How-To Guide to Picking Fire Parts

Picking a fire grate and other parts often isn’t as simple as it seems. There are a range of factors to consider including shape, size, weight, legs and more. The weight is important for those who are heavy users of their open fire. All of our fire grates are heavyweight, unless otherwise stated in the title. These heavyweight fire grates will degrade much more slowly than lightweight counterparts, and are generally suitable for a full season of daily fire use.

Do you need a fire grate?

Without a fire grate, it can be difficult to get a complete burn of the fuel, whether it be coal, wood or a combination of the two. The fire triangle is made up of heat, fuel and oxygen. Without lifting the fuel up off the bottom of the fireplace on a fire grate, you have less airflow to provide the fire with oxygen. This will also cause issues when the fuel turns to ash, as a fire grate allows a place for an ash pan underneath the fuel to collect and remove ash during maintenance.

So how do I measure my fire grate?

If you already have a fire grate that is just worn out, brilliant; you can compare yours to those listed on our website. If you don’t have one, or it is damaged beyond recognition, there are a few steps you can follow. The brand is a good place to start, as Baxi fireplaces are very standardised, as well as a few others. The brand may be embossed on the fire-back.

Fire parts are categorised by width in inches. This is a measurement of the opening of the fireplace, as shown in the picture above (16 inches). To select the number of legs, you would look at the design of your fireplace to see if there is anything built-in that would hold either the rear of the grate, the complete grate, or nothing. This lets you decide which legs are required on your grate. If you’re still struggling to select the correct size even with the photos and dimensions on our website, feel free to call in store and compare your grate to ours in the fire parts aisle.