Blower question for gas fireplace insert

What happened when you contacted your local Napoleon dealer to buy a blower? If you go to Napoleons website there is a dealer locator there.

Yes, call a dealer.

For the wood stove, you should post in the wood section of the forums.

I will give you this though, have you checked your cap for blockage? The cap could be clogged up, that the most common reason for smoke back, esp out of the pipe joints.

Heaterhunter said:

I initially tried to get all the info from the Napoleon website. Wanted to print owners manual. Couldn't find on the website so attempted to contact them via email. Never heard back in 10 days. My next thought was to contact a dealer. I contacted 2 dealers that didn't want to take any time to help. I was told they didn't know anything about my model and got the picture they weren't about to try and find out. Then called a third and they determined the blower I needed(one I mentioned above) by emailing their Napoleon Rep and reluctantly gave me this information. He wanted to know if he should order it for me at tune of $250. I told him fireplaceblowersonline.com had that kit for $111.00 he replied "That's why the other dealers didn't help you" and promply got off the phone. Haven't been happy with Napoleon so far or their dealers. Am I off base here? Should I spend $139 more for the kit to pay homage to the stove shop in NH for their 10 minutes of research which the Napoleon Rep did? Anyways, just happy to know that the fireplace will take that kit and hopefully I'll get much more heat out of the unit into the room.

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when you contact people during the busiest time of the year you cant expect prompt service from everyone, unfortunately

I thought that fireplaceblowersonline.com site looked like a scam when I was on there the other day. The blowers I checked, their prices are near or below normal dealer cost. Also I do not believe HHT (Heat & Glo, etc...) allows / condones selling their product online, due to support issues (there is no dealer for support when purchased online). Also like half the stuff on there it says it is "out of stock".

Looks to me like a big web page with lots of links and product info repeated over and over to get good ranks on the search engines. They will probably load it with ads after they start getting more traffic.

jtp10181 said:

I thought that fireplaceblowersonline.com site looked like a scam when I was on there the other day. The blowers I checked, their prices are near or below normal dealer cost. Also I do not believe HHT (Heat & Glo, etc...) allows / condones selling their product online, due to support issues (there is no dealer for support when purchased online). Also like half the stuff on there it says it is "out of stock".

Looks to me like a big web page with lots of links and product info repeated over and over to get good ranks on the search engines. They will probably load it with ads after they start getting more traffic.

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Hi, my name is Jason Baker. I'm the webmaster of fireplaceblowersonline.com. JTP, thanks for the feedback. I always love to hear opinions on the website. This pushes us continually improve our product and website.

I can tell you with absolute confidence that nothing on our website is a scam. I've been a professional web developer for 15 years, and yes, I know how to rank organically in search engines very well. The business is owned by my father Terry. It works out well that he owns a manufacturing company and has a software engineer son. Good for us, bad for our competitors I suppose =)

The reason we list our products the way we do isn't necessarily to rank well, but rather make it very easy for the typical home owner to find the correct blower kit for their fireplace. Most home owner's are surprised to find out they can even install a blower kit, let alone know exactly which kit is required in their unit. This is the reason we list our kits by fireplace make and model.

All of the kits we sell are aftermarket kits. Unlike most of our competitors who purchase their inventory from third party suppliers - we are the supplier. We manufacturer, assemble, and test all of our kits in Racine, WI and own our tool and die. This allows to have full control over the entire production cycle; thereby allowing us to provide a great product at unmatched prices.

We love to hear constructive criticism about the website, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. We're constantly making improvements to our site. And the only kit we currently do not have in stock is the GFK-160. Our tooling has already been completed, we've been sent samples, but made a last minute revision to ensure the highest quality blower. It's for this reason you see 'out of stock" on the GFK-160 kit only.

And P.S. You'll never see a single add on our site. All of our products are backed up with a full 1 year warranty, and you won't find a better fireplace blower purchasing experience.

You should list that the blowers are not original mfg equipment on your site. It is misleading to consumers. Now that I look very close at the pictures I can see your sticker on some, and the snap discs are different. A normal consumer would not know this. The way they are listed on the site using the same part number is purposefully misleading, making people believe they are the same fan kits they can get from a dealer.

Depends on the fireplace. For the built in gas fireplaces we install, I can put in a blower in 5-10 minutes. For an insert it actually has to be removed so the blower can go in from the back. I have seen some units where the entire burner and access tray have to come out to get the blower in because there is not enough room from the front bottom area. You might have to disconnect the gas line to get it in depending on how much room there is under there.

I hope that thing came with install instructions.

jtp10181 said:

You should list that the blowers are not original mfg equipment on your site. It is misleading to consumers. Now that I look very close at the pictures I can see your sticker on some, and the snap discs are different. A normal consumer would not know this. The way they are listed on the site using the same part number is purposefully misleading, making people believe they are the same fan kits they can get from a dealer.

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Thanks for your feedback, I certainly appreciate the advice!! We actually have a large website roll planned in the next couple of days addressing this amongst other content related issues. We have no intention on being misleading and only use the OEM part numbers to make it easy for folks to locate the proper equipment. From what I've seen in most cases, the OEM equipment is no better than our aftermarket kits. On top of that, the OEM's are charging in many cases 200% more than what we charge for a comparable aftermarket kit. Furthermore, we supply to dealers at a fraction of what they're purchasing the kits for.

kbaker13 said:

jtp10181 said:

You should list that the blowers are not original mfg equipment on your site. It is misleading to consumers. Now that I look very close at the pictures I can see your sticker on some, and the snap discs are different. A normal consumer would not know this. The way they are listed on the site using the same part number is purposefully misleading, making people believe they are the same fan kits they can get from a dealer.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your feedback, I certainly appreciate the advice!! We actually have a large website roll planned in the next couple of days addressing this amongst other content related issues. We have no intention on being misleading and only use the OEM part numbers to make it easy for folks to locate the proper equipment. From what I've seen in most cases, the OEM equipment is no better than our aftermarket kits. On top of that, the OEM's are charging in many cases 200% more than what we charge for a comparable aftermarket kit. Furthermore, we supply to dealers at a fraction of what they're purchasing the kits for.

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A couple of other things you might want to take into consideration are as follows.

UL Listing, the OEM fan kits are UL listed and tested to be safe for use in their fireplaces. If someone installs anything else in there they have voided the warranty and also the UL listing on the fireplace. If there is ever a catastrophic event this fact could come into play. Seems like it should not be an issue with a blower but you never know.

Patented Designs, the fan kits on the site look essentially identical to the OEM fans. I am not sure what kinds of patents various mfg's might hold on design or parts but this could be a legal issue if someones sales were threatened enough by the aftermarket fans.

Time will tell if we start seeing customers with your fans in their fireplaces, and if we have to go install or service them...

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Heaterhunter, not all inserts are the same. If there is room in yours you might be able to slide it in from the front. On all the inserts we sell the fan goes in from the back because the front cavity is not large enough for the fan to fit through.

UL and CA listing are in the works and we have full product liability coverage. As with any website, it's a work in progress. I do my best to upload as much content to the website, our blog, Facebook and Twitter. We're also publishing a lot of videos to Youtube and receiving great feedback as a result. We'd also like to become much more active on this site and help out in any way we can. As with any forum, I believe in following the rules, and like to familiarize myself with the site's culture and policies before making a bunch of posts.

Thanks again for your feedback...much appreciated!

jtp10181 said:

kbaker13 said:

jtp10181 said:

You should list that the blowers are not original mfg equipment on your site. It is misleading to consumers. Now that I look very close at the pictures I can see your sticker on some, and the snap discs are different. A normal consumer would not know this. The way they are listed on the site using the same part number is purposefully misleading, making people believe they are the same fan kits they can get from a dealer.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your feedback, I certainly appreciate the advice!! We actually have a large website roll planned in the next couple of days addressing this amongst other content related issues. We have no intention on being misleading and only use the OEM part numbers to make it easy for folks to locate the proper equipment. From what I've seen in most cases, the OEM equipment is no better than our aftermarket kits. On top of that, the OEM's are charging in many cases 200% more than what we charge for a comparable aftermarket kit. Furthermore, we supply to dealers at a fraction of what they're purchasing the kits for.

Click to expand...

A couple of other things you might want to take into consideration are as follows.

UL Listing, the OEM fan kits are UL listed and tested to be safe for use in their fireplaces. If someone installs anything else in there they have voided the warranty and also the UL listing on the fireplace. If there is ever a catastrophic event this fact could come into play. Seems like it should not be an issue with a blower but you never know.

Patented Designs, the fan kits on the site look essentially identical to the OEM fans. I am not sure what kinds of patents various mfg's might hold on design or parts but this could be a legal issue if someones sales were threatened enough by the aftermarket fans.

Time will tell if we start seeing customers with your fans in their fireplaces, and if we have to go install or service them...

-----

Heaterhunter, not all inserts are the same. If there is room in yours you might be able to slide it in from the front. On all the inserts we sell the fan goes in from the back because the front cavity is not large enough for the fan to fit through.

Click to expand...

Additionally, we're working on better instructions. Because many of these kits can be used in a high number of gas fireplaces, it's often difficult to include instructions specific to each make and model. Owner's manual instructions are often limited as well. However, we're doing our best to provide the most accurate instructions possible. Although installing a blower kit isn't rocket science, it's often a scarey process for many DIY owners. We're moving to videos to help demonstrate this process as best we can.

paying homage.... if i were you, i would try to contact a fireplace dealer in your area and start up a relationship with them.chances are you will be in need of some of their service and or parts in the future.
what happens to us dealers is we do take the time to research your blower, even though you didnt buy the unit from us...we make the calls, wait for the rep to call us back....research the part, get the price ( which is NOT determined by us)...then we get back to you with the info and you proceed to tell us you can get it somewhere else cheaper.
this is why dealers are a bit reluctant to research your parts and problems for you.
when you spend money online not 1 dollar of that goes back into your community.
like i said, find a shop near by, start a relationship with them. dont pick their brain and then go buy online.