Should I Leave Glass Gas Fireplace Doors Open Or Closed

A wood stove uses a pyro ceramic glass that is resistant to thermal shock.

Should i leave glass gas fireplace doors open or closed.

The air shutters at the bottom provide a small amount of fresh air for the wood to burn. Always keep the screen mesh on your fireplace closed when using the fireplace to guard against sparks popping out of the firebox area. The glass doors act like a fire screen would and keeps the sparks and stuff inside the fireplace. If you leave your glass doors open when your fireplace is not in use within a short period of time you would notice a dramatic change in your home s temperature.

Tempered glass that comes standard on most fireplace doors will shatter once it reaches temperatures of 450 degrees. At chimney safety institute of america we commonly get asked about whether homeowners should leave the glass doors on their fireplace open or closed. Closing the doors while your fire is burning can create a fire hazard and the tempered glass door is not meant to withstand such heat. Even more important is to leave the glass doors closed and the air shutters closed in between uses of the fireplace to minimize the loss of heated room air when the fireplace is not being used.

Hot air rises and when the heat that was generated from the fire finds its way up and out of the chimney it tends to siphon all of the warm air in the room along with it. That is why we do not recommend closing the glass doors on a fireplace while there is a fire. Keep your doors open like this ez door steel shown to the right. When burning gas logs in a wood burning fireplace the glass doors should always be fully open when the gas logs are burning.

If you close the doors the flames pull towards the glass where it can impinge and shatter the glass. Glass doors should be fully open when starting a fire and when the fire is burning strongly. They also act as a heat source to radiate more heat out into the room. The glass doors should be closed as the fire dies down to minimize the amount of room air going up the fireplace chimney.

Keep in mind the glass used with a wood stove is different from that used with a fireplace. It is still an open hearth fireplace which is susceptible to aerodynamics. A fireplace uses tempered glass that is resistant to physical shock. Operating the fireplace with the doors closed redduces the losses of that heated room air.

The glass doors also prevent more warm air from the room going up the chimney while the flue is open. Additionally it defeats the purpose of a fire heating your room as all the heat will go straight up your chimney not into your room. When you use your fireplace it is best to leave the glass doors open while the fire burns. All gas logs should be burned with the doors wide open even if a mfr tells you they are approved for closed doors.