Fireplace & Stove Essential Buys

Whichever type of fireplace you have and whatever you’re burning, this is my list of tools and products that are almost essential for any fireplace or stove.

I use all of these products myself and I’ve gone through each of these tools I think are essential for your fireplace and stove, and my reasons why.

Here’s a quick list of all the my recommended tools and products I use for my fireplaces and stoves (click on them to see the latest prices).

Best Fireplace & Stove Accessories

General Fireplace & Stove Accessories:

Wood Stove Accessories

Fireplace Accessories

You can read more about each of these tools below and why I use them.

Moisture Meter

Burning wood that is dry enough is SO important when it comes to having a successful wood fire.

Wet wood is one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, why:

You may struggle to get a fire going
Struggle to keep a fire lit
Why the fire isn’t getting hot
Why the fire is smoking
And a number of other issues

Wet wood can be very hard to burn, and even though logs may be sold as seasoned or kiln dried it doesn’t hurt to ensure that any wood you’re burning is under the recommended 20% moisture content mark.

A moisture meter is a fairly inexpensive purchase but can save you a lot of hassle in the long run when using your fireplace or stove.

If I were to buy one thing for our fireplace and stoves it would be a moisture meter.

I recommend getting the General Tools MMD4E Digital Moisture Meter (you can check the latest price over on Amazon here).

If you live in the UK I recommend this moisture meter here. We have 3 in the family. It’s a really great moisture meter and perfect for checking our wood before being burnt.

For more information on what properly seasoned wood is and how to use a moisture meter to check, see our dedicated article here.

Toolset

A toolset is an essential bit of kit for whatever type of fireplace or stove you have in your home.

The heat from a fire can be overwhelming (especially from a modern wood stove) and so the tools from a fireplace/stove toolset will help you to add and move logs more effectively.

If I were to have one tool from a toolset it would be the tongs.

My favorite toolset is this one right here (click here for the link to Amazon to see the latest price).

If you’re in the UK I highly recommend this toolset.

Stove Thermometer

Wood burning stoves help you to increase the amount of heat provided to your home compared to open fires, but to get the most amount of heat you need to keep your stove at the optimum temperature for best operation.

If you have any form of stove then you need to get a thermometer for it.

We have one on both our stoves and it allows us to make sure that we’re not running the stove too hot which would lead to inefficient burning by going through the wood too quickly.

I therefore highly recommend getting this Midwest Heath Stove Thermometer to go on your stovepipe. The thermometer makes it simple to understand what temperature you should be running your stove at.

If you’re in the UK then this stove thermometer is the one we use on our own wood burning stove, and it’s easy to see whether our stove is running too hot.

Matches

Ensuring that a fire gets going quickly when lit helps to bring your fireplace or stove up to operating temperature as quickly as possible.

Lighting a fire at numerous points helps the fire to spread to the initial bits of wood more quickly, and long matches are great at allowing you to light as many places as possible in the short time you have before the flames catch on.

We always use long matches when lighting fires in our fireplace and stoves, and so I highly recommend these long matches (click the link to go to Amazon to see the latest price).

If you’re in the UK, then these Manor Long Fireside Matches are the ones we always buy and use.

Gloves

Gloves are essential for any form of stove as the body of stoves is designed to get extremely hot during operation.

If you want to be able to open and close your stove safely then ensure that you have the right gloves for it.

I recommend these popular Fireplace Gloves.

If you’re in the UK I would go with the De Vielle Heritage Leather Stove Gloves.

Log Rack/Holder

Cold wood can be harder to burn in your fireplace or stove, and so if you’re bringing in wood from outside or from colder place within your home, it’s much better to leave any logs you’ll be burning by your fireplace to allow them to warm up to room temperature before being burnt.

It’s also ideal to have somewhere to store your logs out of the way and ready to burn each time you use your fireplace or stove.

We have a number of different types of log racks & holders in the family and they’re extremely useful.

You should therefore consider buying this Amagabeli Fireplace Log Rack. It can hold a large number of logs and even comes with an added toolset on the sides of the rack.

Fireplace Grate

A grate is an essential part of any traditional open fireplace, and helps to raise the fire off the hearth for improved air circulation, as well as helping to protect the hearth from the heat of the fire.

If you don’t already have a grate for your fireplace (or your old one is broken or simply looking run down), now may be the time to get one.

If you have a wood stove then you typically won’t need a grate.

We always build our open fireplace using a grate, and it allows you to light the fire from below the grate or even place an ash pan underneath.

I’m really into Amagabeli products and so we use one of their fireplace grates that you can find right here.

We think it looks stylish and modern, and would be a great fit for any open fireplace.

Fireplace Screen

Help protect you and your home when having fires in your open fireplace by using a fireplace screen.

A screen helps to protect the floor of your home that surrounds the hearth, such as wood or carpet, from anything that may be spat out from the fires.

Screens also help to keep fires out of reach from young children and pets.

A fireplace screen can also act as a decorative feature as it will likely be placed in front of your traditional open fireplace for the majority of the time.

I like this fireplace screen here, but you can go with any screen that will be the right size for your fireplace and fit with the décor of your home.

Log Carrier

If (like us) you have a stack of firewood elsewhere in or outside your home, you’ll need something to help transport the logs to your fireplace or stove so that you aren’t making a large number of trips back and forth.

We have our firewood stacked outside behind the garage and so we use a log carrier to transport a load of logs inside to warm up before each burning session.

I recommend checking out this log carrier to help you move your firewood around your home.

Ash Bucket & Shovel

Firewood can burn best with a thin layer of ash underneath (especially for stoves), but you’ll need to be able to clear out that ash when it gets too deep.

An ash shovel can be used to remove the ash from either your fireplace or stove.

You can store your ash in an ash bucket before disposing of it at a later time.

I would recommend getting this ash bucket here and also this shovel to use alongside the bucket to help keep your fireplace or stove tidy and at the right depth of ash for maximum burning efficiency.

Carbon Monoxide Alarm

Even if you’re using your fireplace or stove correctly and burning the right quality of fuel, there’s always the small chance that your real wood or gas fires can release carbon monoxide.

Carbon monoxide can be produced in more quantities if the fuel is burning inefficiently, such as when there is a lack of oxygen or the fuel is of poor quality (such as wet firewood).

A carbon monoxide alarm is therefore an essential purchase for any home with a fireplace or stove.

Check out this carbon monoxide alarm here if you don’t already have one.

Chimney Draft Excluder

If you have an open fireplace that doesn’t already have some sort of damper (a metal plate located in the throat of the chimney just above firebox) then using a chimney draft excluder will help to prevent heat loss from your home.

We put our draft excluder up our living room chimney when not having a fire and it makes a massive difference to the temperature of the room.

I’d therefore highly recommended buying one of these Chimney Sheep Draft Excluders as I find that they’re the best at keeping the heat in and the cold out (and it’s the exact one I use).

You’ll need to size up your chimney and find one that is just a bit larger than the opening of your chimney so that it provides a tight fit.

You may also go for a chimney balloon, which will still do a good job and you can find these here.

Glass Cleaner

Burning firewood either in your fireplace or stove can lead to blackening of the glass doors over time, which can lead to a poor experience of watching the flames.

To help keep the glass doors of your fireplace or stove clean, use a dedicated glass cleaner every so often to help keep the glass clear.

Use this glass cleaning product to help clean the glass on your fireplace or stove when blackening has occurred.

If you’re in the UK we’ve found that Lakeland’s own brand of glass cleaner works very well.

For more information on how to clean the glass on your stove see our article here.

Stove Fan

Although modern wood burning or multi fuel stoves can be very good at radiating the heat from the fire out into the room, a stove fan can be used to help spread that heat further around your home.

A stove fan simply sits on top of your stove and automatically starts working as soon as the body of the stove heats up.

We use stove fans on both our wood burning and multi fuel stoves and find they actually work very well.

If you’re looking to help heat more of your home with your stove I’d recommended getting this stove fan here.