Handcrafted Heat Protection
On a cold evening, there’s nothing better than starting a fire in the living room and settling back on the couch. But that safe, cozy feeling only happens if your home has proper fire protection. As fire safety evolves, it’s important to understand your home’s protection needs and review your stove’s requirements to ensure you have the right protection in place. A traditional ember protector or a homemade hearth that met past regulations may no longer be suitable to protect the combustible floor beneath your stove today. Building codes and safety standards now require hearth pads to provide adequate ember and thermal protection based on the stove model.
At American Panel, fire and heat protection are foundational components of our products, and all of our pads are tested to meet or exceed UL 1618. Our team is ready to help you enjoy your stove and its surrounding display. We offer two levels of Hearth Pad protection, giving you the right fit for every stove while providing peace of mind. Our Hearth Pads also include options for accessories and upgrades to further enhance fire and thermal safety. Whether you’re burning gas, pellets, corn, coal, oil, or wood, our Hearth Pads deliver top-of-the-line protection—so you can come home, start a fire, and relax.
Type 1 Hearth Pad Protection
Type 1 protection safeguards against falling embers. All wood, pellet, coal, and corn stoves require hearth protection against embers for proper fire safety. Type 1 protection does not include thermal protection, so it is important to check your stove’s requirements and ensure your stove meets Type 1 protection levels.
Type 2 Hearth Pad Protection
Type 2 protection protects against both embers and heat. Stoves that produce significant heat directed down and forward require Type 2 protection to prevent heat from passing through to the floor beneath the stove. At American Panel, we offer non-combustible Hearth Pads that provide thermal protection, with R-values of 2.3 or 1.592—well above the minimum requirements for Type 2 Hearth Pads (minimum requirement of R-value=1.0).
Thermal Protection Explained
Thermal protection is determined by the R-value, which measures how well a material resists heat flow. The higher the R-value, the more resistant the material is.
At American Panel, all our Hearth Pads and accessories are engineered with non-combustible layers to deliver high R-values and superior thermal protection. A single ThermaShield pad has an R-value of 1.592. To put this into perspective, other types of non-combustible materials would require extra layers or inches added to even come close to matching our standard R-value. Check out our comparison chart!
| Thermal Protection Comparison: ThermaShield vs. Other Non-Combustible Materials |
|---|
| Material | Amount Needed |
|---|---|
Durock ½” | 7 Layers |
Hardibacker 500 ½” | 34 Layers |
Cast Hearthstone 2 13⁄16″ | 3 Layers |
Brick 2 3⁄8″ | 4 Layers |
Ceramic Tile ¼” | 78 Layers |
Cement | 9″ |
Marble | 31″ |
Low Profile Pedestal
Engineered for Advanced Thermal Performance
Some stoves require extremely high R-values. For these stoves, we have designed an award-winning, low-profile base product. At just 1″ thick, the low-profile base provides additional insulation beneath your hearth pad and provides an R-value of 2.4. This is a great option for installations where carpet cannot be removed.
For enhanced heat protection and higher R-values, we offer the Low Profile Pedestal Floor Protection System. This system combines a Low Profile Pedestal Hearth Pad (R-value 2.4) with a specialized matching 6″ pedestal to provide additional thermal protection.
Need even greater heat resistance? The Low Profile Pedestal system can be customized to achieve R-values up to 10.