“Register Plates” and “Closure Plates” ExplainedWhenever you have a woodburning stove installed in a fireplace, you will have a plate above the stove blocking off the bottom of the chimney. The plate must be made of solid, non-combustible material. You may hear this plate referred to as a “Closure” or “Register” plate. Although these terms are often used interchangeably by some people, there is an important difference between them.Register Plate with single sweep access hatchA Register Plate should always be fitted whenever a stove vents directly into the chimney (ie if the chimney is sound and there is no flue liner connected directly to the stove or stove pipe). The purpose of this register plate is to ensure no fumes, especially Carbon Monoxide, escapes back into the room. The Register Plate must therefore be sealed around the edges and around the stove pipe. The Register Plate must also have an access hatch to enable the chimney to be swept.Closure PlateA Closure Plate performs a different purpose. It is essentially cosmetic and can also reduce heat loss into a chimney which is lined with, for example, a stainless steel flexible flue liner. Because the stove is directly connected to the flue liner, the Closure Plate is not required to be tightly sealed in the same way as a Register Plate; it also does not need an access hatch for sweeping as this will take place either through the stove or, where fitted, through a removable sweeping plate on the stove pipe. If your chimney has been thoroughly swept before the flue liner was installed, there should be minimal soot deposits collected over time on the top of it.
