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.
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.
Attachments
Last edited by a moderator: