Heatform fireplace with gas logs

[Hornbrd]

I bought my house about 7 months ago and have never had a fireplace so excuse some of my terminology. Now that the weather has finally got cold in south Alabama I have been using the fireplace. It is a huge brick fireplace with a metal heatform box and 2 vents on the bottom with a large vent above the fireplace. Everything seems to be in good condition, no rust or anything. I'm pretty sure it was once a wood fireplace and previous owner just added ventless gas logs. Is this legal or fine to do? The chimney is capped and the damper is closed. When I turn on the fans they are blowing out at the bottom which I believe is wrong. Should I reverse the way the fans are blowing? They just blow cool air out currently so is reversing the fans just a waste of time? Thanks for any help.

 

[DAKSY]

First of all, Welcome to Hearth.com...You're not gonna find too many fans of the house vented gas products here, myself included. There are some who okay them tho, & since you've got one, we can help you with answers to your questions. The reasons most of us don't endorse the product is that EVERYTHING given off as a by-product of the combustion process stays in your home, water vapor & CO being the two MAIN by-products... Burning the unit to take a chill off a room is probably OK, but I would hesitate to go to bed with it burning, & I would crack a window while it's in operation... You are correct in the fan directions. They should be drawing cooler air into the cavity around the firebox where it should pick up some heat from the steel body & pass that out into the room. If the Heatform doesn't pick up too much heat, then I wouldn't even turn them on, but it's worth a try just to see.