Heat and Glo COSMO I30 - Any Good? Is it a new version? Does it have a fan?

i will be totally honest , they are nice units and yes they do have blowers you can have the fancy remote as well that controls the flame height , temp , blowers , etc...but since they came out with these units i have had more complaints , and service calls because they have issues that the man. are working out but not fast enough. there have been problems with bad blowers or the blowers vibrate too much and sound like a chainsaw , fronts are too heavy and cause the inserts to tip , bad control modules . i install these units and service them and for the money you are going to spend it's not worth the hassel . now i have had some with no problems and that seems to be a 50/50 chance .

usually the warranty is 1 yr.

We have not had any problems with them when installed correctly.

They come stock with a blower.

There are "tip kits" available if the unit is tippy with a certain front on it, and they added these kits to more of the fronts now due to unforeseen problems. Its a bar that screws to the front of unit and wedges in the opening behind the panel. Keeps the unit stable.

We have been installing 2-4 of the metal inserts a week since the new ones came out and they have been very reliable for us. We have more problems with the firebrick units than anything.

Oh and don't worry about your wife running it just for the looks. Inadvertently she will be heating the room she is in, and the furnace should run less. That will offset the cost of the gas it uses.

we have been installing them like hot cakes , but some have issues and some work great . my main concern is the blower vibration there has to be something to stop the vibe. everything else goes great but then on the test run before we leave the blowers vibrate . really these are nice units i have just had a rough time working out the bugs . and just yesterday i found out about the tip kits. jtp10181 have you heard anything for the vibration mabye some kind of pad ?

fireplace tech said:

we have been installing them like hot cakes , but some have issues and some work great . my main concern is the blower vibration there has to be something to stop the vibe. everything else goes great but then on the test run before we leave the blowers vibrate . really these are nice units i have just had a rough time working out the bugs . and just yesterday i found out about the tip kits. jtp10181 have you heard anything for the vibration mabye some kind of pad ?

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The most recent field update has info about it, there is a lengthy "New Inserts FAQ" document. They called it a "harmonic resonance". They updated the mounting bracket for the fan to fix the problem. There is a part number you can order for replacement brackets to fix any old units.

We just had a cosmo installed. The thing was wired wrong (didn't take out the rheostat and sensor out of the circuit when hooked up to remote). I pulled the install pdf off the web and fixed it, to find that when the blower is on and the door is closed, there is very little air moving into the room. When I open the door, the blower clearly is moving air very well but it is hitting the back of the upper part of the door when the door is closed. Is this thing missing a part? Should there be something diverting the air down through door's screen opening and into the room? (please see picture of unit) As it is working currently, it seems like a bad design.

Otherwise am pretty happy, except for the unit tipping forward when I open the door.

kkhender said:

We just had a cosmo installed. The thing was wired wrong (didn't take out the rheostat and sensor out of the circuit when hooked up to remote). I pulled the install pdf off the web and fixed it, to find that when the blower is on and the door is closed, there is very little air moving into the room. When I open the door, the blower clearly is moving air very well but it is hitting the back of the upper part of the door when the door is closed. Is this thing missing a part? Should there be something diverting the air down through door's screen opening and into the room? (please see picture of unit) As it is working currently, it seems like a bad design.

Otherwise am pretty happy, except for the unit tipping forward when I open the door.

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I checked our showroom display today and it is the same as yours. Not really sure why it comes with a fan when the front totally blocks the air flow from it.

Also about the tipping, there is a bar that should have come with the front that is screwed to the unit and wedged in the fireplace opening to keep it from tipping. If that front is still not coming with the bar, the dealer can order the bar separately, probably under warranty.

I visited my local dealer and picked up several brochures. He recommended to stay with trusted brands ie HeatnGlo, Mendota, Regency. Since we are looking for a contemporary modern design the Cosmo seemed like the one to go with however, after reading this thread, I am now having doubts. Are there really that many problems with this unit as posted above? Is HeatnGlo aware of these issues and are they addressing them? As for the noisy blower it sounds like they have used a cheap unit inside.

Gregg

There are some problems with them, and Heat & Glo is addressing them as they come up. Its a new unit that just came out this year. I'm sure they worked great in the lab...

Inferno

Thank you for the reply. I am looking for a unit which will not give me problems. Other units which I considered were Mendota Full View and Regency Energy. Any feedback on these two units?

Thanks

jtp10181 said:

There are some problems with them, and Heat & Glo is addressing them as they come up. Its a new unit that just came out this year. I'm sure they worked great in the lab...

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i have a question for you we have sold quite a few of the ndi30 (heatilator) i have been back to a house 3 times trying to help out a customer,its a ipi unit.i solved the crooked door problem,surround installed with the shipping bracket in place,installer decided to drill his own holes and the surround was installed an inch higher on one side and a inch and a quarter on the other.this also caused the unit to cycle on and off because the glass would not seat properly,cold air spilling out the bottom of the glass.now the fan seems to be giving them problems,installer called me and said when the customer turned the fan on the sparks flew out of the area of the speed control and snap disc,wanted a new fan,i went to the customers house with a snap disc and speed control ,replaced both double checked all wiring that i could see so that it wasnt touching the top portion of the control area,could not really get a good look at the wiring harness on the fans without tearing the insert out,anyway the fan turned on seemed to work great,got a call yesterday,same thing customer turned his fan on and the sparks flew,have you run into this because we have not had one issue with these units other than this one,melted wire somewhere in the fan harness??? fan screwed????? what are your thoughts

Only issue we had was our showroom display had a wire pinched really bad in the bracket for the rheostat, one of the sales people got zapped by it and fried the rheostat. After I replaced that, it works fine now. If you remove the rheostat bracket you should be able to see the wire harness for the fan. Its is zip tied in, but if you cut those off you can pull it forward to inspect it. Maybe one of the 6 connector plugs is not seated all the way and has bare metal exposed, which is shorting out on the chassis sometimes.