Cool, moist stratification is the key - if you've carried that buckeye around in your pocket all winter - or had 'em sitting in a bucket somewhere drying out - and then plant 'em in spring, you're not gonna get any growth. Taproot? It's not a magical thing. Yes, they do provide anchorage, but mainly, they're a 'reserve energy storage vessel' storing and providing energy to push growth at the next leaf-out. Sure, when I'm digging a taprooted species for transplanting, I try to preserve as much taproot as is practical, but If I cut it shorter than I like, I don't consider it to be a death sentence for the tree.

I know this is an old thread, but it seems to have spurred some interest over the last few years. I, too, wanted to know if these grate heaters worked and came across this thread, but wasn't really convinced one way or the other from peoples' responses. On a whim, I decided to buy one, so I figured I could contribute if there are others like me who are curious. First of all, I went with the Cozy Grate Heater from woodlanddirect.com, and I've owned it for about 2 months (November and December). Granted these aren't the coldest months in New England where I live, but I felt I had enough experience with the unit so far to give my two cents. Here goes: - Does the unit put off heat? In short, yes. I keep my thermostat set on 60-62 degrees. Within a couple hours of lighting a fire, my living room (where the fireplace is) is up to 70-72 degrees. It's an approximately 10x20' room and it gets plenty toasty. Some of that heat does go into the rest of the house, but primarily it heats the space where the fireplace is located. - Will this unit provide heating for your whole house? Not really. I do notice the thermostat climb a few of degrees in other parts of the house, but again, primarily it seems to heat the fireplace room. I would say these units are best suited as supplemental heat for your existing heating system. - Do these heaters provide comparable heating to a fireplace insert or wood stove? Not really. My in-laws have an insert and my mom has a wood stove, so I can make a fair comparison. From my experience, the grate heater burns wood quicker than wood stoves & inserts and doesn't put out the same amount of heat. My guess is this has to do with air control - inserts and wood stoves are airtight and you have complete control over the amount of combustion air. A fireplace door (even with a damper feature) is not completely airtight. My mom's wood stove can burn a few logs all day long. I could burn though the same amount of wood in just a few hours. Again, the unit does a great job providing supplemental heat to your fireplace room, and a little bit for the rest of the house, but they aren't going to be a whole-home heating solution. One last consideration that isn't mentioned anywhere online: The unit I purchased (Cozy Grate Heater) is designed to operate most efficiently with the fireplace doors CLOSED. It says so in the instructions. However, I discovered that most fireplace doors are made of tempered glass and are NOT recommended to be closed while a fire is burning. Tempered glass can only withstand temperatures of about 500 degrees. They do make glass doors from a special type of glass called ceramic glass which is INCREDIBLY expensive - this is the same glass found in inserts and wood stoves. Before I bought the unit, I wanted to also purchase new fireplace doors. After discovering this, I decided to keep my existing doors just in case the glass on the new doors ended up cracking. I did call the company that makes the cozy grate heater and asked about this. A nice woman I spoke to told me she's never had a customer call and complain that their glass doors cracked. So far (again, 2 months in), I haven't had an issue - I don't build raging fires and I keep the burning logs at least 6 inches from the glass. Just be aware of this if you're considering buying a grate heater. All in all, I'm very satisfied with my grate heater. I wasn't expecting it to perform as well as an insert, but rather wanted it for supplemental heating of my living room. I love having a fire, but hated the smoke and lack of heating efficiency. This unit has certainly met my expectations. Sorry for the long-winded response, but I'm hoping this will help others out there who are in the same situation I was two months ago!

I have 2 Karlstad couches in leather with Aluminum legs in my family room. They get a lot of use and abuse from couch potatoes, food, cats (with claws) etc. They look brand new even though they are a few years old. I don't have any problems with the back cushions because they are velcroed into place and never move. We had looked at the Kivik in leather but I didn't like how the arms are wider and lower. Personal choice, I felt they weren't in proportion with the couch. Otherwise it was comfortable and our second choice.

I have two carved (solid) white marble fireplaces. One is completely unsealed and the other has a sealer that was done by the installer. I'm not sure what kind. The sealed one has gotten stained on the hearth, which is not a raised one. The stains look like pitch or tar-brownish. I suppose a marble restorer could do something to mitigate them, but they would reappear with future fires. The marks are concealed by the fire screen, which I keep in place to prevent flying sparks. They don't really bother me because we actually use the fireplaces for heat in the winter and I think they look better when actually used. However, I'm not sure whether the sealer makes the staining more or less likely. The unsealed marble fireplace has no stains. We also have a raw stone fireplace. It has more stains than either of the smooth marble ones. In my old house, I had three gas marble tile fireplaces. I converted the fireplaces to gas logs specifically because I was worried that the grout lines would look bad if ashes ever got into them. So, I never made real wood fires with a marble tile fireplace. If you are meticulous about building your fires far back into the fireplace, and about cleaning out ashes, you'll probably be okay. However, if guests or house cleaners or the otherwise uninitiated smear ashes, it would be difficult to get the grout to look like new.