Grates in stoves

[FanMan]

The stove in my cabin (which came with the cabin) is an "Early Times", which I presume to be a 1970s design. There is a grate in the stove, which I've always used, but it's not attached... I don't know if it's original to the stove or added later. It does help hold the wood inside the [shallow] stove and keep it from hitting the glass doors, but discussions I've seen here talk about raking the coals or not before placing logs on or behind them, so I question whether the grate should be there? It burns OK, I guess, but once the logs on top of the grate are done the fire's over, even if there are still glowing coals under the grate.

This stove is pretty basic; there's a flue damper on the top of the stove, and a simple sliding metal strip just below the doors for air control (half a dozen or so 1/4" x 1" slots that are open or closed by sliding it right or left). This does have some effect, but I suspect more air passes by the doors (no gasket nor any evidence there ever was one) than through the slots.

What I'm wondering is if it's advisable to remove the grate and set the logs directly on the stove floor. Would it be effective? Or even safe?

 

[pen]

That unit is essentially a freestanding fireplace. It's not a stove IMO. Considering that and that it looks like those doors may not stop a rolling log, I'd keep the grate in there if you plan to keep using the unit.

pen

 

[FanMan]

Yeah, pretty much my take. Which brings up a question; is where does one draw the line between "wood stove" and "freestanding fireplace"? I do think of mine as the latter, fortunately I also have the small coal stove in the back of the cabin.

One thought I had was to keep the grate which I agree is probably needed for safety, but attach some sheet steel to it to limit what falls through... anybody heard of a grate like that?

 

[Crane Stoves]

The grate came with the stove and should be used with it for a couple of reasons... #1 wood burning in general is better when air can circulate around the entire load of fuel (In good quality airtight wood stoves that have no grate system you would typically like to see channels or ridges along the bottom of the stove which act like a grate to some degree to allow airflow to get under the fire as well as around the fire). #2 Its very clear their is no safety net between the logs and the glass (this is not really a problem as it is a fireplace more then a stove), this unit is not meant to burn through the night while your sleeping, this unit is not air tight, this unit should be treated as if it were any other fireplace you can think of (therefor... USE THE GRATE!)

I would personally take the doors right off this unit because they are worthless and you will get a better view and better feel as if it was a genuine fireplace (I assume your draft is OK because if it was not, you would have issue with or without those doors on or closed). The only thing those doors are providing you is a false sense of security, so if you like them on please at least pretend in your mind that they dont exist (then you wont make the mistake of trying to burn through the night while your sleeping, etc.)

 

[FanMan]

Doug, I assume but don't know for sure that the grate is original to the stove... either way, I can see that keeping it is a good idea. There were chain curtains behind the glass doors so I assume it was intended to be used with the doors open or closed, but the curtains made it very difficult to get wood into the stove so I removed them. I don't burn with the doors open as it puts too much smoke into the room; I think the stove is too shallow. With the doors closed it drafts quite well.

The original thought was that when the fire is burned down to coals, those coals won't relight a fresh log placed on top of the grate which prevents keeping it going by tossing a few splits on in the middle of the night when it's down to coals.

Certainly it won't burn all night no matter what I do, but fortunately the coal stove in the back room will... the routine when I arrive on a Friday night is to get both stoves going. The wood stove in the living room gets the living room warm while the coal stove is slowly heating the bedroom and kitchen; the wood fire goes out in a few hours but the coal stove keeps the bedroom warm all night and in the morning I relight the wood stove while eating breakfast in the bedroom. Works out all right.