Fireplaces
A fireplace can be a heater or it can be a decoration that costs you money every time you light it. The difference is whether it is airtight.
Most of the fireplaces in Northern Illinois homes are natural drafting: site built masonry, or a factory built box the builder dropped in. They look good. They are expensive to run, because roughly 95 percent of the air feeding that fire is air you already paid to heat.
An airtight fireplace is a different appliance wearing the same shape. It controls the air, holds the heat in the firebox, and gives it back to the room. If you are building or remodeling, this is the decision that matters most.
Fireplace Xtrordinair · Valcourt · Ambiance · Enerzone · Mendota · Majestic · DaVinci · Regency · Modern Flames · NetZero · Amantii · Dimplex
Which one fits your room?
Send the room size and what is there now. We will come back with two or three that suit it, and the price to put one in.
What the differences actually mean
Airtight wood burning
Slowly lets air combine with the wood, so the fire is controlled and lasts six to eight hours. The firebox mass soaks up the heat and radiates it back.
- Uses less wood than a conventional fireplace
- Soothing radiant heat
- Controls home heating bills
- Heat when the power goes out
- Renewable fuel source
Direct vent gas
No chimney needed. Vents horizontally out a sidewall or vertically to the roof. A completely enclosed chamber draws combustion air from outside and expels gases outside, and the glass front passes radiant heat into the room.
- Furnace rated heater
- Controlled heat
- Little maintenance
- Heat when the power goes out
- No mess
- Heats the room without robbing it of oxygen
Open or natural drafting
The most common fireplace, masonry or factory built, burning wood or gas. These are decorative. To feel heat you have to flood them with fuel, and the make-up air comes out of your house. If the open fire is the point, we sell and install Majestic wood burning fireplaces. If you already have one, an insert or a set of doors will make it work harder.
B-vent gas
A natural drafting gas fireplace with very little heat gain and no sealed glass front, running on natural convection. Efficiency is limited and it can affect indoor air quality. It is not commonly used in the Midwest and we rarely recommend one.
Ventless
Works like a traditional fireplace with no chimney, flue or duct, which cuts the installation cost considerably. Good for a single room, not for heating a building. There are health and safety considerations worth talking through.
Electric
An electric heater built to look like a real fire. The flame runs with or without the heat, so it works in July too. Nothing to vent and nothing to clean, and most of them just plug in.
- Heats up to about 400 square feet
- No chimney needed
- No smoke
- Simple to install and maintain
The fireplaces we sell and install
Airtight wood burning fireplaces
- Enerzone
- Fireplace Xtrordinair
- Ambiance · Elegance Series
- Valcourt · High-efficiency fireplaces
Open or natural drafting wood fireplaces
Electric fireplaces
Want to see one first?
Fireplace Xtrordinair's builder lets you pick a unit and change the face, the log set, the fireback and the venting on screen. It runs on our dealer account, so what you build comes back to us.
It covers the Fireplace Xtrordinair and Lopi lines. Spend ten minutes in it before you come in. You will walk in knowing roughly what you want, and we can spend the visit on the part that needs a person: whether it fits, and what the venting takes in your house.
We sell it, install it, and come back.
One crew runs the Class A chimney, the relining, the gas line and the appliance itself, with 50 years of combined experience. When it needs a gasket in year seven, you call the same shop.