"Michael Daly" wrote in message
...

On 5-Feb-2006, wrote:

I agree with the guy that said you are losing heat with glass in
front, a screen is better. No sense wasting the heat with fuel prices
what they are.

How does the glass reduce the heat?

Replace the glass with a screen and the air flow will increase the rate of
combustion and carry the heat up the flue. Using glass doors, properly
sealed, increases the efficiency of a fireplace by a lot. They reduce the
air flow and allow you to choke down the fire. That's why glass doors
have been used on fireplaces for the last few decades.

Since glass doors are quite common and they are there to increase
efficiency,, it is not reasonable to assume that they shouldn't be used.
I think the most reasonable explanations are either that the glass had a
scratch or crack in it and differential heating caused the crack to propagate
or that some liquid (was the wood really dry?) hit the glass and caused a
significant temperature gradient locally.

Mike

It has always amazed me how few people know that glass doors are supposed to be
closed when you are burning a fire. I always try to appeal to the pure logic of
it. If they are not supposed to be closed while the fire is burning then what
is their purpose? The fireplace already has a flu to close when you are not
burning a fire so logically there is no purpose served by glass doors at all
unless they are closed while the fire is burning.

I mean do these people think they are there to keep the cat out?