Chris Jarshant wrote:
All,

A few nights ago I had a good fire going with the
tempered glass doors closed on my pre-fabricated
fireplace. Well, I guess it got too hot, after an
hour or two, because one of the glass pieces shattered
into small cubes. No biggie, I had a replacement, but now I have
questions.

Questions:

1. The fireplace has tempered glass (it is a "Majestic BR42")
whose glass doors are able to withstand a documented gradual
rise to 550F.
Did my fire get that hot? I admit I loaded it with 4 or
5 small logs but it was not roaring by any means (I had
good embers at the bottom tho that were burning quite hot).

2. I'd like to not worry about the glass doors anymore.
My choices are a) get rid of them, b) never close them,
c) rebuild a *real* fireplace or woodstove, or d) get
better doors. I'd like to do d) for now. If I were to
replace the glass, should I simply get thicker tempered
glass? Or is there some other product that is the same
thickness (3/16" or 1/4" I don't know for sure) that has
extra heat protection?

3) Assuming a correct installation (the home builder installed
it so you never know, but assume for the moment). Using
standard wood for fuel, could I cause the fire to get so
hot that it catches something on fire inside the wall, like
some studs or drywall or insulation? Is it really that easy
for a residential fireplace to get so hot with traditional
fuel that it is a hazard to surrounding material used that
is "to code" in all respects?

Thanks for any insight!

cj

This doesn't answer your question, but about three years ago I bought a
glass and screen doored one for out firplace from Home Cheepo. While
installing it I was suprised to see the instruction sheet warned against
closing the glass doors while a fire was burning inside.

I thought this was strange, since the box it had just come out of had a
nice color picture on it showing a fire merrily burning behind the
closed glass doors.

I went to the manufacturer's web site and found similar photos, so I
hooked an email to them asking why the instructions said not to do that.

I got a wishy washy answer from them saying that it was ok to close the
doors on a fire "most of the time", but that an extra hot fire could
possibly cause the glass to shatter.

WTF? We've gone ahead and closed the doors on plenty of fires in that
fireplace since then and the glass is still OK.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."