Jotul TL50 grate cracked and warped

[sunglider]

Stove professionally installed in 2012, used regularly with well-seasoned wood, cleaned annually, never over-fired. This year after another “professional” cleaning, I found the floor grate above the ash pan was warped, broken and cracked, and no longer seated level with the fire bricks. The fellow who did the cleaning said nothing about it to me. I discovered the condition when I looked into the stove later in the day. I can’t believe it was like this all winter - I shovel ashes daily and would have noticed the shovel not being able to sweep across the stove floor. Amy idea how this happened? Is the stove safe to use like this? I plan to go into the stove shop with pictures to discuss with them too.

 

[bholler]

Stove professionally installed in 2012, used regularly with well-seasoned wood, cleaned annually, never over-fired. This year after another “professional” cleaning, I found the floor grate above the ash pan was warped, broken and cracked, and no longer seated level with the fire bricks. The fellow who did the cleaning said nothing about it to me. I discovered the condition when I looked into the stove later in the day. I can’t believe it was like this all winter - I shovel ashes daily and would have noticed the shovel not being able to sweep across the stove floor. Amy idea how this happened? Is the stove safe to use like this? I plan to go into the stove shop with pictures to discuss with them too.
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If it's only the grate no there is no safety issue. But it tells me your ash door is probably leaking air so the bottom of the stove needs checked. And stop shoveling ashes every day. Stoves like a bed of ashes

 

[Robert Watson]

One thing that could be done to minimize the warping is to flip the warped grate upside down and put it back in. Then, when it warps in the opposite direction it may naturally flatten out (or at least reduce the original amount of warpage).

If I had a severely warped grate, I would go to a machine shop and have them make me a new grate out of 1/8" rolled stainless steel, and mill a bunch of grooves through the plate. The thinner plate will have much lower thermal stresses across the front-to-back, and the higher yield strength of rolled stainless steel will make it much less likely to have permanent deformation (i.e., warpage).