Stove Firebox Grate Maintenance

We purchased our new Heartland wood-burning cook stove in 2003. It's worked well ever since, burning over 40 cords of wood to keep us warm every heating season. Its stovepipe does require an annual cleaning as does the flue around the oven. But this year the grate that supports the fire and lets ashes drop into the bin burned through. A large hole then let burning coals drop, resulting in too much charcoal in the ash bin.

Our Kitchen Stove Hard at Work

Most of the central cast iron zone had oxidized in the dozen years of red-hot fires making it very fragile. It took only a few minutes to break it apart and remove the pieces. The original design was way too fancy, with a two part sliding gate structure that stopped sliding the first year. So I left it in the full open position and cleared the holes every morning before building up the fire. The stove came with a tool that made this process very straightforward. I removed the sliding part a few years ago to make cleaning even easier.

Cast Iron Grate After 12 Years of Fires

I replaced the grate with four thick-walled stainless steel tubes that are spaced apart so that ashes, but not coals, can fall between them into the bin below. It's much easier to clear the five slots between and around the tubes to send the ashes down than it was to probe many more slots in the earlier grate. It only took two hours to cut the tubes to length and attach them to two straps so they stay properly spaced. So if they last as long as the cast iron grate, I won't have to redo them until 2027!

The Four Stainless Steel Tubes Spaced So That Only Ashes Drop into the Bin Below

View of New Tube Grate From Above: The Oval Ceramic Firebox Walls Frame the Tubes