Fireplace grates can help improve the burn of your wood fire.
The fireplace grate is sometimes an afterthought. Very often, fireplace users tend to use whatever grate was in the fireplace when they bought or rented the home. But fireplace grates can actually help make fires easier to light, improve the quality of wood burning and even protect the floor of the fireplace. Grate types include the steel bar grate, the cast iron grate and the grate heater. Does this Spark an idea?
Steel Bar
Fireplace grates can encourage air circulation for a better burn.
The steel bar grate is commonly used for wood-burning fires. Its rack-like design features four or five flattened steel bars supported by two sturdy bars that curve downward into legs. The four to five bars are widely spaced and cradle the wood to burn. Steel bar grates make it easy to light a fire as there is enough room underneath the five bars to place ample kindling -- whether you use dry twigs or tightly-balled newspaper. The grate can also make lighting the fire easier than if the logs were placed directly on the fireplace floor. Moreover, elevating wood logs can improve airflow, thereby improving the quality of the burn. In addition, the wide spaces between the four to five bars that support the wood logs allow embers to drop to the fireplace floor, states Northline Express. When you add more logs to the fire, those still-hot embers help to ignite the new logs.
Cast Iron
The use of the cast iron grate dates back to the 17th century at least. Cast iron grates are constructed like wide, loosely-woven baskets (to cradle logs or coal) with strong, cast iron legs. This type of grate offers smaller gaps at the bottom, which encourages wood or coal embers to remain on the grate for a more complete burn, according to NorthlineExpress. Of course, the openings at the bottom of the grate are large enough to allow ashes to pass through. The cast iron grate is a good choice if you would prefer to keep larger embers off your fireplace floor. Using a cast iron grate elevates the source of the fire, helping smoke and fumes to escape up the chimney rather than into the room, says Northline Express, which can be especially helpful if you have allergy sufferers in the home.
Grate Heater
A grate heater is basically a fireplace grate that extrudes heat into the room by way of a fan. The grate heater is a good, low-cost alternative to a fireplace insert. Grate heaters even exist in which the exhaust fans are controlled via thermostat. States Northline Express, "You can expect to get 10,000 to 40,000 BTU's of heat back into your home from these units...." That is enough to comfortably heat a large room.
Tags: cast iron grate, iron grate, cast iron, fireplace floor, five bars
