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<blockquote data-quote="p238shooter" data-source="post: 3072982" data-attributes="member: 24583"><p>Swampratt. Best to take a look at the gratewalloffire web site, a lot of good information there with pictures and movies and in my opinion with my experience, very real with what he depicts. I am a skeptic of most anything advertised, ya know? But for my use this thing is way more real than I was expecting. I used to sit on the rock in front of the fire place a few minutes to get warm. no more. </p><p></p><p>After changing the grate I ordered and adding the back plate I got a fire going and got busy doing some other things. After an hour or so into the first burn kinda checking I fortunately thought about checking the temperature of a fabric chair I usually sat in that was what I now consider way too close to the fireplace. Ever put your hand on something just after your mom just ran an iron over it? It could have easily been a disaster had I waited longer. No sitting on the rock in front of the fireplace now. Huge difference.</p><p></p><p>Since you might building your own, yes the tall side does go to the front so it makes what is usually at the bottom of the grate with the hot coals now facing more out into the room turned up at an angle, that is what makes it work so well. Kinda weird until you think about it. It heats more with the hot coals rather than the flame of the wood up the chimney. This also lets it becomes a self feeder to an extent using less wood, only feeding when it needs more wood to turn to coals to replace the coals that have moved down to the bottom and turned to ashes. You do have to keep ahead of it to get your log hot enough to burn. (Notice log, not logs) The new log will heat slower because the heat is in a different direction. Very efficient here. </p><p></p><p>Down side, the flaming part is smaller, not as astetic, but the hot coal part putting heat into the room is much larger. It does burn different if you only primarily want a pretty fire, I do not recommend this, but it is much more efficient as a heat source. It also burns less wood, sorry if you like splitting like I do or if you do not have a large supply. </p><p></p><p>And yes the tall side forward does restrict the log size with the smaller clearance, but again that is what it takes to make it work. I had to start splitting a little smaller. For you (and anyone else that might build) I just measured from the top of my angled grate, swinging the end of my little metal tape measure back and forth to clear any obstruction. 7 1/2 inches clearance is what I have to work with to put a log in to feed the rack. Also I measured several logs of what I have split and it is 6 inches at the widest point, round, square, triangle, or how ever it splits, measuring on the end of the log. Hope that helps. </p><p></p><p>The back plate helps reflect heat out into the room a great deal also, takes a while to heat up, but radiates off quite a bit toward the room with the fake fire brick stuff behind it. My fireplace is one of the metal box inserts with the fake fire brick sheet type stuff inside. I picked up a 1/2 inch steel plate up at a steel shop in Tulsa to save $ and big shipping costs. I had a couple 3"x1" tabs welded out on each side on the bottom so it could not tip forward and just pushed it up against the fake fire brick.</p><p></p><p>Once the coals start forming and that 1/2 inch reflector plate gets hot, you definitely have heat in your room. I highly recommend you keeping an eye on it and everything around it the first couple hours. (the plastic melting thermometer on his web site is most likely real)</p><p></p><p>One of my slide in fireplaces has blowers, one does not. Yes, the blowers make a huge difference also, but mine are very noisy form the 80's. Drive me crazy after a while. (I always need an excuse) I might start to work on that next if I can find some small quite computer fans to replace them. </p><p></p><p>Let us know what you try, and how it works for you, just as I have. PM me for anything I might help with.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="p238shooter, post: 3072982, member: 24583"] Swampratt. Best to take a look at the gratewalloffire web site, a lot of good information there with pictures and movies and in my opinion with my experience, very real with what he depicts. I am a skeptic of most anything advertised, ya know? But for my use this thing is way more real than I was expecting. I used to sit on the rock in front of the fire place a few minutes to get warm. no more. After changing the grate I ordered and adding the back plate I got a fire going and got busy doing some other things. After an hour or so into the first burn kinda checking I fortunately thought about checking the temperature of a fabric chair I usually sat in that was what I now consider way too close to the fireplace. Ever put your hand on something just after your mom just ran an iron over it? It could have easily been a disaster had I waited longer. No sitting on the rock in front of the fireplace now. Huge difference. Since you might building your own, yes the tall side does go to the front so it makes what is usually at the bottom of the grate with the hot coals now facing more out into the room turned up at an angle, that is what makes it work so well. Kinda weird until you think about it. It heats more with the hot coals rather than the flame of the wood up the chimney. This also lets it becomes a self feeder to an extent using less wood, only feeding when it needs more wood to turn to coals to replace the coals that have moved down to the bottom and turned to ashes. You do have to keep ahead of it to get your log hot enough to burn. (Notice log, not logs) The new log will heat slower because the heat is in a different direction. Very efficient here. Down side, the flaming part is smaller, not as astetic, but the hot coal part putting heat into the room is much larger. It does burn different if you only primarily want a pretty fire, I do not recommend this, but it is much more efficient as a heat source. It also burns less wood, sorry if you like splitting like I do or if you do not have a large supply. And yes the tall side forward does restrict the log size with the smaller clearance, but again that is what it takes to make it work. I had to start splitting a little smaller. For you (and anyone else that might build) I just measured from the top of my angled grate, swinging the end of my little metal tape measure back and forth to clear any obstruction. 7 1/2 inches clearance is what I have to work with to put a log in to feed the rack. Also I measured several logs of what I have split and it is 6 inches at the widest point, round, square, triangle, or how ever it splits, measuring on the end of the log. Hope that helps. The back plate helps reflect heat out into the room a great deal also, takes a while to heat up, but radiates off quite a bit toward the room with the fake fire brick stuff behind it. My fireplace is one of the metal box inserts with the fake fire brick sheet type stuff inside. I picked up a 1/2 inch steel plate up at a steel shop in Tulsa to save $ and big shipping costs. I had a couple 3"x1" tabs welded out on each side on the bottom so it could not tip forward and just pushed it up against the fake fire brick. Once the coals start forming and that 1/2 inch reflector plate gets hot, you definitely have heat in your room. I highly recommend you keeping an eye on it and everything around it the first couple hours. (the plastic melting thermometer on his web site is most likely real) One of my slide in fireplaces has blowers, one does not. Yes, the blowers make a huge difference also, but mine are very noisy form the 80's. Drive me crazy after a while. (I always need an excuse) I might start to work on that next if I can find some small quite computer fans to replace them. Let us know what you try, and how it works for you, just as I have. PM me for anything I might help with. [/QUOTE]
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