def. won't want to shake hands with lol,

Shaker plate I cannot answer for ya but I believe heat seeker may be correct on that one.

That's interesting... I'm not too sure. Our Lancaster does not sit on legs, but flush against our hearth pad and it def. keeps the hearth pad warm sitting directly on it. Eith way your local building department will more then likely tell you yes. It wouldn't hurt to grab one of those $50 flat black hearth pads from Lowe's or HD and throw it underneath the stove when installing it. It give you that added sense of security and satisfies the building inspectors requirements.