New home construction: wood-burning insert confusion

[linneamae]

I have searched through these forums and I'm not finding much info on the particular models I've been pricing. I am so overwhelmed and afraid of making a decision I will regret. I hope someone can help.
We are in the process of building our first home and are putting in a fireplace. In our previous home, we had a beast of a woodburning stove in the basement and we loved it.
In the new house, we are putting a fireplace in the main living area (open concept with LR/DR and kitchen all in one main area.) The house is prow-front and the fireplace will be centered that part that bows out between the dining room and kitchen. I'm attaching a pic of the floorplan. We live in Minnesota. The house is going to be really well insulated, but the fireplace is going to be on the north side of the house with some big windows on each side.
I don't need this to heat the bedrooms that much - I'm okay with that end of the house being a little cooler. Just want a nice and cozy main living area, without LOSING a bunch of heat in the rest of the house and kicking the furnace on to make up for it.

When I first went into the fireplace store, I was adamant about wanting to have a big firebox, with a large view of the fire. She had me convinced that I could heat most of the upstairs really well with the 42 inch HeatnGlo Exclaim with glass doors. Her reasoning was the size of the firebox.

http://www.heatnglo.com/Products/Exclaim-Wood-Fireplace.aspx
Price was 2600.00

After some research, I realized this fireplace was probably going to be a disappointment, and that in order to not be wasting heat, I would probably need to go with a gasketed, EPA type insert. I don't really understand everything I read regarding this, but I at least got that much out of my research lol. If I'm wrong about this, please let me know!

So I went to another store and the woman there wanted to sell me the Vermont Magestic WarmMajic 36 inch.
(broken link removed)
Claims to be 'Heat Circulating' with a fan system and 'fully insulated' Price: 1999.00

My concerns with it: Price is great but it is small and just has the bi-fold doors. I just don't see how I could get much heat out of this.

When I told her I was thinking about sacrificing fire-viewing for a more efficient system, she still wanted to sell me the WarmMajic, claiming it would do the job, but also showed me the Vermont Stratton
http://adamsstove.com/stratton.htm
Price, including blower $4000.00

My concerns with it: For that price it still seems so small. It just seems like at that price point I should be able to get a bigger firebox??

So I called another place and she told me about the Heatilator SC60.
http://www.heatilator.com/Products/SC60-Wood-Fireplace.aspx
Says it comes with a fan, and the standard model is Bi-fold doors but she said can add 'gasketed door' for an additional $900, bringing the price to about $3400.00.

My concerns: I can't hardly find anything online regarding this unit other than what is on the manufacturers website. The woman was really touting some 70,000 BTUs claim, but I can't even tell if 'gasketed doors' puts it on par with the other EPA-type efficient models or not. It's not labeled that way and I just don't know enough.

Another one she told me about is the Heat&glo Northstar, It's gorgeous and deeper than most of the others but that's getting a little higher on price than I'm comfortable with at $4800.00. If it's worth it than it's worth it, but I just don't know....

I don't expect anyone to 'pick' a fireplace for me, I just want someone to help me prioritize. Yes I would love a bigger 'fire-view' but am willing to sacrifice that for better efficiency. I just need something that will heat most of that floor of the house, and I don't know if I should be looking for a bigger firebox, or if one of these will do the trick. I just can't stop obsessing about how small they are, after the big stove we used to have.

All of this talk about blowers is confusing me too. It would be nice to have a blower, but I don't want a fireplace that HAS to have the blowers on all the time in order to get heat more than 5 feet away from the fireplace if that makes sense. Is it silly to even consider trying to heat a large area with a simple, bi-fold door insert with a blower? My gut tells me it is silly, but the price-point is tempting.

Please help if you can, the builder is getting on my case for an answer but I'm so overwhelmed.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share their knowledge.

 

[xman23]

So why do the fireplace, if your going to put a insert in it. The stove is a much better fireplace. Even if you use the stove as often as you would use a fireplace.

 

[Lake Girl]

Welcome to the forum! What are you planning on for primary heat? How does the fireplace fit into your heating scheme? From what I've seen through forum members, many with zc fireplaces retrofit to inserts or replace them with free standing stoves because of poor heat production. YMMV

 

[blacktail]

Are you confusing inserts with zero clearance fireplaces? Inserts are woodstoves that are designed to be inserted into a fireplace.

 

[linneamae]

*groans and thump head on the table*
Blacktail - I probably am. I thought they were the same thing. Now I'm even more confused. But I think what I want (based on what you just said) is an insert??? Whatever will do the job i guess - Are some of the ones I listed above zero clearance or are they all inserts?

Lake Girl - we will have dual fuel furnace in the house. Not looking to make this thing the primary per se- I would just like to be able to keep the thermostat low on most days and have a fire that will keep that main living area nice and toasty.

XMan - I know it's silly but I really want the 'look' of a fireplace - with the stone work and all that.

 

[begreen]

Sounds like you want a zero-clearance (ZC) fireplace. No need to bang your head, there are dealers that sometimes call them inserts too, which only confuses the issue. There are some really nice EPA ZC fireplaces on the market and many threads on them here. Some nice units are made by Kozy, RSF, Quadrafire, Heat & Glo, FPX, etc.. and several stove manufacturers also make them now too. This is the Quad 7100.



Heat & Glo Northstar install
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/heat-and-glo-northstar-review-with-pictures.146175/

 

[BoilerBob]

New build next year and I did the same as you, confused between ZC and insert. We have decided since blaze king does not make a ZC fireplace we will install a blaze king stove with a veneer stone wall behind it.

I told her she could choose any stove she wanted, as long as it was blaze king. Sirocco it will be.
We still have to decide on the size. House will be 1000 sq ft one story, very well insulated and tight.

 

[Holden]

Linneamae, what did you end up buying? I have the exact same questions as you posed above. I want the big fireplace, but some of the efficiency. We are starting to build our new home soon and we need to make a decision. Just curious as to what you decided!

 

[begreen]

Holden, welcome. Linneamae was only on twice here. It's possible they are no longer here since last year. If you start a new thread that describes the house, provides some basic information about sq ftg. ceiling height, open floor plan or closed off areas, etc.., then folks can help you out better. Also, let us know in the new thread what the approximate budget is. There is a large difference in cost between some units.

 

[Holden]

Holden, welcome. Linneamae was only on twice here. It's possible they are no longer here since last year. If you start a new thread that describes the house, provides some basic information about sq ftg. ceiling height, open floor plan or closed off areas, etc.., then folks can help you out better. Also, let us know in the new thread what the approximate budget is. There is a large difference in cost between some units.

Thanks will do!