FAQS

A:  That’s our most frequently asked question. Here are some factors to consider:

If you’re debating between the Compact and the Standard grate and your longest logs are no more than 18”, then the Compact grate is all you need. It holds the same amount of wood as the Standard because they’re the same depth.  However, aesthetics may also be a consideration for you. If you prefer the way the standard grate would fill out your fireplace, then that may be the better choice, and it will give you the option in the future of using longer logs. Order here.

If you’re debating between the Standard and the Large grate, the Large grate allows you to place small logs end-to-end if you order double arms, OR use larger logs. The Large grate is also 2” deeper than the Standard grate, so it has the benefit of holding more wood. However, our customers who prefer a smaller grate are pleased with the look of the Standard grate in fireplaces up to 42” wide.  Order here.

You can order a grate in between the two sizes, such as a 30” grate instead of a Standard or Large grate.  Customizing costs an extra $20. Call us to order a Custom grate.

Still not sure? Contact us. We’d be happy to advise you on the right size grate for your fireplace. Please have your fireplace dimensions ready, using our How To Measure page.  If you don’t consult our How To Measure page, you may get a measurement wrong. Determining the right depth can be tricky but it’s important to get it right – contact us if you’re not sure.

In addition to the grates described above, we also carry a very small grate (Compact SL) and an Extra Large grate.

A: We get that question a lot too! Of course, we’re biased, so you may not be inclined to believe us when we say “yes!”  That’s why we always refer people to our “Customers’ Grate Reviews” page where we’ve assembled excerpts from many letters and emails sent to us by our ecstatic customers.  Quite a few describe, in detail, temperature changes in their homes, and a few even mention the pricey fireplace inserts they did NOT have to purchase as a result of their satisfaction with the Texas Fireframe grate.

Other evidence that this grate really works is that it’s the only grate described in the scientific literature, and it was also shown to produce more heat by acclaimed physicist Dr. Jearl Walker in his column for Scientific American. See how it was reviewed by other independent sources in the media including TIME magazine.

A:  Although some customers have reported that their fireplace smoke problem was resolved with a Texas Fireframe grate, we do not guarantee that, and we urge you to determine the cause of the smoke from your fireplace. It could have any number of causes. Ask a chimney specialist such as a certified chimney sweep to inspect your fireplace and chimney to tell you why you have smoke. Your local fireplace store may be able to refer you to such an expert as well.

One easy fix for a common cause of smoke is a smoke guard.  This is a strip of metal across the top of the fireplace opening. If the area of your fireplace opening is more than ten times the area of your flue opening, smoke could result. To see if a smoke guard might solve your smoke problem, tape a 3’ wide strip of aluminum foil across the top opening of your fireplace, sealing all the cracks in between with tape. If this solves the smoke problem, then you can have a permanent smoke guard professionally made.

Some people solve the smoke problem by "priming" their chimney before starting a fire. This involves heating up the chimney by simply holding a lit piece of newspaper inside the fireplace or turning on your gas starter if you have one. Also, crack a door or window near your fireplace when you start your fire to get a good draw going. Don’t let kitchen or bathroom exhaust fans run for an extended period while a fire is going since these fans draw air out of the house –  and can draw smoke out of the fireplace.  Ceiling fans can be run on low during a fire, and in fact, some of our customers have found them useful for pushing hot air (that rises) down into the living space.

A: Yes it can. Our very smallest grate can accommodate fireplaces  14” deep and 24” wide.   One exception: we did customize a grate for a fireplace in Brooklyn that was just 13” deep, and the customer loves it!  That is the absolute smallest we can go. Also, make sure that the height from the floor of your fireplace to your flue opening is at least 20”.  Our smallest grate is called the Compact SL (shallower/lower) and you can order it here.

A: We recommend ordering a custom grate, adding two inches to the depth (if ordering a standard grate), to help fill the depth of your see-through fireplace. (However, adding depth is not necessary – this is your call.)  The width will depend on the width of your fireplace.  You would place the grate in the fireplace to face the room you use most. This gives you more heat on one side – while you still enjoy a fire from both sides. We recommend adding a pair of log retainers to a grate used in a double-sided fireplace. See #7 here.  Log retainers will prevent the upper back log from potentially rolling off since there’s no wall right behind it.

A: The Texas Fireframe Company is one of very few that offers customization of their grates, and we do so for a very reasonable cost of just $20 extra. Call us to discuss how you want to customize your grate. Please have your fireplace dimensions ready, using our How-To-Measure page. Learn more about customizing a grate.

A:  Dr. Lawrence Cranberg, inventor of the Texas Fireframe grate, always responded to this question by saying that a fireback is not necessary. We have had a customer or two state that they felt a fireback increased the heat. However, our recommendation would be to wait to spend the money on a fireback (which we do not carry) until after you’ve experienced the heat of your new Texas Fireframe grate. One drawback of a fireback is that it can take an inch or more of depth in your fireplace (be sure to count the stand for a fireback in that depth). Most fireplaces are tight on depth. If your depth is 17”, for example, then you would have to customize your grate to be shallower to accommodate a fireback. This would reduce the amount of wood you can load onto your grate, and therefore reduce the heat. Don’t even consider a fireback unless you have the space for one in your fireplace.

One of the reasons we hear this question is that one of our competitor’s grates pushes the logs up against the back wall of the fireplace, so a fireback is necessary to protect the masonry. With the Texas Fireframe grate, the logs are entirely contained within the grate. If there’s any concern about a back log touching the back wall, you can order log retainers to prevent this (see next question), but slight contact between a log and back wall should not be a problem.

A:  We do not recommend making a Texas Fireframe grate more than 16” deep. That’s because adding more log weight to the top level would make it more difficult to adjust the arms. Also, 16” is plenty of room for wood. Since you won’t be pushing your grate all the way to the back wall (because it would be difficult to reach it for loading logs), we suggest bringing the grate forward, so that you have at least 3” clearance in front. This will create a space behind the grate. Log retainers will stop the upper back log from falling into the space behind the grate. To prevent the inconvenience of having to fish out a log from behind your grate, we recommend log retainers for fireplaces that are five inches deeper than the depth of your grate (or deeper). Be sure to use our How to Measure page to determine the accurate depth of your fireplace.

Log retainers were the brainstorm of one of our customers with a deep fireplace! We made a screw-on pair of log retainers for her, she was delighted with them, and we’ve been welding them onto our grates ever since – when customers order them.  Occasionally, a customer who doesn’t have a deep fireplace will order log retainers simply to protect the back wall from any log touching it. This may be a good idea if you have cracks or your masonry is old or fragile. (We recommend repairing cracks.) If you don’t like looking at log retainers in the summertime when you’re not making fires, see the next question!

A:  Load it with cedar logs which repel insects and are much more attractive to look at than an empty grate. When it’s fire season, store the cedar logs in your garage, and take them back out again in the spring when fire season is over. Our Finials and Pedestal Bases will make your fireplace more attractive year-round, creating the look of handsome, built-in andirons that would cost hundreds of dollars if purchased separately. But you pay only $80, and you don’t have a jumble of accessories in your fireplace.

A:  If your gas starter is no higher than 3 ½” from the floor of your fireplace, then our Texas Fireframe grate will clear it unless you’re ordering our Compact SL grate, in which case you will only have 2 ½” of clearance beneath the grate.  You can increase the leg height of any grate by customizing it for an extra $20.  Contact us if you need to customize your leg height.

A: These are very solid grates, built to last. Since the frequency of use varies widely, so does the life of the Texas Fireframe grate.  We’ve seen our grates last for thirty years. We’ve also seen extremely heavily used grates last five years (but they’re still well worth the price, given the many cords of wood burned on them, their efficiency, heat output and ease of use). One thing is certain:  if you order an Extra Heavy Duty model, your grate will last 50% longer than regular weight.  You can learn more about that option, and whether or not it’s right for your usage, here.

One of the best ways to help your grate have a longer life is to not let the ashes pile up so high that hot coals are in direct contact with the underside of your grate. Use your poker to spread out those ashes in between cleanings. When our grates do finally burn out, it’s just the two center bars and the back bar. A local welder can add bars next to the burned out bars, but most people are happy to buy a replacement grate after all the use they got.

A: Please don’t guess; learn for sure what the dimensions are, using our How To Measure page. Our grates are very popular gifts, and you’ll be remembered often by the recipient!

A:  Hardwoods are recommended. (Maples, oaks, not pines.)   And dry, seasoned wood is important too. Wood that’s wet or unseasoned will produce more creosote, and that’s not safe for your flue lining. One sign that wood is seasoned is cracks on either end.  You can learn more about wood types and how hot they burn here.

You can use split or unsplit logs (or both) on your Texas Fireframe grate.  Unsplit tends to burn a slower. Split logs burn faster because there is more surface area exposed. Occasionally, a wood supplier will over-split the wood, meaning it’s split too thin and starts to behave like kindling, burning up quickly. Although you can burn logs of all thicknesses on the Texas Fireframe grate, if you see too many “oversplit” logs in your wood supply, you may want to suggest to your wood supplier that you’d prefer logs that aren’t split as thin as you’re receiving. Or else try to mix in a few whole or half logs if you can.

A: Our customers with outdoor fireplaces report that they feel more heat with their Texas Fireframe grates just as our customers with indoor fireplaces do. That’s because the adjustable arms open up the hottest part of the fire, so that you feel the radiant heat whether you’re outside or in.   Since temperatures outside are usually colder than indoor temperatures, that’s all the more reason to enjoy the extra heat of the Texas Fireframe grate outdoors. You can spend more time outside! Learn more about outdoor fireplace grates. 

A:  That depends on the size of your grate. A Standard grate can handle an unsplit log 10 – 11” in diameter. A large grate: 12 – 13”.  Use that for your back log, and it will burn for many hours while you replace the smaller logs in front.  You can often find unsplit logs for this purpose on the side of the road after a tree is felled. Make sure you have permission to take it, then load up!  But remember, you have to season that wood, covered and raised off the ground, for a year. More about “free heat” here. 

A:  When the inventor’s daughter took over her father’s business in 2010, she no longer lived in Austin, so the manufacturing was moved to Enfield, Connecticut, closer to where she lived. We continue to maintain the highest quality standards, thanks to our very talented master welder who makes each grate individually and triple welds every joint. He’s made every grate we’ve sold for the past 13 years – to Dr. Cranberg’s exact specifications. He’s also helped us introduce several popular options: our extra heavy weight grates, log retainers, double arms, and customizations of all kinds.

A: Yes it is. That saves us – and therefore you – the extra costs associated with boxing every grate. And it’s much kinder to the environment. A win-win!

A: If you don’t have a trap door built into your fireplace floor for ash removal (and most of us don’t!), then the second-easiest way to clean out ashes is with a “metal dust pan” (Google exactly that). You’ll use it to simply scoop out the ashes – two scoops should do it – and empty it into a metal ash bucket with a lid. You can google that too! Don’t bother with that little shovel in your fire tool set. This tool is much better. Remember that embers can be hot for a very long time, so empty ashes safely. One customer spread the ashes on her lawn which was a good idea for the lawn, except some live embers caught the entire lawn on fire. (She’s fine, and so is the lawn.)

A: No, we do not recommend using an ember screen. When the logs burn down and red hot coals fall through the grate, they form a new, intense source of heat on the floor of the fireplace – adding to the radiant heat that you’re already experiencing from the red hot cavity of the fire. This is an important stage of the fire that an ember screen would obstruct. Furthermore, holding the hot coals on the steel bars of the grate would likely decrease the life of the grate.

A: Some (not all) glass doors are designed to be closed during a fire; however, we do not recommend closing glass doors when a Texas Fireframe grate is in use. Glass doors block radiant heat, and they may not be able to withstand the heat produced by our grate. Also, touching a closed glass door during a fire can cause 2nd and 3rd degree burns. Now here’s the good news about your glass doors: they’re great for closing at the end of the evening when you still have some smoldering coals and live embers, and you need to keep the damper open for that reason. The glass doors stop the warm air in your house from escaping up the flue while the damper is still open. If you don’t have glass doors and you want to stop overnight heat loss when the damper is open for those last coals still burning, you may want to consider a magnetic fireplace cover that attaches to your fire screen. Google that to find one online.

A: Have your chimney inspected at least every year by a CSIA certified chimney sweep. One cleaning per cord of wood is generally recommended. A video scan inspection is advised. If you’ve just moved into a previously owned home, then a Level 2 inspection is advised before your first fire. Other safety recommendations: ensure that your home has operational carbon monoxide and smoke alarms. Also, make sure there’s a squirrel-proof chimney cap. A squirrel nest, which can be built in a matter of hours, is a chimney fire hazard.

A: You can’t get more Made-In-The-USA than a Texas Fireframe grate, beginning with the U.S. patent that was awarded to the U.S. physicist who invented the grate in Austin, Texas where it was manufactured for its first 35 years, and in Connecticut thereafter, by a U.S. welder, using 100% U.S. steel in every grate. The finials and bases were designed in New York by a U.S. craftsman, and they’re manufactured in an Amish foundry in Pennsylvania with made-in-the-USA cast iron. Our grates are shipped by UPS, an American company based in Georgia, and our finials and bases are shipped from sea to shining sea - by the United States Post Office.