We really wanted to do this as well, but got taken out of our budget. I don't imagine it would be any further insulation burden as long as the exterior one has a well sealed "door". I think they are fabulous especially if you entertain outdoors a lot.

What is your neighborhood like? People will tend to gather round the outdoor FP, which may mean they have their back to the veiw, if there is one. Just something to consider.

I like the idea of being able to clean the ashes from outdoors, though. And getting twice the visual bang for the amount of wood chopped.

I have two seperate fireboxes back to back. As interesting as a two sided fire place would sound, it would seem to be a rather difficult technological problem

Hi Ronnatalie,
I thought about that, but I saw these 2 sided fireplaces and I thought it could be an efficient solution in getting 1 fireplace to serve 2 spaces. I was wondering if you had heard anything negative about the 2 sided fireplace, seen it, or have any personal experience with it. Our builder has never used it on any of his houses, but nobody has asked him about it either. So, I thought I'd ask around. Any info. would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Ran across this site. You might want to contact them:

Here is a link that might be useful: indoor/outdoor fireplace

When researching for gas fireplaces, we found heat & glo to be a quality product. We went with napoleon for cosmetic reasons, but felt both offered the performance levels we were looking at.

we're also having two separate fire boxes back to back. for some reason i didn't care for the see-through version. also, if you have a "sealed" door on the outdoor unit how do you get any heat from it?

maybe we're paranoid, but we also considered this to be an easy entry to the house ...as long as the fireplace wasn't on. admittedly my knowledge of these things is less than none so i'm interested to hear of anyone with experience with these units.

at 38,000 btu's, that's more than ample to heat an outdoor patio area. With the fan kit, you'd be scooching them patio chairs back a ways. As far as break in, if they want in bad enough, it will happen simply by breaking a window.

Direct vent gas fireplaces have sealed glass. On some, you can get doors for cosmetic purposes. The heat is disbursed through the glass, not an open fire box like on traditional old woodburning fireplaces.

We had this installed in our new home. Two boxes back to back and they share the same chimney.....problem is they didn't seal between them, and we have moisture coming through the granite on the inside pouring in. In the process of trying to figure out how to repair -- went on-line trying to find the procedure before it gets torn apart.....what a mess

Someone suggested that this would be a good fit for the great room in my house plan, and I was interested ... until I looked into the price. It's not something I personally would value highly, and the price dissuaded me pretty quickly. To say it another way, we can each have only so many splurges, and this isn't where I chose to "spend my splurge".

Any more recent experiences with this idea?

Can't comment on the choices above. We have two places in our house where we have back-to-back (distinct fireboxes) sharing the same chimney (separate flues). The outdoor fireplaces work well for us. Both are in screened porches and we use them a lot to extend the seasons.

My neighbor has a similar set up on her open deck and they use it a lot as well.

A see through fireplace only really works if the two spaces are indoor conditioned space. Otherwise it’s a giant hole to the outside in your home’s envelope worse than any window can be. Yes there are ways of doing it with very very expensive inserts. Still a bad idea.

Acucraft.com has many to choose from we had installed in our new house and we love it. It is pricey though.

Will Schmidt, are those 2 support beams that you have running parralel with the fireplace?

Will Schmidt - pricey - how much - if you don't mind, like more costly than a separate outdoor fire place finished out - I would think the cost of 1 would be less than the cost of family room fire place and outdoor fire place...thanks for the assistance!

We would love any input on this issue as well! I like the look of the Acucraft versions, but our local fireplace store carries Supreme Duet.

Chimneys need to be kept warm to pull a draft up and out. Everything I have read about 2 sided fireplaces says that they have a draft problem. In other words, your house, being warmer, becomes the chimney. This is true for wood burning and gas. People are wrong in thinking that because you can’t see the gas combustion products that they are safe.

A better solution would be a big glass wall with a porch/ patio fireplace opposite and facing towards the house. That way you can have an outdoor fire, and see it from inside without the huge loss in energy to the home.

Thank you!

What have people been doing to deal with the outdoor side of the fireplace? We have vinyl siding and looking at ideas to keep it from melting away the vinyl.

Ah. Too late. We have a Napoleon Luxuria 50" see through model ordered.

With the proper non combustible assembly and surround per manufacturer’s installation requirements, there should be zero plastic siding melted.

Is there such a thing as a cover to put over the fireplace on the patio side. When we’re not sitting outside (and have the fireplace on to heat the inside of the house) we hate to be heating the oustside!

How did you end up liking the Napoleon? I am looking at the same model also.

Any updates on this? We are looking into installing one of these. Not sure brand or anything but it’s in the preliminary plan. Any input will be greatly appreciated. Wondering what HU-250049098 said. I thought they were all like that.

Couldnt find a decent ventless that didnt look tacky. The 50” napoleon luxuria model was about 4x as expensive as other models we were looking at. And we didnt like the fireplace installers and our contractors didnt know how to read framing instructions. It was a massive uphill battle. But finally have it up. Think it looks great but without an internal blower system its more for show than for heat and doesnt heat the outdoors. (Dont get the wrought iron balls, the metal is brittle and sheds everywhere in the unit as it breaks off with the heat)

Loving our napolean luxuria. on outside the exterior glass door opens for heat to vent, it opens to our outside sunroom with walls and ceiling, definitely will extend our 3 season use of our sunroom, but will not be sufficient for our -30 celsius winter season. also loving the absence of the noisy blower, the vent at the top of the interior wall above the fireplace is sufficient to heat our large dining/sitting room area

I cannot speak to functionality yet, but we love how it looks. We purchased the Superior dlt63 (I think)

Hi AP. I am getting ready to put in a double sided fireplace in our new home and looking at options. I know it has been summer time but how are you liking yours so far? Do you feel like it will heat your patio ok as well?

A P, Any updates you can provide on your indoor/outdoor fireplace. Currently have a home design with a sitting area that has I/O gas unit. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

We are about to make the same decision. How is it working out?

It looks great. People always comment on how cool it is. Ours puts off a lot of heat on the inside of the house, which we love. But, if you’re looking for it to heat your outdoor patio area I wouldn’t bother. Maybe if you had a enclosed patio or covered patio it would work better?

A P can you share how far off the floor you had it framed? Looks like approximately 18”. Thanks for your help!