DAKSY said:
customfireplacesupply said:
I would shy away from the Heat n Glo.
I haven't had good luck with them.
Care to elaborate? When they first came on the scene (05?) they had some issues
with the fan thermo-disks, but resolved that problem within a year. I have sold
& installed probably 25 of them & had absolutely no issues since the T-D redesign.
They have a 2.75 Cu Ft firebox, a decent sized viewing area & throw tremendous
amounts of heat. Not sure if ALL of the OP's cited units do, but the Nothstar has the
option for adding one or more Heat Zones to the basic unit...One of my customers
uses that feature to warm his basement office, located UNDER the unit. Another heats
his entry foyer. My feelings are that it's a quality unit & I would've installed one in MY
home if it was on the market when I designed my A-frame...
Sure, my main problem with the North Star is the chimney. You have to use the SL300 series air-cooled pipe. It just doe not perform that well. At moderately cool temperatures it functions fine, but the colder it gets the worse it performs.
Interesting. We are probably just as cold here in upstate New York, but maybe the higher altitudes lead to the performance issues you cite. We have a unit in each of our showrooms, both of which are in severe negative pressure environments. I admit to having drafting issues starting a conventional fire, without opening a door, but we demonstrate the "top down" method to our customers & there are no performance issues at start up...
When it is really cold the chimney just doesn't have the draw to make it function correctly. Heat n Glo also requires the installation of the Chimney Air Kit (CAK4A) which besides adding another hole in the home, doesn't help the draw on the colder days.
The only hole we put in the home is thru the first fire deck, IN THE CHASE. We do NOT install the CAK4A to the outside. We seal the box around the SL300 vent & to the firebox with aluminum tape. The 4" corrugated aluminum flex is run up thru the sheetrock (or plywood) fire deck & into the cavity above the deck. That deck is covered with Kraft-faced insulation EXCEPT on the firestop, & the firestop is also sealed to the SL300 vent, so the cold air penetration is limited to the CAK
Add to that, that the SL300 pipe is much larger than Class-A pipe and can give a bit more trouble trying to meet clearances. So depending on where it will be located it could be fine. I know that here in the mountains of Colorado it seems to give some grief.
As far as clearances go, they are 2" to combustibles, the same as Class A. Since the unit is 23-1/8 deep, the chase from the unit supports up, aesthetically speaking, can be a continuous depth to the chase top. Even the ones we install WITHIN the envelope of the structure, have an internal chase to the ceiling, kinda making the clearance issues moot
Other than that, it is a good unit. It typically prices out pretty competitively to its competition, but I still feel there are better units out there.
I believe all the other units offer a heat distribution system also. I am not positive on the Regency, I will have to check. But the Bis and the RSF have a force heat distribution system available. The Bis Tradition gives you another option to connect it to your central air system, although it does loose its EPA rating when connected.
Hope that helps! Thanks
