Who here has a fireplace insert? how do you like it?

[Javaman]

What kind do you have?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. wood.

oak, mainly.

that's my insert.

[wtmusic]

2. It sucks.

Beware of any insert that doesn't have ample ventilation from BENEATH the level of the wood.

It will smoke into the room for a while, then go out. :grr:

[NMDemDist2]

3. i had one 15 years ago in NoCal

it worked great! Ihave no idea what kind it was, it didn't have forced air but it kept my 900 SF bungalow toasty

[sam sarrha]

5. a Quiet fan in them is the key, otherwise they dont heat well, we had one we put a regular fan on

one side so it blew air around it and out the other side, be sure to check your chimney, keep it clean.. we had a brush.. it was our only heat in Bellingham WA

[Virginia Dare]

4. I'm thinking about getting a pellet stove insert...n/t

[tularetom]

6. I had one for a lot of years and we loved it

we had an inexhaustible supply of oak so we were able to heat fairly cheap with it but the Air Quality Police sorta put the kibosh on wood fires in our area so we converted about five years ago to a pellet stove.

[trotsky]

7. Our house came with one

But we've never used it, because before we fired it up, we had the chimney inspected. Good thing we did; there had been a fire at one time and it was cracked.

So I keep wondering if anyone would be interested in *professionally* removing our insert. I'd like to just stick one of those fake electric ones in there and not ever worry about it.

[here_is_to_hope]

8. We have an older Fisher with a fan...

And it works well.
We built up the hearth around it as to hold more of the heat. I wouldnt use one that didnt have a fan though as they circulate very little air as opposed to a free-standing woodstove. Ours heats a 1300 square foot home.

[kestrel91316]

9. Years ago my parents had one in their 3-BR, 2.5-BA trilevel in

Colorado Springs and they LOVED it. It would basically heat the whole house for them. It did have a fan to distribute the heat out from behind the thing.

[pscot]

10. We have a free standing stove

With a 16 foot flue. A ceiling fan pushes the hot air down. We burn fir and alder. When we run the stove, the heat isn't needed.

[NNadir]

11. I have a recirculating fireplace, not actually an insert.

It works great. It heats the entire level of my house.

In fact, if I put a fan in the hallway of my upper level, it heats the entire house, my radon contaminated office excluded.