Are you sure the doors were designed to be burned closed? If so, they would have a draft assembly at the bottom that you could open and close to allow room air into the fire as needed. Please post pictures of your fireplace and doors so we can see what you are dealing with. Include pictures with the doors open and closed.

I'd hope so. They didnt specifically ask. I'd have to assume because thats the default way to burn.

John,

Those doors do not appear to have any mechanism for allowing air into the fire. Even more, most brands of fireplace doors do not allow you to burn them with the doors closed.

If you purchased the doors from a fireplace shop, they should have known to ask if you plan to burn with the doors closed. That is an essential question that we must ask our customers because it determines which doors we recommend. Some of the doors we sell have the option to have a draft assembly at the bottom for this purpose and when we order the door we must specify yes or no, otherwise they won't even make the door.

If you bought them from a home center, I can tell you for a fact that ALL of the doors sold at home centers cannot be burned closed.

Where did you buy them?

We bought them at a fireplace shop.

Wow, and the conversation was never had about how you would be using them? I'm quite surprised.

Did they leave you with an instruction manual that tells how to use them? If so, I would not be surprised if it says not to burn them with the doors closed. It might say you can close the doors to help extinguish the fire when you retire in the evening.

Sounds to me like you will be stuck burning the fire with the doors open, unless they can provide a remedy. I know in our case, the only way to have a draft assembly is to have it made that way, it's not something we can add on later.

I don't recognize the brand of door you purchased, so I do not know what options there are.