can anyone explain the thinking behind taking out the grate whilst burning wood? the stove in question is a firefox 5, not the cheapest nor the most expensive. i’d fitted it in the old place (rented) without lining the chimney where it worked fine, now however it is fitted in the new house, (ours) with liner and vermiculite round the liner, all good and proper. the thing is, it burns a lot quicker now, ie the flames move faster, is this because the chimney is nearly twice as tall or something else? i initially thought the fire rope had degraded but it all looks good. will it burn slower with the grate out? will my wood disappear too quick? will i die? thanks in advance and sorry if its been done before

pursuant to the above, have done a bit of googlerising and decided to take out the grate tomorrow. next question is, can i slow down the draw by incorporating a flue damper?

We installed a flue damper in our Firefox 8, and it does help slow combustion. We had this done after 2 weeks because it was obvious it was burning too fast. We have a tall chimney and prevailing wind causes a natural draw. After it is going well, put on a few big logs and crank it down. It will go for hours. Still have in the grate, btw.

A wood fire will burn at the same speed regardless of whether the grate is there or not (presuming there’s no air flow from beneath _ which there shouldn’t be).
Taller flue should = more draw so more vigour unless the stove is properly sealed. Your seals may look OK but actually leak a bit. Put a piece of paper between the stove and the open door, when the door is fully closed and the seal is good it should be difficult to pull the paper out.
Cast stoves can crack or leak at the joints over time (not that I’m suggesting this is your issue).

Was thinking about taking the grate out of our Country 4 as we only burn logs to see if the logs would burn slower.
Post back on here with your findings!
Shark, there would be air flow from underneath with a grate surely….?

By the time you have an inch+ of ash on the grate surely it won’t make any difference anyway? Mine (Euroheat Stanford 13) is really controllable once it has built up some ash anyway (the dealer said that they should have a good bed of ash in them at the time of buying).

(Just seen how much a new one would be now… Jeez I will be switching it for something more budget when we move and taking it with us!)

Shark, there would be air flow from underneath with a grate surely….?

shouldn’t be if the lower air control is shut completely. I’m working from the viewpoint of a Clearview stove which has upper and lower air controls. The lower control feeds air into the firebox from below the grate and is only used when lighting the stove and is then shut.

The lower control feeds air into the firebox from below the grate and is only used when lighting the stove and is then shut.

Is this right? So once the fire is lit and burning we should keep the lower controls closed?