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Measuring Help
We have compiled a short list of the most frequently asked questions about Fireplace Doors. It should help you decide which door is the correct one for your fireplace. We included some maintenance and how to measure instruction. Now you can find all the info right at one spot.
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Which Doors are Right for Me?
For anyone who has a fireplace in their house - then it is strongly recommended that you protect your home with a fireplace door.
These doors can be purchased and fitted to your existing fireplace - making it look more attractive, and safer.
There are a few questions that you need to answer to find the perfect doors for you. First, you must find out if you have a masonry or factory-built fireplace. Next, determine a style that will reflect your décor. Finally determine what options you would like on the door including mesh and beveled glass
Masonry vs. Factory-built. Factory built fireplaces are easy to spot. If your outside chimney is faced with the same siding material as your house, you have a factory built fireplace. Masonry fireplaces require brick or stone chimneys. You must also check the fireplace itself. If there is any metal around the fireplace, you have a factory-built fireplace.
Factory-built fireplaces, also called "Zero Clearance" or ZC fireplaces, are designed to be built with very little clearance to combustible components of your home. They can do this because they have designed the fireplace so that cooling air insulates the hot firebox from the structure of the home. The glass doors must be designed to allow that cooling air to flow the way the firebox manufacturer designed it to flow. Gaps between the glass and frame vents exist on ZC doors to allow for this airflow. The Section Zero Clearance Doors - Pre-Fab Doorsfeatures doors in both aluminum and steel that allow for the proper airflow for factory built fireplaces.
Masonry fireplaces can accommodate a variety of fireplace doors. Aluminum and steel doors are available in many styles and finishes to accommodate nearly every décor and price range. From classic to contemporary, the possibilities are endless. Steel allows unlimited customization including arches and laser cut designs. Masonry Fireplace Doors
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Why A Glass Door
Glass doors provide safety. Doors keep small children and pets away from the fire. They also keep a smoldering fire safely contained when your go to bed for the night.
Doors are economical. An open fireplace is like an open window. When left open in winter, warm air goes up the chimney - in summer, air conditioned air is lost. In both cases glass fireplace doors minimize the air loss and saves you money!
Glass doors are a fashion statement! The fireplace is the focal point of any room. Glass doors dress up a fireplace and a room like nothing else! The style and color choices are nearly limitless!
Safety - Fireplace doors can be one of the most important safety features that you add to your house. These doors will prevent hot embers from your fireplace, reaching the surrounding carpet and rugs. Embers can also reach as far as furniture & people - so you can see the importance of a fireplace door in preventing household fires.
Efficiency - A Fireplace Door can also increase the energy efficiency of your fire - helping both the environment and your wallet. Fireplace doors act as a barrier separating your home from your chimney, creating an air tight seal that keeps heat within your house. Likewise - in the summer months, a fireplace door can keep air-conditioning from being lost into the chimney.
Fireplace Doors - Maintenance
You should clean the air vent after every use, when using a a fire with the doors closed. Instead of burning the air in your home, this air-vent allows you to burn outside air.
Glass Fireplace Doors - Tempered or Ceramic Glass
When choosing a set of fireplace doors it is recomended that you select glass that can withstand high temperatures. Tempered glass doors are less expensive than ceramic doors, although they are not as strong.
Tempered Glass is the industry standard for fireplace doors and can withstand temperatures up to 400°. If you plan on burning with the doors open tempered glass is sufficient, however, if you burn with doors closed choose the optional ceramic glass.
Ceramic Glass can handle temperatures up to 1400° and unlike tempered glass allows the radiant heat of the fire to pass through. Standard in most stoves and gas fireplaces. Proven to withstand severe temperature changes, including flame direct against glass.
Is A Fireplace Glass Door More Efficient?
A fireplace leaks air up the chimney. A glass door fitted onto your fireplace will insulate with a snug fit and eliminate up to 92% of the leakage of air-conditioned or warm air out of the chimney.
Fireplace Doors Open
With the doors open a greater amount of heat is radiated from the fire, a mesh curtain screen is always recommended for added protection when a wood fire is burning with the doors open.
Can I Close The Fireplace Doors When Not Using My Fire?
With the doors closed, heat from the fire is conducted through the glass panels and metal front (not recommended for large fires). Closing the doors also restricts heat loss through the chimney. Usually a damper must stay open allowing smoke & heat from remaining smoldering embers to escape.
Leaving Fire Unattended
Before going to bed at night, merely close the screen damper controls, the mesh curtain screen and the doors. Do not close the fireplace damper. Central home heat loss is greatly reduced. Safety is assured with the glass doors acting as a barrier to possible flying sparks.
Care And Maintenance
The rods of the mesh curtain should be sprayed with silicone occasionally to keep their operation smooth.
CAUTION: Never use oven cleaner or products containing caustic agents to clean the enclosure. Clean and lubricate appropriate areas only when their surface is at room temperature and no fire is present.
Glass Breakage Prevention:
To obtain the maximum efficiency from your fuel, you may leave the doors open while you are in the room. Upon retiring or leaving the room, however, make sure the doors are closed and the fire has died down. This will reduce heat loss and prevent fires caused by sparks escaping into the living area. Before closing the doors, even when you remain in the room, make sure that the fire is burning at a stable level. Close doors half-way to "warm them up" before closing completely when a fire is burning.
Fire Safety Information:
For maximum safety, burning logs should be kept as least 6 inches from the glass at all times. Do not sit close to the glass. Also, never burn trash, construction scraps, railroad ties, or any other highly flammable material in the fireplace. Intense heat caused by these items can cause the glass to lose strength and resilience, which will result in glass breakage.
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Measuring & Fitting Fireplace Doors
An important point to consider when choosing your fireplace door is making sure it fits properly. An incorrect fitting door will lose its efficiency - allowing heat to escape through your chimney. The best way to avoid this is by correctly measuring for your fireplace height & width with a tape measure.
Make sure your measuring tape is not made of materials which stretch.
Masonry Doors:
All masonry fireplace doors or screens are designed to overlap (sit on the face of) the opening or inside(sit inside of the opening). Fireplace openings should meet the following requirements:
1. Suitable mounting surface on top and bottom of opening
2. Mounting surface must be level.
3. Fireplace opening should be square and level. Doors are made square. Any out of square conditions on the opening will be exaggerated, or will prevent installation.
In order to determine the width of your fireplace opening, we recommend that you measure it on top, middle and bottom, and use the smallest number.
In order to determine the height of your fireplace opening, we recommend that you measure it on the right side, the left side, and the middle, and use the smallest number
Zero Clearance Screens:
These doors fit inside the Zero Clearance (or prefabricated) firebox. Fireboxes are machine made, and tend to be square. Still as a precaution, measure the width and height on three places, as described in the Masonry Door measuring above, and use the smallest number to be submitted in your online order.
You can use our Help Videos below. If still unsure, send us a picture of the fireplace, this will help us to make sure to find you the right fitting door for years of enjoyment. request@fireplacedoorsonline.com
keep in mind assistance is only a phone call, chat or email away......
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How To Read A Tape Measure
In order to measure for a fireplace glass door we must be sure that we understand how to read a tape measure. This might be elementary for some but no one is born knowing how so we will review the basics here.
We recommend steel tapes only. The best kind have a locking mechanism that helps extend the tape slightly longer than the item to be measured. This makes the extended tape easier to handle
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The tape measure is marked with a series of marks known as a graduated scale. The image at right shows the whole inch marks (8 & 9 inch) on the steel tape. The tape has marks that divides each inch into fractions.
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The first major division of an inch is the half inch mark. It Is the longest mark between the whole inch designation and is equidistant between each inch mark. There is one 1/2" mark between each whole inch mark on the rule.
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The second major division of an inch is the quarter inch mark. It Is the second longest mark between the whole inch designation and is equidistant between each 1/2"inch mark. It devides the inch into 4 pieces.
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The third major division of an inch is the eighth (1/8") inch mark. It Is the third longest mark between the whole inch designation and is equidistant between each 1/4"inch mark. It devides the inch into 8 pieces.
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The smallest division of an inch is the sixteenth (1/16") mark. It divides the inch into 16 pieces
To record your measurement call out the smallest whole inch and the specific fraction. The image to the right would be 8 1/16".
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IMPORTANT NOTICE - Special Notice Regarding Gas Appliances
Conventional Gas Logs with a standing pilot and Unvented Gas Logs with pilots create a very significant potential for corrosion of your new Fireplace Glass Door System or Fireplace Surround. Please take a moment to read these instructions so that Non-Warranty corrosion of your new fireplace glass door or surround does not occur.
CORROSION OF YOUR FIREPLACE GLASS DOOR, SCREEN AND ATTACHMENT HARDWARE WILL OCCUR IF YOU LEAVE THE PILOT BURN IN YOUR FIREPLACE WITH THE DAMPER CLOSED. THIS CONDITION WILL NOT OCCUR WHEN YOUR APPLIANCE IS IN NORMAL OPERATION OR IF YOU LEAVE THE DAMPER OPEN WHENEVER THE PILOT LIGHT IS TO REMAIN LIT AFTER YOU TURN OFF THE APPLIANCE.
Natural Gas and Propane are chemical compounds known as Hydro-Carbons. When you combine a Hydro-Carbon with oxygen and enough heat, you have a fire. When a Hydro-Carbon is burned, the two by-products of Carbon Dioxide and Water are produced. This continuous escaping of moisture inside the confines of fireplace with a closed damper causes corrosion.
Conventional gas log sets are shipped with a damper clip. This clip MUST be clamped to your damper which will insure the damper does not tightly close in order to vent the pilot. This is a safety requirement. This small opening should normally allow the moisture to escape up the chimney. However, the very small amount of heat generated by the pilot is not always sufficient to induce a draft and moisture stays trapped inside your fireplace causing the screen, decorative metal parts and hardware to rust.
Unvented gas log products cause more severe corrosion conditions since they operate with the damper fully closed. However, these products contain a spark ignition pilot lighting system and oxygen depletion system which makes it very quick and easy to light the pilot each time you burn the appliance and turn off the pilot when the appliance is not in use.
Your chimney should also have a cap and serviceable storm collar to insure rained does not leak into your fireplace. This moisture will also soon destroy the metal parts of your fireplace glass door and is not covered under the limited warranty.
THE LIMITED WARRANTY DOES NOT COVER CORROSION CAUSE BY WATER, ACID CONDITIONS OR MOISTURE FROM GAS APPLIANCES. EXTINGUISH THE PILOT WHEN THE APPLIANCE IS NOT IN USE OR LEAVE THE DAMPER OPEN AND SEAL THE FIREPLACE BY CLOSING FIREPLACE GLASS DOORS.
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