i did flip the first grate when it warped, thinking the same, it'll warp-back to normal.James Guido, good imaging. If I had uniform warping like yours is showing, why not in the meantime just flip the casing over to see if it slowly returns to flat surface? Mines bent in multiple directions & feel it’s a permanent set. Unfortunately, there’s a good chance we have lower than optimum mix of materials within the casting resulting in uneven heating of the castings. Too bad the ash grates weren’t cast using round castings which are more stable with quality mixture of materials such as cast iron was usually made. There’s lots of 100 year old castings of parlor and potbelly stoves still around made with high quality castings with minimal defects. I wish I bought the two large railroad station pot belly stoves for my old cottage 30 years ago. They looked almost new.
no such luck.
then when the replacement arrived and it warped as well, i just blamed it on the "world renowned" Jotul's "high quality cast iron".
I'm still using the 2nd warped grate and in case anyone is interested, no... it has not warped any further either way.
last note: if i live any longer than i should and in need to replace this contraption, it would never be with another jotul.