Best Vented Gas Fireplace 42inch 40,000 btu

[wscsteve]

I am building a new house and I am going to buy a gas fireplace. It will be used to backup the heat pump when it is cold outside and to help with the heat.
I would like to be able to adjust the btu's and also get an efficient unit.
Give me some ideas. I have thought strongly about the Heat & Glow 6000 GLX model. Tell me if this is a good choice or recommend something else.

[fireplaceguru]

When it comes to fireplaces maybe the question you should ask is what fireplaces have you had the lest amount of callbacks on. Remember that this unit must be supplied with 110V for the intellifire system and there is more to go wrong down the road.

[logdoc_rob]

I have gone out on a couple of service calls on these units. One call was operator error. I asked the lady how she turned on her unit. She said "I just keep pushing buttons until it comes on."

The second call was from someone that put "extra" logs from an old unit in there and wondered why the flames looked funny and why he got soot on the glass. Geez......

Anyway, I have not had many service calls on these units. I live in an area of nearly a million people and there must be more than two of these out there, so they must be pretty reliable.

I agree with Guru, these units have a lot of electrical components and LOTS of wiring, (don't ask me about that) that can cause problems. They seem reliable though, just my .03 worth.

[jtp10181]

Very good unit, we have been up-selling to this unit a lot over the standard "G" model because it comes with all the upgrade options as standard. Fan, ceramic glass, upgraded switch, 4-piece refractory set, back lighting. Not to mention you can turn off the rear flame-out-of-log burners to further adjust the BTU output. The switch also has a thermostat mode which automatically controls the fan for maximum heat output.

About the 110VAC, that is not true. If you loose power all you have to do is open the louver on the bottom and pop in two "D" cell batteries, then you can operate the flames from the wall switch like normal. The fan and the back lights will not run off the batteries but you will still get a lot of heat.

There is also actually LESS to go wrong down the road. The most commonly replaced part on a standing pilot system is the thermocouple or thermopile (or the entire pilot assembly). HHT's IPI system does not use any sort of "power pile" generators for the gas valve. The pilot itself use flame rectification which just consists of a rod that has voltage going to it. There is really nothing in the pilot to go bad except maybe some dust in the orifice (which costs about $10). In my experience the DEXEN valves used in this system are also very reliable, along with all the electrical components. HHT has been using the DEX valves and the other components (except for the new WSK300 switch) for a few years now and have proven to work very well.

The only thing you can expect to replace on a regular basis is the light bulbs for the back lighting. They set the sockets up so they are easily removed from the bottom access area so homeowners could do this themselves and only have to purchase the bulbs (which right now I can only find from HNG themselves). Not sure how long these last but we have not had to replace any burned out ones yet, only once we had to replace some that were defective out of the box.


Does the "wsc" mean wisconsin? You near Madison at all? You may have been in our showroom.

[wscsteve]

Very good unit, we have been up-selling to this unit a lot over the standard "G" model because it comes with all the upgrade options as standard. Fan, ceramic glass, upgraded switch, 4-piece refractory set, back lighting. Not to mention you can turn off the rear flame-out-of-log burners to further adjust the BTU output. The switch also has a thermostat mode which automatically controls the fan for maximum heat output.

About the 110VAC, that is not true. If you loose power all you have to do is open the louver on the bottom and pop in two "D" cell batteries, then you can operate the flames from the wall switch like normal. The fan and the back lights will not run off the batteries but you will still get a lot of heat.

There is also actually LESS to go wrong down the road. The most commonly replaced part on a standing pilot system is the thermocouple or thermopile (or the entire pilot assembly). HHT's IPI system does not use any sort of "power pile" generators for the gas valve. The pilot itself use flame rectification which just consists of a rod that has voltage going to it. There is really nothing in the pilot to go bad except maybe some dust in the orifice (which costs about $10). In my experience the DEXEN valves used in this system are also very reliable, along with all the electrical components. HHT has been using the DEX valves and the other components (except for the new WSK300 switch) for a few years now and have proven to work very well.

The only thing you can expect to replace on a regular basis is the light bulbs for the back lighting. They set the sockets up so they are easily removed from the bottom access area so homeowners could do this themselves and only have to purchase the bulbs (which right now I can only find from HNG themselves). Not sure how long these last but we have not had to replace any burned out ones yet, only once we had to replace some that were defective out of the box.


Does the "wsc" mean wisconsin? You near Madison at all? You may have been in our showroom.

Thanks a lot for your detailed answer. It looks like I am going with this unit. You just gave me a lot of good detailed information.
I am in Beckley WV. Thanks.

[fireplaceguru]

Let us know how the unit performs after install.

[wscsteve]

Any other ideas or opinions?