New to forum, looking for some help deciding Elite 44 or Pearl 3600 or ???

[Hutch77]

Hi all, I have read a bit on here about these models and am looking for additional insight.


My goals are to:

1. get this look (photo). The arch, the cobblestones, the built in shelves…all of it!
2. Enjoy a quiet fire.
3. Nothing finicky. We used to have a wood stove that was hard to start and then always too hot or going out.
4. Be able to have a warm the house if our power goes out. We don’t have outages often, but our power is not quick to be restored when there are mass outages because there are very few houses on our line.

We renovated our living room in 2019 and are starting from a blank slate. See photo…fireplace to go where grey couch is. As you can see, it is currently drywall. There’s a mud room on the other side of the wall. We have always intended to put a fireplace in this spot, so the electrical is routed around. The chase can run through a guest room closet on 2nd floor and then a small attic.

The room is large (former 2-car garage), and the home is 3000+ square feet. We are in southern Michigan.



Our friends have fireplacex apex 42 and love it. We have been impressed with how quiet and warming it is. I think it’s too square for us. Looks-wise the fireplacex Elite 44 might be more what we’re going for; our local place doesn’t carry that, but does have the Pearl 3600. Or, we can go a couple towns over to order the fireplacex fireplaces (the apex or elite).



Questions:

1. Any other fireplaces I should be considering?
2. Any important differences between the Elite 44 and the Apex 42?
3. It seems like the Pearl 3600 would be noisier (the blower)…truth?
4. How do these perform in a power outage? Air intake, etc….

Thank you so much.

 

[jalmondale]

As I understand it, flush inserts like you've pictured require blowers to get much heat into the room - if you want a good option for power outages, you'd either want a freestanding stove or an insert that protrudes a bit into the room (or a generator/battery that can run the fan).

 

[Hutch77]

As I understand it, flush inserts like you've pictured require blowers to get much heat into the room - if you want a good option for power outages, you'd either want a freestanding stove or an insert that protrudes a bit into the room (or a generator/battery that can run the fan).

we have a small generator, but it is obnoxious to run & keep fueled up.
I love the battery idea and will see if that’s an option.

 

[begreen]

Either one will perform better in an outage with gravity vents above them so that hot air can convect naturally. RSF makes good fireplaces.

 

[Hutch77]

Either one will perform better in an outage with gravity vents above them so that hot air can convect naturally. RSF makes good fireplaces.

Trying to wrap my head around the difference…

With a gravity vents, more heat would be pulled away from the fireplace, but the heat would also be partly going upstairs, not mostly staying in the main room.

Without gravity vents, less total heat, but it’s in the main room.

Is that right?

 

[begreen]

Gravity vents can be into the same room, upstairs, or both.

 

[jalmondale]

Trying to wrap my head around the difference…

With a gravity vents, more heat would be pulled away from the fireplace, but the heat would also be partly going upstairs, not mostly staying in the main room.

Without gravity vents, less total heat, but it’s in the main room.

Is that right?

I suspect you get the same amount of heat in the main room either way (without a blower), as that will primarily be from radiant heating off the front. The gravity vents do the same thing the blower does, which is boost convection (air flow) around the stove - still air will form kind of a hot blanket around the insert, so that relatively more heat is lost out the back and up the chimney. Instead, the gravity vents will help keep that heat in the house.