FPX Elite 44 vs RSF Opel 3

Hello all, I need some help in choosing a fireplace for my house that is going to be built this next summer. In my research Hearth.com kept coming up so I thought I would join and just ask. The house that we are planning on building is 2600sqft with 9 ft ceilings on the first floor. The fireplace will be on the first floor. Their are three bedrooms as well as a family room on the second floor. The first floor has a living room, kitchen, dining room, master and an office. The fireplace will be on an exterior wall and the face of the fireplace will be flush with the wall. What ever fireplace we choose needs to be EPA certified since we have a strict fire burning policy in the area. The fireplace also needs to be zero clearance because that's just what we want.

We have considered the Lennox Montecito Estate/BIS Tradition, Valcourt FP9, but the closest dealer that their website says is their dealer has never heard of them. Which brings us to the FPX and the RSF. If we did the RSF Opel 3 we would do a clean face kit and hook it into the Central Heating system. Also I would have to find someone to install it or do it myself since the nearest dealer is about an hour and a half away and is not very interested in doing the install.

So I guess my question is which fireplace will keep our house the warmest in the winter with the heat spread throughout the house as evenly as possible? We don't want it 90 degrees in the living room and 65 in one of the bedrooms. What can we expect for burn times for the FPX and the RSF considering that we don't have any real hardwood around here to burn? My wife likes the look of the FPX mostly because it is big, but she said that she would go with what ever would heat the house better. How well does the FPX posi pressure work compared to just hooking into the central heating ducts with the RSF?

From what I have read the FPX puts off a ton of heat we just want to make sure that heat moves throughout the house and whenever I see someone comment on the RSF they just say "it heats my 3000sqft house well". So which would be better for us?

Thanks

jonwright said:

I have an FPX44. Where this unit sits is a sunken 600 ft2 room with 25' vaulted ceiling. That unit will flat heat that room up in two hours from 68 to 75 in about 2 hrs from the time I light the wood - I'm able to use Oak. It's easy to build fires in the unit and control - but it does want to burn quickly for sure. Could be my 35' of chimney, dunno. Easy to get a fire going in it. The rest of the house gets rather comfy, too when I've had the chance to run it for the day for sure.

I can also tell you that for in my area, the mere thought of hooking up a fireplace to an HVAC unit freaked out the folks around here I talked to - so if you are banking on doing that with the Opel do your research and talk to folks before you buy. Hooking up to your HVAC, although doable, is something I'd consider very carefully before I did it myself. Several HVAC folks had horror stories to tell so they flat refused to even consider it. And you'll also need to be sure your air handler can deal with the increased temperature if the air if I recall correctly.

Obviously I liked the FPX as it has a real clean look and didn't have the vents and louvers of the other units, and I'm telling you - it'll put out the BTU's for sure. I also was able to hook mine up for outside air since I'm in a temperate zone.

I'd be less concerned with hooking up the FPX myself as the manual is pretty detailed. And don't kid yourself - whatever unit you get and whether it's hooked up to the HVAC or not, the room the unit is located will be warmer than the other rooms. I have a variable speed blower for one of my HVAC units so when I turn my fan on it's a low RPM setting that just moves air around. Really helps I believe.

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Thank you for the info. We are currently leaning towards the fpx but are just worried that it won't get the heat to the entire house.

Thanks for the information. My wife really likes the idea of the central heat option, but we will see. What are your guys thoughts on having cold exterior air circulate through the fireplace. I was talking with a family friend yesterday from my hometown who sells both the rsf and the fpx and he was a little worried about the cold air where I live for the fpx. He was talking to me more as a friend since it would be a 4 hour drive one way for him to sell me a fireplace. We get down to single digits at night and sometimes below zero in the winter. He was telling me though that either way they both should heat the house well.