Good morning. Been running my Ideal Steel 24 hours for several days now and am getting frustrated with the andirons getting hung up one ash, coals, or new wood when loading the stove full. What usually happens is I get it loaded and the new wood is starting to smolder and I can't get the door shut because the irons won't go vertical, spilling a bit of smoke into the room. If you load it up and everything goes smoothly there is no smoke spillage. My question is; are the andirons needed or are they there to add piece of mind in case a log would happen to roll onto the glass? Is there any chance of the glass cracking due to a burning log resting on it?
Andirons: Are they needed?
- Thread starter Dillier23
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I recently bought andirons for my vc resolute 2--which is a small stove--and can say they help combustion because they create space between the glass and the wood, which allows air in. My unit is top loading, so before I installed the andirons, wood would fall against the glass when it broke down, making a mess on the front ash lip inevitable.
No need for the andirons, you can build the fire right on the floor of the stove. Actually, your manual has it in bold, all caps letters to not use andirons, grates, or any other method to support the fuel.
That's odd that the manual would say that, considering the ash fettle has holes drilled into it to receive the bolt-on andirons made for them.
Andirons are those vertical bars that prevent wood from falling into the glass. Not a basket or raised grate on the firebox floor. I would never want them on a front loading stove. What a pain. Does Woodstock have a problem with you removing them? The glass won't break from wood moving around during the burn.
I use them because I top load my resolute. Without them, whatever's in there falls out if I need to make an adjustment of some kind.
Diller (the OP's) stove and almost every other stove on the market is not top loading, that's a cool and rare feature. Andirons in the way of loading seems crazy. Is it just an artsy thing? or do they provide an actual function that all of the other front loading stoves without andirons don't require?
True; if you don't have a top loader, then andirons are just a restriction. Well, unless you have a side-loader. They were invented for open fireplaces, to keep the logs from rolling out, and to help to strengthen the log structure you build. They have become quite artsy, though, especially for people who don't use their fireplaces anymore.
My resolute was built in 1979, so yes, it's old. Generally, newer stoves line the top, bottom, left and right with firebricks, because that really increases thermal mass, and thus, heat output over time. So although the top loading function is convenient, I'd trade it for a heartbeat for the newer technology.
I think they function in two respects. One they look great with my bird dog silhouette against a small fire. Two they do keep the wood from rolling into the glass, but I don't think it's an issue in reality. They are easily removed, I did not contact Woodstock to verify they are needed.
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