Why no andirons?

[FireWalker]

Just wondering what motivated Hearthstone to not provide andirons just behind the glass. My DW had them and they worked well, keeping wood off the glass. The Equinox main air supply ports are located just inside the glass facing inwards on the 3/4" vertical step.

Not only can your wood load fall forward and press on the glass, but coals and ashes will build up covering the air supply ports. Am I missing something here?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

No, you aren't missing anything. I have no idea why they don't put them in. I'd worry a lot about broken glass! That is just one of the things that led us to Woodstock over Hearthstone.

 

[FireWalker]

Has anyone here had or heard of glass breaking from wood rolling down from the back of the stove and striking inside of the glass?, or from running the stove with a bed of hot coals pushed up against the glass? I can see glass breaking from being hit with a poaker/shovel or because a split was forced against it when closing door. Any glass breaking horror stories out there?

 

[derecskey]

It was a dark and stormy night, and a fog was rolling in....

What? Oh... wrong kind of horror story.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Has anyone here had or heard of glass breaking from wood rolling down from the back of the stove and striking inside of the glass?,

I believe that I have; two seasons ago, at the end of the heating season, I looked at my stove and there was a crack from the bottom up to the top right side of the glass-I couldn't believe it! I do remember seeing a split that had fallen and the "edge" of it was resting on the glass about 10 days prior to this happening. The glass was 13-years old, and the stoveshop dealer said "that still shouldn't have broken" but it did! I can't imagine why else it would've cracked, especially since it cracked in the area that the split had fallen.

 

[burntime]

Too keep the most room in the firebox?

 

[MarcM]

I kinda wished my Heritage had andirons, but the door is short enought that they'd probably be in the way front loading and you'd end up hitting the secondary burn tubes and fragile baffle trying to put wood in.

The glass they use on stoves is borosilicate which is crack resistant when exposed to thermal shock and has a much lower coefficient of thermal expansion so when heated, it doesn't try to expand against its frame and crack.

Pyrex used to be made from borosilicate, and most laboratory glass is made from this. It's the kind of stuff you can put a bunsen burner in direct contact with and it won't break.

So coals against the glass is probably not an issue. And I think as long as one is cognizant of the issue of wood hitting it, I'm comfortable without andirons. When I add wood, I even out the coals with a poker and make sure everything sits flat. If I'm putting in a round stick, I make sure it's on a split facing the back of the stove. Regardless, I have a hard time seeing a stick of wood gaining enough moment to hit the glass in the Heritage hard enough to break it, but always better to be cautious anyway.

 

[EddyKilowatt]

The glass they use on stoves is borosilicate which is crack resistant when exposed to thermal shock and has a much lower coefficient of thermal expansion so when heated, it doesn't try to expand against its frame and crack.

Pyrex used to be made from borosilicate, and most laboratory glass is made from this. It's the kind of stuff you can put a bunsen burner in direct contact with and it won't break.

I believe the "glass" is actually a little more extreme than that these days, it is Pyroceram or Neoceram or some other form of clear ceramic:

Neoceram

Don't ask me the difference between glass and ceramic, but this is the stuff that can be close to red hot and have a glass of cold water thrown on it (apparently actually part of the UL certification for woodstove windows), without breaking. Also found on ceramic cooktops, CorningWare casseroles, missile nosecones, and probably hundreds of places in the process industries. Neat stuff.

Eddy

 

[struggle]

It has not been an issue with my stove. I am glad they are not there since they would be in the way when loading. I could see if you had side loading it would be nice but it would also make it harder to clean out the stove as well since I am front load only. I have had wood fall against the glass but it just bumps the glass nothing like banging into it.

 

[Highbeam]

I stack the firebox full in my heritage without andirons carefully to prevent the wood from touching or falling into the glass. Not because I am afraid it will break but because the glass will get dirty where the log sits on it.

The only time I worry about something breaking the glass is if I drive the log into the glass by shutting the door.

Also, that fragile baffle above the firebox is like 1/2" thick and isn't too expensive to replace. The stove won't explode if it is run with a cracked baffle so you can pretty much order a new one and keep running. I wouldn't do that with a broken window.

 

[MarcM]

The glass they use on stoves is borosilicate which is crack resistant when exposed to thermal shock and has a much lower coefficient of thermal expansion so when heated, it doesn't try to expand against its frame and crack.

Pyrex used to be made from borosilicate, and most laboratory glass is made from this. It's the kind of stuff you can put a bunsen burner in direct contact with and it won't break.

I believe the "glass" is actually a little more extreme than that these days, it is Pyroceram or Neoceram or some other form of clear ceramic:

Neoceram

Don't ask me the difference between glass and ceramic, but this is the stuff that can be close to red hot and have a glass of cold water thrown on it (apparently actually part of the UL certification for woodstove windows), without breaking. Also found on ceramic cooktops, CorningWare casseroles, missile nosecones, and probably hundreds of places in the process industries. Neat stuff.

Eddy

That makes sense... I think the "semi ceramics" are more resistant to thermal shock than borosilicate. As far as I know, it can be viewed as ceramic in that it is crystalline in structure rather than amorphous like glass, but it starts out with many of the same ingredients (lot of silica).

But in general, glass is amporphous solid silica and "ceramic" just classifies basically anything non metallic that uses heating processes to form a crystalline structure.

 

[FireWalker]

I just spoke with my Hearthstone dealer about this glass/rolling log thing and he said he has seen some custom work out there. People seem to like the bent grate idea where you bend up the first 3 inches of a grate and set it in there on the bottom of thte box. Says the grate also keeps the fuel up off the floor aiding burn. Hmmmmm.........................