Need help/advice on purchasing ZC High Efficiency Fireplace.

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pocono53

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Sep 23, 2014
54
Northeast PA
I wanted to get some input from you guys on purchasing one of the ZC high efficiency fireplaces that are on the market. I have about 3 weeks to make a decision.

The house is in Northeast PA and the fireplace will be installed in a 20x20 great room, with cathedral celing, that is being built off the back of the house. The house now is a 24x30 foot rancher I am adding a 24x24 foot 2 story addition to. The great room connects to 10 feet of the addtion and 10 feet of the original house and the openings are wide.

For the most part I'm looking to heat the addition and the great room, assume 1,500 square or so and its a vacation home that is used part time

I narrowed down the list to this long list
;Quad 7100
RSF Opel 3
KozyHeat z42
Osbourn Stratford
Fireplace Extrodinare Elite 36 or 44
Napolean NZ
BIS Panorama

I know there's a big difference in price with the above stoves but I want something that looks decent and will heat the house.
Are the blowers that go to other rooms worth spending the money on?
Do all of these require the expensive stainless steel pipe?
Are the some that heat better where the blower isn;t needed?

Any advice is greatly welcomed. In terms of price.... I am struggling with the idea of buying a Quad 7100 that could cost 2 to 3,000 more than the Kozy Heat for example.

Thanks in advance
 
How much will this be used in the winter? Do you honestly want to run it 100% of the time while you are in the residence? Or will it be for ambiance?

With an insert, the blower on the stove is paramount. It gets the heat out and is needed. One advantage of a freestanding stove versus an insert is that the blower may be helpful, but isn't as necessary as it is on an insert.

As far as the chimney goes, they are all going to need the same.

Good luck, and I hope you have firewood that is really well seasoned (at least a year cut, split and stacked) to be ready for the game. If not, start looking around at your stove dealer, Tractor Supply or other stores, to buy a ton or a few of the compressed fuel blocks to get you through the first season while you get your wood needs ready for upcoming winters.

pen
 
These are zero clearance units not inserts pen and yes they will all need blowers to distribute the heat most will put out a little heat with the blower off if the power goes out but not as much. And yes they need a stainless chimney.
 
My apologies for the poor wording. I do, however, believe the advice/suggestions will still stand.

If I am wrong, please correct me there, too.

pen
 
Absolutly penThe advise is still very good and i knew you knew that it just bothers me when the wrong term is used there. There is enough confusion between the 2 for some people without us making it worse
 
Agreed. Did not intend on making it worse. I just see both units as being enclosed, and made a generalization.
 
Kozy, BIS, RSF & FPX are top quality units.
 
This is going to be used mostly on weekends during the winter when we are at the cabin. Less for ambiance but more for heat from my point of view. Wife doesn;t want a free standing stove in the great room so she;s about the ambiance LOL.

The entire house is electric heat which is expensive so on weekends I wanted to put my costs.

I'll check out the pacfic engergy ones.

So it looks like I definitely need the blower kit for the unit. You guys have any advice on the duct kits that you can buy for 5 to 600 that mover heat to other rooms? Do they work, are they worth the money or will the fireplace be ale to handle heating things? Should have mention we are putting 2 ceiling fans in the great room to move the air
 
For the size of the room & house, and with cathedral ceilings, the ceiling fans are a good plan to help circulate the heated air. Of course everything depends on the layout of the place. The more wide open the layout, the better the heated air may move. The duct kit on that size place, in my book would be another to do in the plan. Any rooms at the furthest points from the room with the fireplace, will be tough to heat without some help &/or a very good convection loop of the home air.
 
Hello,

I put in in a Flame Monaco last year and have had no complaints about it at all. It has good burn times and I added a gravity kit and duct it to the upstairs hall. I love it. Now if I can finish the putting the fireplace surround and hearth on it my wife would love it even more.

http://www.efireplacestore.com/cpf-93375.html

btw it is the same unit as the osburn but cheaper and fits a lot of chimneys.
 
Given that you are going to be trying to warm up a cold place go up a size to a 2.5 or 3 cu ft fireplace. It takes a lot of continual heat to do that. The Monaco is 2.5 cu ft.

Of your original list of fireplaces, which one appeals to you the most?
 
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You might also want to look at its sister stove, the Valcourt Lafayette, also by SBI. The PE FP30 should be a good performer. It's based on the PE Summit stove.
 
Stumbled across the fp30. Anyone have one? Everything I read was positive. Do these sit flush on the floor or do they have legs? Looks like the box is elevated within the unit by 6 to 9 inches
 
The FP30 is the fireplace version of the Pacific Energy Summit stove. You can get the Summit with a pedestal or the classic version with legs.
 
chimneysweeponline.com is probably the only place online that you are going to find that you can buy a PE stove. Tom has been selling their stoves so long he was grandfathered when PE outlawed Internet sales.
 
pocono53 said:
Anyone know where I can buy the PAcific FP30 online only found on place and wanted to check pricing.
Click to expand...

The chimneysweep (Tom Oyen) is the only place that is authorized to sell PE stoves online. You will have to visit or call a local dealer to receive other prices.
 
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