Typical questions

An airtight stove lets air combine with the wood slowly. That keeps the fire controlled and makes it last six to eight hours, building heat inside the firebox. The mass of cast iron, steel or soapstone soaks that heat up and radiates or convects it into the house. An open fireplace burns so fast that the heat goes up the chimney, and while it does that it forms a draft that pulls already-heated air out of the house and up the chimney with it.

People usually start with how it looks and how it fits the room, which is a reasonable place to start. Then: cast iron, soapstone or steel? Porcelain coated, so the color stays that way forever? Do you want to load it from the top, the front or the side? How will you remove ashes? And the one that matters most, what size actually suits the space you are heating.

Wood heat is the real thing. The stay-clean glass and the moving flames make winter nights something to look forward to, and you are probably the kind of person who enjoys bringing wood in and watching the pile grow. Gas gives you very realistic flames that do not change, so it becomes background ambiance rather than a focal point. That is fine, because the flames are beautiful, the heat is instantly controllable, and there is almost no fuss.

An airtight wood stove or insert will often burn five to nine hours on one load, depending on the size of the firebox and how much air you give it. You can cook on it, see by it and keep the house warm enough that nobody has to leave. Gas stoves, inserts and fireplaces do the same as long as gas is coming to the house. Unlike a furnace, they do not need electricity to light, because each has a standing pilot. The heat from that pilot makes a thermocouple produce its own current to open and close the valve, and it can run off a millivolt thermostat.

Not necessarily. An airtight wood stove needs a Class A chimney, which we can run through the roof or up an outside wall. A direct vent gas unit does not need a chimney at all. It takes combustion air from outside and vents back outside, either vertically or horizontally through a wall. That flexibility is the main reason direct vent gas ends up in rooms where a chimney was never going to work.

Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency. It is the same rating your furnace carries, and direct vent products are often rated on it, which lets you compare a hearth appliance to a heating appliance honestly rather than on marketing language.

That is an insert, and it is one of the most common jobs we do. The firebox slides into the masonry opening, we run a stainless liner up the flue sized to the appliance, and what was an open hole becomes a sealed, airtight heater. It is usually a one-day job.

An insert vented into a big masonry flue never gets the flue hot enough to draft properly. Poor draft means a lazy fire, dirty glass and creosote. A liner sized to the appliance fixes all three, which is why we will not do the job without one.

We think spring is right. Clean it after the burning season and the system sits clean all summer and is ready the first cold night, instead of you waiting three weeks in October for a sweep.

Yes. We service Heat n Glo, Heatilator and Quadra-Fire along with everything we carry. Get the model number off the rating plate inside the firebox if you can, and call us with it.

They have real advantages: no chimney, no flue, much lower installation cost, and they are an excellent heat source for a single room. They cannot heat more than one room, and there are health and safety considerations plus rules about where they can go. We will talk you through both sides before you buy one rather than after.

Yes. Credit card sales carry a 4% service fee.