My fire place insert has been installed!! Woohoo--warmth! Large pics

[AlCzervik]

Before


After


After with different lighting but a little blurry


My family room is finally warm for the 1st time in 5 years.

[NMDemDist2]

1. it's beautiful! and it does the job too?

Life is GOOOD!

congrats!

[AlCzervik]

3. thanks and yes, when the installer got finished he handed me the

remote and started it up, within 30 minutes the room went from a chilly 62f to a comfy 68f.

[NMDemDist2]

4. how big a room are you talking there? n/t

[AlCzervik]

5. well it's in the family room but the kitchen is there as well, it's a

tri-level house so the kitchen is up a level but it's basically one room, worst design ever imo after living here for 5 years. I'd say between the 2 rooms it's about an area of 650SF.

[NMDemDist2]

6. that's pretty darn good then, it should pay for itself in a couple seasons

then huh?

edit to add I'll be the heat goes right upstairs and helps up there too?

[AlCzervik]

7. yes it does, last night i ran it for about 2 hours to get the smell out

and test the thing, so i have my house thermosta set to 62 so the heat isn't kicking on at all, so i go upstairs at around 10:00 and the thermostat read 69f. I was pretty happy with that and it stayed pretty toasty up there all night. The place i bought it claims that the unit i got will heat up to 1,000sf.

[NMDemDist2]

8. cool! glad it's working out, you seemed a little hesitant when you ordered

it

[AlCzervik]

9. i was because i messed up last time and just got gas logs and no insert

and it was an expensive mistake, my gas bill was huge with nothing to show for except me wearing many layers of clothing in my house. the store itself is a great place but the owner has no head for business at all. At first after he came out and measured he ordered me the wrong size based on his own numbers and the installer came out and couldn't put it in so that sucked but it wasn't tragic. Ok so the owner tells me he'll "Square it all away" and i hear nothing for 3 1/2 weeks, now mind you i already paid $3000 for this unit up front so now i'm carrying this debt with again, nothing to show for it. So i call them up "I have no clue as to whats going on, could you please keep me informed" So the guy gets a tad snippy with me which i was so not in the mood for but in the end it worked out and today he sent me a $100 gift certificate to his store. I used to run an install dept. so i understand the mechanics of how things get expedited and the one thing that angered me was the lack of contact and i explained that to him, i told him i loved his store and his products are great but his back office needs to be organized and he actually agreed with that.

[NMDemDist2]

10. live and learn they say. and I'll take your experience to heart with

my new house when I'm looking for "off the grid" ideas

:hug: stay warm and cozy

[AlCzervik]

11. Good luck with your home, it can be a very exciting time a new house

we've made some really good choices and some not so great ones but we do learn by our mistakes and now everything we even think about doing we--meaning moi research everything thoroughly first.

[wildeyed]

2. Nice!

We have gas logs that really warm up our family room, but they are un-vented, so we only run them for an hour or two at a time.

[LiberalEsto]

12. Congrats! What brand did you buy?

I bought a Dimplex 23" insert that doesn't require installation. I just shoved it into the existing fireplace, plugged it in and switched it on. The flames look incredibly real.
We haven't tried the heat because there's a slight problem with the outlet that requires an electrician. Once that's fixed, we'll use it.
Cost: $199 plus tax at Home Depot. (Lowes was out of this size).

[AlCzervik]

13. it's a Vermont Castings.