Help deciding on fireplace?

[Beez01]

New to this site and looking for some help picking a high efficiency fireplace. I am building a new house with 2400 sqft main level with a full walkout basement below. Great room is vaulted and is a pretty open floor plan. Would like to have a blower to run to other parts of the house if possible. I am from southeast Kansas and most of the dealers I talked to are from Joplin Missouri.
I am trying to decide between the following.

FPX 44 elite
Heatilator constitution
Astria Montecito Estate
Valcourt FP-15-Waterloo
Hearthstone WFP-100 Montgomery

Any help would be appreciated. These seem to be the models that are close to me that I have looked at. Feel free to suggest any other that may suit me better.

 

[jetsam]

If it's new construction, you can do whatever you want. Why pay extra for a much worse heater designed to work around the problems of old fireplaces?

Be good to your heating bills and your construction costs. Get a freestanding stove.

 

[webby3650]

The 44 Elite is a much bigger heater than these other units you mentioned. It’s very complex to install and the cost is considerably higher. The unit itself may not be that much higher, but it’s very labor intensive, so labor will be high. It uses a remotely located blower outside the envelope of the home that creates a positive pressure inside the home. It does not have optional heat ducts for other rooms. Because of cooling vents that are required, it pretty much needs to be on or very near an outside wall.
You may consider the new FPX apex, it has an optional duct for an adjacent room and doesn’t require the cooling vents, so it’s more versatile.

These optional ducts on most units are pretty underwhelming. I wouldn’t get too hung up on this feature.

The hearthstone Montgomery is very pretty, but is substantially smaller than the Waterloo or the FPX. We’ve put in lots of these and they have been durable heaters. For reference, it’s the same firebox as the Valcourt FP-10, SBI makes this firebox for several different companies, each company finishes it out differently with hearthstone being the best looking in my opinion.

 

[webby3650]

If it's new construction, you can do whatever you want. Why pay extra for a much worse heater designed to work around the problems of old fireplaces?

Be good to your heating bills and your construction costs. Get a freestanding stove.

Several of these fireplaces mentioned are respectable heaters, especially an FPX. Monster heater!

 

[Beez01]

Thanks for your reply webby.

 

[Beez01]

Any thoughts on the heatilator constitution or the Astria Montecito estate?

 

[KCFlier]

Any thoughts on the heatilator constitution or the Astria Montecito estate?

I put in a barely used Constitution last fall.... I absolutely love this unit.
With your 2000+ Sq ft....this unit should be plenty in new construction, of course depending on factors like r value of walls, windows, etc.
I am north of you in Tonganoxie...main floor is 3000 Sq ft....6"walls....I could make it 80 degrees in the hearth room which is huge....and a few degrees cooler on the rest of the floor with fans blowing heat around....on the coldest days we have had.

 

[jetsam]

Several of these fireplaces mentioned are respectable heaters, especially an FPX. Monster heater!

There are many good units that work well out there, sure. I myself heat out of a fireplace with an insert, works fine.

Now if you were building a house, would you pay five or ten grand extra for a chase and a fake fireplace, or would you save the money and buy a stove that would have a lot of serious advantages over an insert or prefab?

 

[bholler]

There are many good units that work well out there, sure. I myself heat out of a fireplace with an insert, works fine.

Now if you were building a house, would you pay five or ten grand extra for a chase and a fake fireplace, or would you save the money and buy a stove that would have a lot of serious advantages over an insert or prefab?

The units he is talking about are stoves meant to be built into the wall. It is totally different from an insert. There is nothing fake about them at all.

 

[webby3650]

There are many good units that work well out there, sure. I myself heat out of a fireplace with an insert, works fine.

Now if you were building a house, would you pay five or ten grand extra for a chase and a fake fireplace, or would you save the money and buy a stove that would have a lot of serious advantages over an insert or prefab?

Many people prefer the look and feel of a fireplace. These are very respectable heaters. You don’t need a chase either, once it’s into the attic the chimney can be flashed through the roof traditionally. In fact, many of these units use the same chimney that a freestanding stove uses.

 

[dBrad]

Not sure I understand the shade some are throwing at the zero clearance units. Sure a free standing stove is a more efficient way to heat with wood, but efficiency isn't the only variable you're considering when building a new home.

We just built a new house and installed a Quadrafire 7100, a cousin to the Constitution in your list. Love it.

It supports ducting heat to another room, but as mentioned above I don't think it's really all that great at it. We chose not to do that after reading about it here.

We looked at the Montecito and FPX too. Good heaters, but we settled on the 7100 and would do so again.