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.

Should i leave glass gas fireplace doors open or closed.

Keep in mind the glass used with a wood stove is different from that used with a fireplace. Glass doors should be fully open when starting a fire and when the fire is burning strongly. A fireplace uses tempered glass that is resistant to physical shock. 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.

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. It is still an open hearth fireplace which is susceptible to aerodynamics. The glass doors also prevent more warm air from the room going up the chimney while the flue is open. At chimney safety institute of america we commonly get asked about whether homeowners should leave the glass doors on their fireplace open or closed.

Tempered glass that comes standard on most fireplace doors will shatter once it reaches temperatures of 450 degrees. 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. When a fire is burning your fireplace can reach temperatures up to 1200 degrees.

That is why we do not recommend closing the glass doors on a fireplace while there is a fire. Always keep the screen mesh on your fireplace closed when using the fireplace to guard against sparks popping out of the firebox area. When you use your fireplace it is best to leave the glass doors open while the fire burns. 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.

All gas logs should be burned with the doors wide open even if a mfr tells you they are approved for closed doors. The glass doors should be closed as the fire dies down to minimize the amount of room air going up the fireplace chimney. A wood stove uses a pyro ceramic glass that is resistant to thermal shock. The glass doors act like a fire screen would and keeps the sparks and stuff inside the fireplace.

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. If the doors are closed you are losing all of the fireplace s heat. Operating the fireplace with the doors closed redduces the losses of that heated room air. 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.