Here's my question: Why would you want to replace the junker that you have with essentially the same thing?

And much more is involved than just ripping out the unit and the mantel. The entire chimney pipe needs to be ripped out and replaced. The chimney pipe is NOT interchangeable with other units. They are UL listed with only their approved venting systems.

If you are needing to replace what you have, this is not the way to do it.

Excuse me-- I am replacing my "entire system " from top to bottom all redone. I have a prefab built into a caddycorner position in my kitchen and the one I have now is about 20 years old. I just wanted to know which brand is a better make.

Thanks

Do you really want to do this all over again in 20 years or less?

When it comes to pre-fab zero-clearance, non-EPA certified woodburning "fireplaces" there isn't much difference-they are all junk. Some are just junkier than the others (i.e. heat-n-glo).

How do you plan to use the fireplace? Once-a-year heat, occasional heat/ambiance, or for real heat? Wood, gas, pellet?

Not so much for the heat but for the ambiance (and a little heat) I do not heat the house with it-- I like wood burning fires--usually on the weekends (Dec. thru March) a few fires in the middle of the week when it is really snowing.

For what you are planning to do with your fireplace either unit you mentioned would be fine. Before you take out your current setup though, have you investigated whether or not you can simply replace the "brick" inserts/walls of the unit?

Hi, Wish it was that simple, the prefab insert I have now is rusted and about 20 years old, so I do have to replace it (as well as the outside airvent,roof boot and all pipe fittings needed). I hear that the particular brands I am looking at (I had 2 different stove guys come out and give me estimates) are not the best brands. I do hear alot about the fireplace xtrodinair brand. So in the next week or two I am going to go to a place that sells that brand and talk to them. I just want to get something that lasts, as after it is installed I want to stone face the front of it and not have to do that again for a LONG time.

Napoleon has a nice fireplace. As does BIS. Both will last you a long time.
Have you considered going with a freestanding woodstove such as the Harman Exception?

Hi Xanndra, The "fireplace" I have now is built into the wall caddy corner and is finished up to the cathedral ceiling in my kitchen so that would mean alot of extra work, so just to take out my existing unit and replacing that whole unit is enough of a cost to me. I will look into the brands you specified. Have you heard of the fireplace xtrodinair? What do you think of that unit?

I have no experience with that brand either good or bad. Did you check out the older threads? I think that brand was discussed somewhere.

I did find fireplace xtrodinar in the old threads and people were praising them. I also looked at the BIS brand and I like them also.(They are alot alike) I found a place in my area that sells both so in a week or two I plan to visit it and hopefully have a date to install soon. I will let you know which one I choose, and post a picture!! Thank-you for your imput. I want to do this once and right!!

Heat n Glo is the best in Direct Vent.

I DO NOT agree that Heat n Glo is best. They are actually one of the worst.

And the OP is not even considering a gas product, only woodburning.

Baloney. Majestic is garbage, ESPECIALLY their woodburning prefab tin cans. The "firebrick" is actually 1/4" cement board like Hardiplank siding, but only not as strong. If the product proves defective and causes a fire, good luck suing a Canadian manufacturer.
Here are my ratings:
1.) Heat n' Glo
2.) Heatilator
3.) Majestic

Jolly_Roger we have already determined that pre-fab, zero-clearance, non-epa certified stuff is junk.

She is only looking at EPA certified woodburning fireplaces now.

I don't care for any wood burning fireplace - prefab or otherwise. In most situations heat loss, soot on the walls, ashes and a bit of fire hazard are not acceptable in a residence, especially in nicely caropeted and painted homes. Wood burning is more appropriate at a ski lodge or at a cabin where fireplaces are constantly watched and tended to. Most homeowners don't want the hassle of storing cords of rotting, bug infested wood and hauling it over a clean carpet, and they don't like to clean up the soot from the fireplace and walls in their homes. Most people say that they love wood burning fireplaces but because of the hassle they end up using them less and less. On older homes, some people do not follow through with Chimney sweeping, tuckpointing, or inspecting caulking and flashing until they have a leak or damage, or in worst case scenario a flue fire. That is the reality, and that is why DV are now the bomb in new construction.

In this situation, a Direct Vent would allow the chimney to be capped off or removed, and would provide the occassional ambiance that the poster wants.

Heat n' Glo makes a lot of nice Direct Vent models and Heatilator is also very good lately with nice units like their ICON60 DV etc..

Alright, I went to a wholesale stove shop where they sell fireplace xtrodinair and BIS brands and I told them what I was looking for and he showed me the fireplace xtrodinair brand but I didn't need the bells and whistles but the guy told me about a new BIS traditions CE unit which is a good heat source as well as a good looking unit, (black cast iron. A smaller unit 36inches so it has one door but the heat output is wonderful! The guy told me he was getting a few in and that the price would be an introductory price and if I had it put in now verses the winter I would save money because of demand in the winter. (out of season) so I have one on hold and when it comes in we are going to take a look at it and then hopefully make the decision to purchase it. It is funny because it isn't costing us that much more than the junk I was looking at --I will keep you posted. Have you heard of the BIS Traditions CE? ( oh it still has that arch on top which I like!)

TanyaMStew - how is it going with your fireplace?
Update us please!!

Hi, I am still waiting for it to come in, then I want to see it in person (it is a new model the BIS Traditions CE) then we will have to get an install date--so yes I will keep you posted (I hope the DH lets me get this)!!! We also just got our building permit for the front porch (that we are building) so many things going on at once $$ ya know!! Thanks for being interested!!

Well I purchased the BIS Traditions CE on Saturday!!! I am waiting on an install date now. I will keep you posted, now I have to try to save a few tiles around my old firebox as I want to incorporate them into the backsplash in my kitchen in the furture. I am going to have my brother make a mantle for me and I will use stone instead of tile this time. I will post pictures of before and after in a month or two. Thanks Xanndra for steering me in the right direction!!

Well the Bis Traditions CE is now installed!! A few minor glitches-- the men have to come back and move it 1 inch to the left, and one of the blowers has a bad bearing so that has to be replaced. The men will be comming out this week to do that. All in all it is AMAZING it brought up the inside temp. by 3 degrees, heats the whole house 2,000 sq. ft. We still have to frame it out and we are going to rock the whole wall it is on, so when it is completed I will post a before and after pic. Slow going but it is very worth it. What a great slow burn the blowers kick out alot of heat. This is the stove to buy.

Tanya, can you post some pictures now that it's in?
Glad to hear it works great, we are planning on getting the same BIS! Your posts were very helpful in helping us decide, thanks!!!

Yes I will post a picture soon. We are almost finished the stone work. We just have to stone below the hearth. My brother is going to build a mantle for it so for now we just have a 2 x 4 up in it's place. But you will get the idea. I picked grey ledgestone and we did it ourselves!!!! It took 5 days to complete. It was worth it. I hope you enjoy your BIS and please post pictures when yours in in!!

The fireplace looks great (in my unbiased opinion). All we have left to complete is the stonework under the hearth and install the cherry mantle. You can see a pictorial history of the job thus far at the link below. We are also happy to answer any other DIYer questions.

FYI, Clover, our 4 month old Jug (Jack Russell/Pug Mix), loves the fireplace as much as we do. We could not seem to keep him off the hearth during construction which was a very dangerous place to be especially when doing stonework 10 feet above the hearth!

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Fireplace Photos

What a wonderful job! It looks terrific. We just purchased a North Star fireplace, and I am anxious to get it installed. I do have a couple of questions. I am going for the exact look of your fireplace. Can you tell me how high the ceiling is? What is the stone your using? Was it hard to install? We are pretty handy, but this is new territory! I like the hearth angled. I was thinking the same thing because it will stick out in the room quite a bit.Thanks so much, great job!

Snagd,

Thanks for the kind words. I'll try to help you the best I can. We went to a local fireplace showroom that had hundreds of displays and the one we really loved was the Fireplace Extraordinaire set in ledge stone. This fireplace was too big for what we needed so the salesman showed us the BIS Tradition CE which has the same look but in a smaller unit. The company we purchased the stove from, installed it for us. Like you, we are handy and like to do the work ourselves. In retrospect the install job did not look that difficult and we could probably have done it ourselves but I felt safer having it done professionally.

In our kitchen, the ceiling follows the roofline. The left side of the stonework runs 73" from the floor and on the right the stonework is 9 feet high. We had never done anything like this either but the people we bought the stone from gave us the Owens-Corning installation instructions and lots of good tips to follow. You really just have to take your time and try to fit the stones together as tightly as possible. Looking at our job, where we concentrated on that, I think it looks best.

My husband was adamant about doing the masonry so we went around looking for the ledge stone and ended up using Owens-Corning Cultured Stone. The type we picked was Gray Southern Ledge Stone. It comes in large boxes. We bought 6 boxes and had plenty to do our fireplace (about 60 square feet). It is nice to have extra because you always have lots of choices when trying to figure out which stone to use. The calculations we used should have resulted in buying about 20 percent extra stone, but we ended up probably closer to 50 percent extra. With so much stone, we never really had to compromise when looking for the right pieces. Up until the end we had a kitchen floor covered with stone to choose from. I think the job came out better because of the choices available to us and we will probably find uses elsewhere for the remaining stone. The job was like building a puzzle except most pieces fit together, its just that some look better together than others. We spent most of the time piecing sections together on the floor prior to applying them to the wall. My brother loaned us a wet saw which was handy when the perfect stone could not be found and cutting was necessary. I would guess we probably cut less than 20 stones, but it was great to have the saw when we needed it. Putting them up is actually the easy part. We put mortar on the wall and the back of the stone then just stuck them to the wall. In many cases, we wedged small pieces of gravel under the stone to hold them straight until the motor set. Of coarse you must cover the wall with a vapor barrier and wire lathe before the stone but that is explained in the instructions.

The hearth stone we chose is a 2" thick slab of Bluestone. The reason it is angled is because the fireplace is caddy-corner between French doors on the left going out to the deck and a door to the garage on the right. We had no choice but to have the corners cut as otherwise they would have interfered with the opening of the doors on either side. We bought it at a local stone yard then took it to a kitchen countertop maker to get it cut. We supplied them with a stone and a template (cut from the box the fireplace came in and doubled as a hearth for the first month after the fireplace was installed). The people who cut the stone did a great job and left no sharp corners. When we got it back, it fit into place without any further modifications . The only real drawback to the angled corners is the fireplace burns so hot that you can not sit directly in front of it (my daughter sat down on it and melted the hood of her jacket in less than a minute without actually making contact with the fireplace). The only place you can sit is on the sides where they are cut to avoid the direct heat of the fireplace.

I hope that answers your immediate questions, donÂt hesitate to ask if you have any more questions and good luck with your project, IÂm sure youÂll get as much enjoyment as we do when it is finally finished.

Thank you for the great info! I am bookmarking this thread for later(but hopefully sooner!) Can you tell me how high your hearth is?

The top of hearth is 12 1/2 inches off the floor. Which includes the thickness of the bluestone (2 inches). Let us know when you start this fun project.

Thanks for the pictures!! Ours was just installed but I forgot my camera, will take some pictures this weekend.

Now that you guys and gals have seen my fireplace photos I have a question. My kitchen is yellow now, and I want to paint it, I would like to go deeper like a mustard color. What do you think. I have to go with a color that goes with the grey stone. I like the Benjamin Moore paints. I did look at Moroccan Red but am a little scared to go that route. (I know I am on the fireplace forum) Thanks

Tanya,
I love your fireplace, the stonework looks great!
We have a rich gold in our living and dining room, Benjamin Moore Stuart Gold, I think, and we love it. But I've seen a few red kitchens and red can be great, too. How much wall space do you have? If you have more windows, cabinets, and fireplace than wall space the red will really make the fireplace pop without overwhelming the space. Buy a sample and paint a generous area, I bet you'll love it.

I can't wait to see the new paint job! Have fun.

Well I haven't painted yet, I changed my mind on the color. I am now going with B.M. Ivy Lane(a nice green). It compliments the grey ledgestone on the fireplace. I do get alot of light I have high ceilings and beams, french doors 2 doormers above them and a window above the sink. I will post a pic when done.

Looking forward to seeing the completed room, green sounds pretty. I think we are going with owens ledgestone in chambray,I think!?

I think the deeper gold would be gorgeous! I recently read that putting red in a kitchen goes against feng shui (I know I didnt spell that right...I dont even practice fs but it made sense to me). Seems red is the color of fire so having it so near a kitchen is not a good thing.
I wanted to put a red cabinet in my kitchen but that helped me decide on a buttercream yellow instead.
Good luck, your fireplace is just beautiful!

Tanya, you guys did a terrific job! Love the rock and I think the green will be beautiful. I had to laugh when I looked at your pics - we went through a similar "ordeal" several years ago. It was so funny to see that big hole in the living room wall. lol! My cats didn't know what to do! I swear, I think they thought we had flipped finally. We do a lot of diy projects.

We replaced our wood burning firebox with a gas one. We went with a Mendota and absolutely love it. We did the tear out and the finish work, but had the actual unit installed. We can now enjoy our living room without freezing. : )

One thing I would caution with the extra heat in the kitchen - it can be very drying. We had a wood stove in the corner of ours for many years. Guess what dried out and broke? Yep, the water line to the ice maker. What a mess! My wood floors dried out nicely, but we now have copper lines. No more floods, I hope.

Diana