Hardy Grates

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In earlier posts I have written about maintaining the grates in your Hardy H2 or H4. I have been doing a pretty good job keeping my own grates rotated and free from abuse...but last night I noticed that the center grate was starting to sag...certainly from excessive heat from letting my ash build up too high. The Hardy has a forced draft system and the ash has to be managed so that it doesn't get too high. If you let the ash build up, the coals will rest too close to the grates and the excessive heat will melt them. Or if you keep the ash too low you run the risk of the fire going out. Even though I am aware of the risk of not emptying the ash regularly, I must have been negligent as when I got on my hands and knees and peaked up into the ash bin I noticed one rung of the center grate had broken in half and was sagging. Below is a picture where you can see...about mid way down the grates...one rung sagging and broken. Not a good thing because if I don't do something I will be making a trip to the Hardy store and laying down $50 for a new one.

Again...this is what I see when I get onto my hands and knees and peek up into my ash bin door. This is the underside of the grates with the coals beneath them.

I had to take action so I decided to let the wood burn down over night and, the next morning, I pulled all three grates out. I decided to move the middle grate to the front and I flipped it over so the sagging part was now facing up. This will help straighten it out. While the grates were out I noted I had another grate showing damage so I flipped it over and put it in the back. The best grate I placed in the middle as my experience shows the middle grate takes the most abuse from heat and weight of the logs. Below is a picture of the broken grate when I had them all out. I was surprised to see that I had not one, but two broken rungs. It's probably just a matter of time until this grate fails and I will have to buy a new one. Remember...too much ash means too much heat!

Once I had the grates in I shoveled some coals from the ash bin and dumped them on top of the grates. I threw in some kindling and the fired roared back to life. All of this was done this morning in 8 degree (f) weather in just about 15 minutes! Each time you remove ash you should peek up inside your ash bin and look for sagging grates. Grate Maintenance must be part of your routine with a Hardy OWB. You can see from my experience that its easy to lose track...especially with the horrible weather we have been dealing with in northeast Ohio.

OWB