Is it common for conventional wood fireplace grates to be a wear item?

We’ve been in our house since ‘09 and it has had the same fireplace grate the entire time. We use the fireplace hardly at all some years, and some years we use it a lot. This year we’ve been using it a lot.

Typically from a wood point of view we just have a mix of various fallen timber that I gather or buy, but recently I purchased a supply of almond from a buddy and having burned through the last of my salvaged cedar am now burning the almond exclusively.

I have noticed it creates red hot coals far more than the cedar or birch or really anything else. I was just clearing out the ash that has built up over the last 2 weeks or so, which saw a handful of fires, and I’ve found the grate is damaged quite severely. While I knew the almond would burn hotter than a lot of other wood I didn’t realize it would burn hot enough for the very thick steel grate the bend and warp and begin “chewing” away. Several of the metal rods are very significantly worn away from the center of the grate and the entire thing is mis-shapen.

Am I doing something wrong? Is my grate not heavy enough? Do I need to clean it out more often so the coals don’t build up as much?

I've had to replace them in the past.

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:
While I knew the almond would burn hotter than a lot of other wood I didn’t realize it would burn hot enough for the very thick steel grate the bend and warp and begin “chewing” away.

The "chewing" is likely from rust.

Wood ash collects and retains moisture from the air, and traps it against the metal, causing rust.

Why wouldn't it be?

The charcoal grates on Weber grills are a thick steel that within a few seasons is warped and burned up by the intense heat of the coals.

Yup.

I’ve always liked the grates with separate relatively heavy bars welded together, maybe because that is what I grew up using.

However, my Mom switched over to grates made out of cast iron sections that are curved (front to back), only about a quarter inch thick, and bolt together with the number of sections depending on the width of the fireplace. From recollection, the legs bolt on as well. Contrary to my expectation, these seem to hold up *much* better than the ones of welded steel bars.

I don’t know if this is because the cast iron handles the heat better than the steel, because the pattern of the grate is more like a sheet with lots of smaller holes in it so it keeps the vast majority of the coals on top of the grate rather than under it, some combination of the two, or other factors that haven’t occurred to me. It is definitely another type of grate to consider though.

Burning almond and oak, I seemed to get about three seasons out of the commercially available fire place grates.

OZ

Steel exhibits degradation from burning and rusting much faster than cast iron, a heavy cast iron grate will last a long time.

When we had a large masonry fireplace that we built HUGE and very hot fires in, we went through a grate or two a year until I finally broke down, sought out a super heavy duty one and bit the bullet on that. We moved 3 years later and it was still hanging in there. The lesser ones would heat up enough to sag in the middle. Once down near the fireplace floor it impeded airflow.

Time for an upgrade.

It definitely looks like a rust issue, in part. But the other part is it surely seems like the coals got hot enough to allow the steel to bend.

I’ll have to see what I have available locally. I’ll try and post pictures for no real reason.

Looks like enough of the metal has corroded away that it weakened and started to bow from the weight of the logs and the heat of the fire.

Fireplace grates should be built with at least 1" thick bars. Far too many these days are not even close to that.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
Steel exhibits degradation from burning and rusting much faster than cast iron, a heavy cast iron grate will last a long time.

True replace it with a quality cast iron grate if you can.

Be aware that allowing ashes to accumulate deep enough under a grate that they touch it will (with a hot fire above) over heat the grate, almost like a forge.

Yes it is common. I burn my wood insert about 20 hours per day for 5 months or so each year. I use fireplace dogs rather than a grate. I usually get 2 years or so out of them.

I tried a grate 1 year and didn't get nearly the same amount of heat out of my stove so I switched back to dogs after a few days.

Are the “heavy duty” cast iron offerings from Liberty Foundry good options?

As stated above, the accumulation of ash creates a thermal insulation and the hot embers heat becomes concentrated, and the liberation of moisture and breaking down of carbon matter creates nitrogen oxides and that is acidic.

And all of that munching on your grate takes it's toll.

Corrosion is oxidation, and "burning" is much more rapid oxidation.

You are lucky if you can get 6-7 years out of a grate.