napoleon 6000

[Wife of Ed]

I am a newby but have spent hours exploring this site.
We have are building a 4100 sf, well insulated home in Collingwood Ontario. I want a fire that the family can sit around on cold weekend evenings (-10F sometimes). - needless to say my husband wants an efficient fireplace. The other option we/I are looking at is a decorative fireplace such as the Valcourt Frontenac or the Napoleon 8000.


We have forced air and a boiler for radiant floor heating.. We don't really need the heat but would like to save on propane, and we have lots of maple in our woodshed.

Based on large viewing area to date we are considering:

Napoleon 6000
Valcourt Waterloo
Fx Elite 44

I like the look of the Napoleon 6000 but I can't find any recent reviews on this forum. Google come up with problems with door sagging and lack of EPA certification and poor dealer support but comments are all old.


1. Comments on the Napoleon 6000, have they fixed some of the problems they had?

2. Can we run an efficient fireplace with doors open for a few hours a day?

Is there a reasonable compromise?

 

[rwhite]

Could you explain what you mean by efficient fireplace?

 

[Wife of Ed]

SORRY, I MEAN EPA CERTIFIED AS OPPOSED TO DECORATIVE, although I realise that the Napoleon 6000 isn't EPA certified I would still like comments about it. Is there a reason that it is not even mentioned very often in this forum?

 

[begreen]

Not EPA certified, door latch had some complaints and if I recall correctly the door hinges were inadequate for the weight and became an issue for owners. This was a while back. Not sure if they have addressed these issues or not. The Quad 7100 might be a nice alternative.

 

[Wife of Ed]

Thx.