Kozy Heat or Flame Monaco

[Withoutink]

We have narrowed down our search to either the inexpensive Flame Monaco or the Z42 by Kozy.

Any thoughts one way or another on these two units?

I read a lot of posts, but I think at this point my brain is on overload.

We have a small budget for the ZC as we have to demo out and install a chimney.

Do I have to worry about the short 10yr warranty on the Kozy at all?

Any last thoughts on these units so we can make a final decision?

Thanks in advance.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I've never even laid eyes on a Flame Monaco but I have a Kozy Heat Z42 CD in my living room that is coming up on 5 years of burning... Other than ash cleanout and a small out of routine stuff (door gaskets etc) it's been pretty maintenance free. The door gaskets do seem to be a bit of a weak point. The groove for them isn't very deep so they rely almost entirely on the adhesive/sealant to keep them in place. I've had to redo my gaskets every year. The shield that goes on the front lip of the ceramic shield and fire-bricks that are above the burner tubes does deteriorate over time. This past spring, for the first time in 4 years I did a little more work than the usual ash cleanout. I went to a local fab shop and had a new, heavy-duty stainless "shield" bent up and removed all the fire-bricks to do a full cleanout. Everything seems to be holding up well and I'm confident that it will cruise past the 10 year warranty period without any issues.

I run my Kozy-heat hard, heating a 4,000 SF house 100% with it plus letting some heat spill into the garage when I'm out there working.

A tip: Get the cast door model. It may cost a bit more but I'm glad I did. Because it has such a large door opening but only a 6" flue any time you open it up you will get some smoke spillage, the cast door model gives you a little more versatility on how large of an opening you expose. IE, by only opening 1 door I can contain all the smoke and don't have to worry about spillage except when the draft is particularly bad. I can only imagine that if I had a single door that opened it all the way up it would belch out lots of smoke when the draft is bad.

 

[Withoutink]

I've never even laid eyes on a Flame Monaco but I have a Kozy Heat Z42 CD in my living room that is coming up on 5 years of burning... Other than ash cleanout and a small out of routine stuff (door gaskets etc) it's been pretty maintenance free. The door gaskets do seem to be a bit of a weak point. The groove for them isn't very deep so they rely almost entirely on the adhesive/sealant to keep them in place. I've had to redo my gaskets every year. The shield that goes on the front lip of the ceramic shield and fire-bricks that are above the burner tubes does deteriorate over time. This past spring, for the first time in 4 years I did a little more work than the usual ash cleanout. I went to a local fab shop and had a new, heavy-duty stainless "shield" bent up and removed all the fire-bricks to do a full cleanout. Everything seems to be holding up well and I'm confident that it will cruise past the 10 year warranty period without any issues.

I run my Kozy-heat hard, heating a 4,000 SF house 100% with it plus letting some heat spill into the garage when I'm out there working.

A tip: Get the cast door model. It may cost a bit more but I'm glad I did. Because it has such a large door opening but only a 6" flue any time you open it up you will get some smoke spillage, the cast door model gives you a little more versatility on how large of an opening you expose. IE, by only opening 1 door I can contain all the smoke and don't have to worry about spillage except when the draft is particularly bad. I can only imagine that if I had a single door that opened it all the way up it would belch out lots of smoke when the draft is bad.

This right here is awesome info....

We have a 4k sq ft home too, on three levels. granted I do not expect any heater to realistically put out that amount of heat across three floors. I would be perfectly happy if it heats the main floor + a tiny bit of residual heat upstairs. Do you force the air anywhere, via forced air kits? Or is this all done simply by you running it hard. I probably wont want to run mine too hard, but it's interesting to know.

Any other helpful hints about the Kozy z42 / cd, I really appreciated the help