Insert most like an open fire?

[Tjm]

Friend just got the oh so typical news that his big beautiful open fireplace has cracked tiles and isn’t useable as it. Of course the suggestion is that the most economical thing to do is install an insert with a liner. He’s hesitant to do an insert because he really enjoys open fireplaces but acknowledges that an insert would be more useful from a heating perspective.
So… any advise on what insert out there is the most like an open fireplace or maybe there is even one that can be burned with the glass open?

 

[EmberEnergy]

There are wood burning inserts that have large viewing areas and load more East-West rather than North-South like the Hearthstone Clydesdale or the Fireplace X NexGen Fyre or Hybrid Fyre. Not the same as an open fireplace but could be enough to sway. Has your friend been around or experienced the warmth or light shows of a wood burner?

For me as a new stover, I was pleasantly surprised with the light show of the secondary burn tubes with flames dancing around on the top of the firebox barely connected to the wood below, like flames dripping up against gravity. The radiant warmth sitting in front of the insert is also very strong. I get my open flame fix outside with a firepit.

And on the bright side, if tiles need to come out to fit a liner, it looks like the work is already started and boy I wish my tiles were in bad shape instead of pristine and mortared in place, when I had to remove them to fit my liner down.

 

[john26]

SBI inserts like Osburn, Drolet, and Enerzone offer screens for open burn as an option but honestly after it is used for a while the screen will probably wind up on a shelf and forgot about.

 

[Tjm]

Thanks! I’ll check out sbi. ( also sent him some videos of my pretty flame shows lol )

 

[bigealta]

Yup my wife grew up in NYC and "Had to have" an open fire. She had no idea about wood stoves. I think she thought they were some type of hillbilly contraption, nope not for her. Well i had a woodstove in the fireplace when she moved in and after a few days she completely turned 180 degrees after coming inside from a cold nasty winter day. The heat is just so much better, and in our case the room with the stove can get to 80F. Hard to not like that when it's freezing outside.

And when the power went out for 10 days after hurricane Sandy, we were nice and warm the whole time, and did not worry about the house and pipes freezing.

So wood stove or insert gets 2 thumbs up.

 

[EmberEnergy]

Yup my wife grew up in NYC and "Had to have" an open fire. She had no idea about wood stoves. I think she thought they were some type of hillbilly contraption, nope not for her. Well i had a woodstove in the fireplace when she moved in and after a few days she completely turned 180 degrees after coming inside from a cold nasty winter day. The heat is just so much better, and in our case the room with the stove can get to 80F. Hard to not like that when it's freezing outside.

And when the power went out for 10 days after hurricane Sandy, we were nice and warm the whole time, and did not worry about the house and pipes freezing.

So wood stove or insert gets 2 thumbs up.

You had me at "hillbilly contraption." Probably something highly functional and a good value.

The heating redundancy was one of my main reasons to get a wood heater. That, and, fire good.

 

[stoveliker]

That, and, fire good.

^^