Grate Wall of Fire Model M-6 Smoke-Free Fireplace Grate – 26" Wide x 15" Tall – Durable Alloy Steel Construction, Increases Heat Output, Eliminates Smoke Issues, Ideal for Larger Fireplaces

I don't usually write reviews but felt this product deserved it. I've had my M-6 for over two years and have enjoyed it since day one. This thing is heavy duty and great quality build right out of the box. Install couldnt be easier if you went by the measuring guide on their website. Building a fire in it does take some practice. I recommend lots of good kindling on the bottom to start a good coal bed. After that just load logs into it and enjoy, simple as that. USE DRY SEASONED WOOD!!! I think the only negative reviews i've seen involve customers using "green" fresh cut or wet wood that cause the fire to be either very dull or won't get started at all. That being said after you get a good fire going this thing will indeed burn green or wet logs since they dry out up top before entering the burn section of the grate. Performance. Heat output is consistent and excelent. I have a 2500SF open concept home that is not particularly well insulated and the fireplace can keep up to a 30degree differential before heat pump comes on (meaning if its 40degreesF outside it will be 70degF inside). I agree with the manufacturer that heat output is near double your "standard" fireplace fire; "standard" being basic stacked grate or log cabin style fire by your average person building a fire. If you are someone experienced with the "back log" or yule log concept then heat output would be comparable BUT BUT BUT the grate wall of fire heat output is consistent and doesn't require constant tending for optimum burn that conventional methods would. Exclude tipi fires in a rumford fireplace for this comparison. The ambiance is also consistently great with this thing, and the added safety of having the ligs behind the grate is in itself worth the money. I usually just load a big stack on the grate before bed and even up to 8hrs later there is still a decent fire since the burn rate is so efficient. Smoke. The design does in fact help prevent smoke issues since it forces the user to build a fire at the back of the box, which any experienced user will tell you "always build a fire at the back of the box" which is tobprevent smoke and turbulence in the draft. 2 years later and its still burning right along. Cut wood consumption from 2 cords to about 1-1/2 so defenitely an effeciency factor in there. Bottom line if you have experience in making optimum heat fires or if you just bought a house with a fireplace this grate is absolutely worth the cost. As an experienced home fireplace user i enjoy no longer having to constantly twnd the fire for optimum burns and the added safety that a burning log cant roll out (I have had this happen with traditional fires) is well worth it.

This thing is a God send. I had an older, much cheaper standard grate in my fireplace, which had come with my home when I purchased it earlier this year. It wasn't in the best shape, but I figured I'd use it this winter season and worry about replacing it before next. Within a couple of weeks and a few fires, however, it became clear that I needed a replacement, and I started shopping around for something heavier, more substantial, and less likely to come apart under the heat of the cured hardwood fires that are so commonplace in my part of the country. The pricing of a better solution scared me, and I was a bit taken aback by 3-figure price tags on a heavier-grade grate. After a week or so of doing my homework, though, it became clear that if I wanted a safer solution that would minimize the heat stress on my fireplace masonry, I was going to have to bite the bullet. So I decided to go whole-hog, and started looking for the "be-all, end-all" solution. The "Wall of Fire" consistently came out at the top of the list with customer reviews, but also with price tag. But wood isn't cheap (or environmentally friendly, if not used efficiently), so after agonizing over my checkbook for a few hours, I ordered the Grate Wall of Fire, as well as the companion reflective fireback. Shipping was fast, and both arrived in perfect condition a couple of days later. These things are built like Panzer tanks, weigh a ton, and were NOT easy for this ---um, "woman of vintage years"-- to wrestle from the door at my entryway to my great room hearth, remove from their boxes, and install in the firebox. But with some elbow grease and colorful language, I did it. (It's not complex, and there is no assembly required - it's just VERY HEAVY, high-quality product.) The result is worth every penny, and every grunt and groan. Even when I pulled wood off of a freshly-delivered cord that had been curing in an open field, and had been transported in a downpour, the fire lit quickly and easily. It takes a while for the heating effect to build up (again, these are heavy-gauge grates, and heating that metal takes time and energy), but once it does, wood burns very efficiently, smoke goes pretty much 100% up the flue even from the first match, and especially with the reflective backplate also made by GWF, the OBVIOUS improvement in heating efficiency is apparent not only while the fire is lit, but the next day as well, with the very low amount of residual ash that is left behind. I don't have to clean out the fireplace after each fire, but can go for several days before that becomes ---I don't even want to use the word "necessary" here, because even after several days, I could still load wood and burn an efficient fire without cleaning. Anyway, I guess it's habit. But the point is, I'm not cleaning EVERY DAY, after EVERY FIRE, and I'm not hauling a lot of cinder out of there - mostly ash. I also don't have to wait until the Second Coming to safely dispose of ash outdoors, because the remaining embers are generally small and lose their heat in the ash can pretty quickly. LOVE THIS THING. Well made, and well worth the investment. Buy the backplate, too, if you're serious about using your fireplace for anything but a conversation piece.

This grate and the matching fireback are good products and they've made a big difference for my house -- now I can enjoy long-burning fires without smoking up the house. The only reason I'm rating it 4 stars is the manufacturer's web page suggests this kind of grate replaces a wood-burning fireplace insert. I think that's a little bit of a tease. They're different things entirely. It all depends on what you want. I've always loved the ambience of fireplace fires, but the fireplace in my 1920's era house just didn't seem to work right. The flue would be open and clear (we had it checked) but smoke quickly filled up the house. The only way to prevent the smoke was to open a window wide and then build a huge roaring fire. We'd have 30 or 45 minutes of roasting on one side and freezing on the other. So we hardly ever had fires because it just wasn't worth the trouble. In contrast my friend, who has a similar house and fireplace, had a new, EPA-rated insert installed and the thing is a main, ongoing source of heat for his house. The insert is nearly completely closed, there is literally zero smoke smell in the room, and it burns wood slowly in a pretty controlled way. He might use 2 or 3 small logs for an entire overnight. I considered getting an insert, but it was gonna be >$5000. I decided to try a compromise before I spent that much. I didn't want a second furnace for my house -- I just wanted to be able to have fires and enjoy them without opening the windows, roasting, or suffering smoke inhalation. So I got the M-6 grate, the matching size fireback, and a set of glass fireplace doors, and hoped for the best. It turned out this combination solved my problems. Now we can have fires whenever we want. The grate keeps the fire and the smoke near the back of the fireplace, where it can go up the flue. The grate makes it easier to feel the pleasant, steady heat that comes from embers, not the smoky heat that comes from flames. There is a slight smoke smell in the room, but that's part of the ambience. The fireback adds to the radiant heat coming back into the room. The fires burn for a long time without much fiddling. I think the fireplace doors are an important detail -- they reduce the size of the fireplace opening in several ways and allow me to better control heat, sparks, and air. To lower the heat or change the air flow, I will burn with one or both of the glass doors closed, despite the bizarre warnings on the doors to never burn with them closed. (Note: I don't build big fires, and the fire is always at least a foot away from the glass.) So, this combo is working great, and I saved thousands -- but it's really not like an insert. My combo is still an open, fairly uncontrolled burning system. In a lot of ways it makes nicer, more romantic fires than an insert. You get the sight, the sound, and the smell. However, in terms of efficiency, I don't think there's much comparison to an insert. I'm not sure how one would measure my combo's efficiency, but compared to my friend's insert, it uses a LOT more wood per hour. (I actually borrowed some of his wood to make a fair test.) Also, fires in this system take quite a while to reach that desirable state where the grate is exposing a little wall of embers -- at least an hour, sometimes more like 2. So you can't be in a rush. An insert gets to a "pleasant heat" faster. If you actually need to heat a house reliably -- and not add a ton of bad stuff to the air -- I think you should look into an engineered and EPA rated solution. But if you just want to have nice fires without the smoke, give this a shot!

Just use this grate for the 1st time, outstanding! Much better that you typical horizontal grate, once loaded up it is essentially self feeding and allows for more heat to enter the room vs go up the chimney. I noticed there is far less of a smoke oder in the home. The grate is high quality and when combined with the solid steel back wall plate is perfect to a wood burning fireplace.

Very substantial iron. Very attractive in the fireplace.

The quality of construction and amount of heat the Grate Wall of Fire enables is enough to warrant a full 5 stars. I have an old house with a fireplace that I use once or twice a week during the 3 months of winter I have. After years of being dissatisfied with the fireplace (actually making the house colder and only being warm right in front of the fire) I decided to go on an "efficiency mission" to make burning all that white oak worth while. My first step was getting a good quality fireback, made of cast iron. That helped a little bit, but I wasn't really feeling the heat (pun intended). After a winter with a classic grate and a fireback, I saw the Grate Wall of Fire on youtube. I decided to give it a shot and replaced my classic grate with this one. I am very happy I did. I loaded up the grate with dry white oak, and lighting the fire was fairly easy. The flame climbed right up the stack and it was roaring after 20 mins or so. It took about an hour and a half to start producing a decent coal bed. Once the coal bed was established, the heat started dumping into the room. My wife walked in our living room and immediately commented on how hot the fire was. We noticed right away the difference the Wall of fire made. I've never had a smoke problem so I can't comment on the reduced smoke claims, but the heat claims are legitimate. Once your fire gets going and producing coals, the entire coal bed is exposed to your room and it will blast radiant heat out. My favorite chair is directly across the room from the fireplace, about 10 feet away and I can now feel the heat on my body when I sit in it. Adding more wood to the fire is simple now, I just put a few pieces directly into the top of the grate and gravity takes care of the rest. The story of the company and the brothers that make this grate is icing on the cake.

What an impressive upgrade from my regular flat grate. This thing requires so much less maintenance while burning. The wood just collapses right into the smoldering wood under. The angle of this grate is perfect....air flows directly through the wood. Also the material used is literally 2x the thickness of my previous grate. Which would bend from the heat.

helped reduce my smoking fireplace significantly by making sure the wood stays towards the back of the fireplace in a more optimally positioned location under the flue. like others said there is a bit of a learning curve and the way you build and feed is different from a regular fire - i find it works best in this case to use a longer fire starting method like a duraflame since you are stacking more on too of each other and need more time to get the wood going without as much airflow around it. pair this with their metal guard in the back and a smoke guard over the top of the fireplace for optimal warmth and smoke protection. this item is heavy but it should be in order to last - quality is good! It’s not so easy to clean around the bottom unless you shift it around a bit, but the purchase of a ash vacuum solved that and makes life super easy (though then there’s the issue of cleaning the vacuum).