There are no moving parts in a gas logs system than can wear out. If you clean it periodically, depending on how often you use it, it should last a good long time. The only thing that could go wrong is some corrosion of chimney parts that are exposed to the outside. But even that should not happen so fast unless a storm damaged your chimney. Go to another gas logs dealer.

I wish someone would answer you, I was going to post something similar myself. We have a contract on a home and I had the chimney inspected today (realtor says I'm the only person in her entire career to have a chimney inspection, but you'll see why) Inspector told me the flue tiles needed to be replaced and the to reline a chimney was about $4K-$5K or could have the tiles that needed to be repaired which iwas about half that price - he wasn't positive on pricing as he does not do this type of work. He actually called me back and the low end pricing from the company gave him a guesstimate of $1500-$2500 depending on what I decided to actually have done. Originally, this was a wood burning chimney and now is gas. I know there was an issue with the damper not opening correctly and was having the owners clean it out before the inspection. Due to the issue above, he didn't do the cleaning - not until we decided what to do about the flue issue. Anyhow, I'm not putting out any more money on the home, it would be the owners who'd have to repair. My realtor called me back a little while later and said the listing agent spoke to the owners and came up with what they think would be a solution - a vent free gas fireplace. Since I'm a Floridian who's never had a fireplace in her life, I know nothing about any of this. I'm trying to find out if what they are proposing, how it differs from the gas fireplace that's there already. Will what they put in look the same as what's there now? They claim it's more energy efficient. I'm glad you are asking the questions you did above because I wouldn't have known to ask them, so I really hope someone knowledgable will answer. In the meantime, I was given the name of a guy who does gas fireplaces for a living. Will try to reach him and if I can , ask those questions and let you know what I may be able to find. If I go with the ventless, I'm still having them clean out the damper. With it not opening all the way, that means cool air is still coming in, and in summer, cool are is going out. Please let me know if you came across any info. THANKS!!!

The home I updated and sold for my mother was built in 1977. There was some deferred maintenance to tackle and since neither my brother or I had lived there to know just what we were selling (mother moved to a senior apartment), we had it inspected. With the list of things that would need to be corrected for possible FHA or VA financing, CO detector was included. Sale of property (Washington State) CO Detectors in Homes 26 states require carbon monoxide detectors in private dwellings via state statute: Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia (via adoption of the International Residential Code), Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Certain states limit the installation to buildings with fossil-fuel burning devises, others only require the devise be installed upon sale of the property or unit. (listed, sold, closed in 8 weeks total, - it was VA financed buyer so I was happy to be prepared ;))

You might want to look up some info on the Rumford design fireplace, and its dimensions, since I think it is similar to yours. Rumford dimensions are designed to work effectively to heat a room, not like modern fireplaces that are focused on how it "looks" in a room. My point is - the fireplace may be fine to burn wood, even though fireplace guys think it looks like its too shallow. We also went through the vent vs. ventless debate, and decided to use ventless because we weren't sure if the chimney needed to be relined to use vented. We've had them installed for about two years, and they work well to heat the room. Bruce