is this fireplace good, or stick with stove??

[s1120]

We are trying to decide weather to get a wood stove or a fireplace insert. We have been planing on going with a Hearthstone stove, but are rethinking a stove, because of a new baby, and the room it takes up. Our fireplace dealer told us about a fireplace insert by a company named Bodart & Gonay . Anyone hear of this brand? Take a look at the web site. How does it look? Both the fireplace and stove put out the same BTU's. Does this mean the same heat will be produced? Thanks for any help, or insight.

[Hakim]

Hi Paul,

I do not have experience with fireplace inserts. As a general matter, however, fireplaces per se produce very little heat in a typical house. A woodstove will pour out many times the heat as a fireplace. Maybe someone has more experience to directly compare the two. But I have had woodstoves and fireplaces(without insert) and the woodstove is all we run in the winter for heat. Of course the fireplace makes for the warm, cozy, fuzzy feeling.

Also, a fireplace is going to basically burn up as much wood as fast as you can toss it in. A woodstove allows much greater control over the burn rate of the wood. When it is adjusted, a good sized wood stove will provide great heat for 6-8 hors (you probably will have to get up at some point in the night during the coldest nights--I am talking upstate NY experience).
A woodstove does pose safety issues for a small child, or an infant crawling. I raised three sons from birth to 8-9 with a woodstove burning about 8 months out of the year. Usually if they do get burned, it will ONLY happen once! You do have to be careful, at least until they can be educated about the danger. They’ll pick it up quickly.

Finally, with as much wood as you will put through a wood stove, if you are using it to heat your home, you will have to make sure there is no dangerous build up of creosote in the chimney. This needs to be checked. You can look up creosote and chimney over at TBN, because this has been discussed quite a few times. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

Good luck!

[Boondox]

Paul -- No experience with that particular brand, but have seen and considered buying a similar model before settling on the Hearthstone stove.

Modern fireplace inserts are much more efficient than a naked fireplace, and the ducting feature is nice...with a couple of caveats. The electric fans are troublesome as heat does wicked things to them and, in power outages (which seem to hit us every time it storms!) they stop working which makes the overheating problem of brittle insulation even worse. The mechanic fans (not sure how they work but they are heat activated) were a better bet for us. We use a small electric fan aimed over the woodstove to get the same effect. There are also little heat activated fans that rest directly on top of the stove, but we're too cheap to dish out the $125 they cost.

Our other issue with inserts is that the size needed to fit into our fireplace had such a small box that we would have had to get up two or three times each night to restoke. Our Hearthstone burns for about six hours before it's down to glowing embers...and then the stone radiates heat till morning. Looks like the model you listed has the fan under the box, which will restrict the size of the box.

Hakim is right; if this is your primary heat source you don't want to get up several times each night.

Pete

[egon]

How large an insert can you install in your fireplace.? The pictures indicate a large opening will be required with ash box and fan underneath. Will the insert meet clearance codes for your area. How available are parts such as the glass in the door?

As others have said; a free standing air tight stove will be a more convienient heat source.

The insert will provide more ambience and use less floor space.

Choices? Choices?

Egon

[s1120]

Well, we have new construction, so size is not a big thing. Also it will not be our only heat source, just when we are up, and on weekends.

[wingnut]

I guess it depends on the fireplace ... as I'd have to differ with Hakim.
I blocked my fireplace up completely as it was poorly designed and useless ... but my mothers fireplace was too die for!
When she had the house built in Norther Alberta, she hired a local stonemason to design and build the fireplace with local fieldstone. It was truly a marvel.
Massive ... 8 feet wide and about 3 feet thick. Iron plate liner. He ran pipe thru the flue with a fan outside wired to a switch inside. With the glass doors closed and the fan drawing in -40 air from outside and bringing it in, it could drive you out of the living roon (10 feet wide and 30 feet long with f/p at one end).
Obviouly a wood stove will do the same thing easily (drive you out of the room) ... but I just thought I'd relay that fireplaces are not ALWAYS bad.

pete

[Hakim]

Okay, I was generalizing... [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] . I am sure somebody, somewhere, has a great blast furnace heat grade fireplace.

We had a "Count Rumford" fireplace in our log home in Upstate, NY. That is a legendary design that is supposed to be the very most efficient and heat-generating design possible. It did get hot alright, but most of the heat flew up the chimney. That fireplace could easily burn up a half a face cord in 3 hours!

One thing about the plain old square box woodstove is, it do throw heat. I've had mine glowing red. It would be a shame to put in a huge, expensive stone fireplace, and then find out it did not heat adequately.

But it sounded like he was going to have multiple heat sources, so it may not matter. I agree, regardless of heat, fireplaces ARE ROMANTIC!

BTW, after 20 years in real cold winters, my vote for the best all aroud heat is Hot Water Baseboard. It is hands down the best, IMO.

[lblair]

The last house we had i put a hand feed nut coal burning fire place insert in. It would burn 18-22 hours on a full bank. HEAT...? oh yeah. Controlable heat? yes again. It was Key Stoker brand. Real nice Bay window stove. I could heat the whole 2000 square foot ranch on 2 ton of coal per winter in upstate NY. I loved it. I may put one in this house we have now in the next few years. Just my 2 cents worth is all
Larry

[EJB]

Thats the key I think, if you are going to have a fireplace, make sure it is massive...mine is about the same dimensions, 8 feet wide by 3 feet thick, and the firepl;ace is elevated about 2 feet off the ground so it makes it real easy to tend to and to enjoy the view.

The mass of bricks really does a decent job of keeping the room warm, but I still wouldn't want to try and heat the house with it. If heat is the primary motivation, a woodstove is almost certainly a better route to take...if you are more concerned with the look/feel of the fire, go with a fireplace with or without the insert.

Woodstoves are nice, they throw a lot of heat, but imo, they are not nearly as nice to sit around and enjoy.

[LazyJ_Arabians]

I'd be suspicious of how easy it would be to keep the glass front halfway clean. They claim an "air-wash" but face it, when closed up tight there's not supposed to be that much air washing around in there. I gave up long ago trying to keep the little windows on the front of my cast iron beast clean enough to see even a flicker of fire.