Insert Options and Questions from a novice wood burner

[Snapster]

First a little background, I live in northern Baltimore County Maryland and am looking to put in a wood fireplace insert to heat most of my house. The house is fairly new, but only moderately insulated. I have a first floor, two story family room where my masonry fireplace (36W x 28D x 29H) is located. On the second floor there are bedrooms and a balcony overlooking the 2-story family room. Since the 2-story family room is open to the first and second floors the heat can easily rise upstairs. I have ~1000 sq ft to be heated on each floor. I have electric within 6 feet of the fireplace for a blower. I have don't have a strict budget for this and would like to find the price/performance value point then go a little higher.

So my questions are:
1. Brands that are trusted and known.
2. Must haves for my installation (I think I read about some kind of fireplace block to keep heat from going up the chimney)
3. Proper sizing and selection of insert
4. Local dealer and installer or web order and local installer?
5. If anyone is local, experiences with a local dealer who knows their stuff?
6. What range of cost am I looking at?
7. Anything else I'm forgetting?

Lots of questions, but I'm new to this. I'm sure this stuff has been gone over many many many times, but please don't tell me to just search, it's nearly impossible for me to filter through all of it and find the little pieces of info I need.
Thanks!

 

[jadm]

So my questions are:
1. Brands that are trusted and known.
2. Must haves for my installation (I think I read about some kind of fireplace block to keep heat from going up the chimney)
3. Proper sizing and selection of insert
4. Local dealer and installer or web order and local installer?
5. If anyone is local, experiences with a local dealer who knows their stuff?
6. What range of cost am I looking at?
7. Anything else I'm forgetting?

I will try to answer some of your questions. First, is your chimney interior or exterior?

1. I would recommend looking for local dealers (Yellow Pages in phone book under fireplaces is where I found stores in my area.) and going to as many stores as you can to look at what they have on their floors. It really makes a difference to see what you get for your money. You are looking for quality in workmanship and companies that stand behind their products.

You are also looking for dealers who know what they are talking about and that you learn by talking to them in person.

I know there is a lot here and it is overwhelming. Try to read through 'customer reviews' here on different brand names. It will give you some basic info. to have prior to going to a store and looking.

2. Many here recommend a block off plate at the damper area in your chimney - especially is your chimney is exterior. A stainless steel liner is also a must that runs the entire length of your chimney.

3. Many here suggest buying bigger rather than smaller. I didn't know about this site when I bought our first insert and only went to one store and was sold one that was too small.....Found out by using it. Decided to replace it a year ago which is when I found this site and did a lot of research....yes it was overwhelming but it paid off big time. The advantage of a bigger insert is that you can always build a smaller fire if it is warmer out. With a smaller insert you can't build bigger and may have trouble on cold, cold days.

4, 5, 6, and 7. Can't help here. Prices change. I know I paid about $2,000.00 for my insert last winter. Install is on top of that.

Oh yes - install costs. The store where you purchase your insert may do the installs or else you may hire a chimney sweep to do it. Just make sure whoever does it knows what they are doing. My first install was botched...Second is perfect and I had my sweeps do it. You can also do it yourself. Lots of info. here on how to do it.

Some basics - Inserts are going to be made of 3 materials. Either steel or cast iron or soapstone. All have slightly different properties. Steel heats up more quickly than cast and soapstone. Also cools more quickly. Cast heats up a bit more slowly and holds heat longer. THe soapstone takes the longest to heat and also holds that heat the longest.

Brands I researched included: Quadrifire, Hearthstone, Jotul, Lopi, Morso, Hampden and Bucks. I ended up with Jotul due to construction, capacity, reputation and it's looks.

To avoid overwhelm try reading just a bit here every day and soon it will begin to make sense.

Happy Hunting

 

[drdoct]

Lets see.... New Insert $2-4000, Stainless liner Kit... $350-$600. Install +-?.

I guess the first thing I would make sure of is that you actually have a masonry fireplace. The reason I'm saying that is because you say the house is fairly new and hardly anyone builds fireplaces anymore. Sure they doll them up with brick and stuff but most everything is Zero Clearance because they're so easy to install. After that you'll want to measure everything and (this is important) write it down. Be sure to measure your clearances to the mantle and your front hearth. Now comes the fun part. Go to every website of the stove makers and look around. First thing would be looking at the clearances to see if it will fit. After that... start weeding it down. Then post your choices you've come up with here. Be sure to put the 3 or so names of the stoves your trying to decide on in the subject line. This will get you some feedback. The review section on hearth.com sucks. It's the most useless part of the whole site. Everyone seems to know this, but noone has the solution. Anyway... you'll hear some good things and some bad. Then when you figure out which stove you want.... look up who carries it. Visit 2-3 stores in your area even if you have to drive a while. Get quotes... etc....

 

[DAKSY]

What range of cost am I looking at?

If you're going large, Regency (around here, anyway) I3100L will cost you about $4K installed.
Jotul C550 about $4.3K
Hampton HI300 about $4.5K

 

[oconnor]

We selected the Jotul Kennebec because it could be installed partially exposed to the room - the more steel you can see, the more heat you can get without the blower on. The Kennebec may be small for your install - I wish my insert would take wood loaded N/S, as it would let me get longer burns and less reloads, but I had to deal with a small space and tight fireplace. As well, look into the specs needed for floor protection - the Kennebec has a really high requirement, and I din't know that as early in the process as I would have liked.

All that to say that more steel exposed and a bigger firebox would be on my shopping list.

As well, consider a hearth mount stove instead of an insert if you have the room. I wish we had the room, but we don't.