Other than keeping the pot/vessel off of your stove top; is there any other function of these things??? Where can I pick up some decent ones??
My stove (the WS IS) comes with burn plates so trivets aren't really needed. I did use a trivet on my old stove in order to use a steam pot. Trivets are common place in kitchen and for woodstoves.
Mighty! Yes, you need trivets for cooking on the 13. Even before I bought my 13, I was using them on my non-epa stove. Cooking directly on top of the stove sure is hotter than what you need; using a trivet rovides a little air space between the stove surface and pot/pan. The trivets I bought were from goodwill type stores and priced anywhere from 1 to 4 bucks. Most of em had little rubber "feet" on the legs that are easily removed so you can use them on the stove top. Put the rubber feet back on if you're going to use the trivet on you table. I spent about $7 for these three.
I shot an infared at my stove top last night, was running it a little on the hotside before closing the dampers down. Stove top was around 800, one trivet read 650 and two stacked atop each other read about 375.
Thanks a bunch guys, that really helps a lot!!! Gonna try and pick up a couple of them. I like to cook a lot of stew, sauce, pot roast type meals; so I should get these to help the "low, slow, heat" thing.
What we use as trivets are actually planter plates, got some from BrianK for the first secret santa here.