Propane Fireplace decisions Astria, Montigo, Mendota, others??

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.

ksavage

New Member
Jan 16, 2019
1
Halifax, Nova Scotia
We are doing a renovation and have been looking at fireplaces to choose from. We are getting very over whelmed with all the brands out there. We only have two local dealers in our city, which provide limited choices of fireplaces, T&C, Montigo, Napoleon, Enviro, and Astria.

Since our house is 100+ years old which is heated with hot water radiators and a bit drafty, we are looking for a fireplace which will basically heat the main floor (1250 sq. ft). Our layout is fairly open so circulation would not be an issue.

Our criteria is a high efficiency fireplace, fan, logs that look real, wide BTU range (Low/High), a clean face with nice viewing window and Herringbone liner. Yes I know we are asking for a lot.

Based on the criteria we have kind of narrowed down to the following

Astria Montebello DLX- We don't have a lot of information on but one of the dealers has a unit on display. Efficiency is low, but it does have a nice clean look and built in fan.

Montigo H42DFLI - This is a new brand our dealer has picked up so they do not have a display. It came in at the cheapest price point. Online everything looks good, built in fan, clean look, little low on efficiency (45%). My worries it would be the quality is low based on the pricing. Does anyone have any experience?

Mendota FV41 - The closest dealer is 3 hours away... The fireplace has all the bells and whistles we are looking for. This one so far comes in at the most expensive price point $7200.00 but my worry is that not many dealers carry this brand, so is there something wrong with it? Most of the information we have found online is a few years old, so I am not sure if something has happened with Mendota over the last few years. Also there seems to be a lot of complaints regarding the odor during the burn off period, is this normal for most fireplaces?

If anyone has any suggestions on these manufacturers, and if you have any suggestions on others which would match our criteria it would be greatly appreciated.
 
Do you have an existing fireplace and chimney or are you looking for more a standalone unit?
If you have an existing fireplace/chimney can you post the dimensions?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk