question about aesthetic of gas fireplace

September 18, 2007 7:15 PM

Should I take out my gas fireplace insert?

My DH and I put a gas fireplace in our 1920's craftsman bungalow about 10 years ago. It cost approx $2000. I wonder now if we should remove it so we can have a real fire in the fireplace.

It seems the aesthetic of the gas fireplace is not as good as a real fire.

Also, whenever we use the gas fireplace (which is on the main floor) our upstairs master bdroom is freezing. This same thing happened when we used the "real fireplace" before we put the insert in.

Should I just leave the gas one in? or are gas fireplaces soo ugly that it would look much better without it? Ours is an older model that has a fan (too loud) on it.

My DH likes building a fire, but when he is not home I do not know if I would go to the trouble of building a real fire.

What would you do?

posted by seekingsimplicity to home & garden (12 comments total)

I love the gas fireplace we have in our den. I also love real fireplaces. Real fireplaces require wood, and cleaning, two things I do not have with the gas fireplace. Bonus points because my den is subterranean and I am really lazy about carry wood down, and ash up.

To indulge my real fire needs, I have a chimnea out on my patio, which I can typically use between half to three-quarters of the year.
posted by kellyblah at 7:33 PM on September 18, 2007

I've been looking at putting a gas insert in because I think they are much more efficient heaters than a wood fireplace. Have you gone to a showroom to see the newer styles? It may be that you just don't like the look of your current one, but could find a new style that is more pleasing. These Quadra-Fire's look nice.
posted by saffry at 7:34 PM on September 18, 2007

If you leave the gas line in, it is much easier to build a fire. Stack the wood, light the gas burner and in about 20 minutes you can shut off the gas. It's a fail safe method.
posted by JujuB at 7:39 PM on September 18, 2007

Wood fires have a pretty significant environmental impact, and depending on where you live, there may be days that you're not even allowed to use a wood-burning fireplace or stove.

Pellet stoves are clean burning and effective, and I believe they make fireplace models, but since you've already shelled out for the gas fireplace, I'd just stick with it for now. Unless you're made of money, then get a pellet stove.
posted by padraigin at 8:55 PM on September 18, 2007

I love the gas logs I installed 5 years ago (no fan, realistic looking logs, flames and embers). Where I live there are frequent "no burn" days (no wood fires allowed) due to poor air quality, but gas fires are OK because they are relatively clean. I also tend to use it more because it's so easy, there's no mess and you get instant flames, though not a terrific amount of heat. I recommend looking at some of the newer gas logs - replacing your current set up should be easy as the line is already there.

Gas or wood, any fireplace with a good draft is going to pull heat out of your house unless enclosed with something like the glass doors referred to in this thread, but the aesthetics may be an issue.

I once stayed in a house with the set up JujuB describes and it worked great to get the fire going, but I would never go back to a wood fire. No matter how easy the fire is to start, you still have to store and haul the wood and deal with the ashes and smoke.
posted by zoel at 9:09 PM on September 18, 2007

We have a similar house and also have a gas fireplace. It's true that it is not as pretty as a real fire, but it doesn't pull heat out of the house as the original fireplace did, and it does a much better job of heating the area. The main reason we got it, though, is because our regular fireplace did not draft properly, and as I have asthma, I can't have wood smoke in the house. So a gas fireplace it is.

You can get new inserts that are much nicer looking than the old ones. This is the one we have. (I hate the black surround panel, though, and am wondering if tiling it is OK.)

Anyway, it looks better to have a gas fire on then to have a real fireplace that isn't being used. So I would say, keep the gas fire.
posted by litlnemo at 1:36 AM on September 19, 2007

We purchased our previous home with a gas set-up in a wood burning fireplace. We left the gas line and had a gas starter installed. It was cheaper than removing the gas line and it made starting the fire much easier.
posted by probablysteve at 5:41 AM on September 19, 2007

Was the original fireplace wood burning? Or gas? Wood burning chimneys and fireboxes have different dimensions than gas insert fireplaces. If the original fireplace was gas, it may not be safe to convert it to wood burning without a lot of retrofitting, which could cost quite a bit of money.

Gas fireplaces were not uncommon in bungalows in the 1920's. Our 1914 bungalow had a gas fireplace that was dismantled and boarded up by the previous owners. We looked into converting it to wood burning. Although we had the required infrastructure under the fireplace (many gas fireplaces didn't have the proper underpinnings to become a wood burning fireplace), the firebox was too shallow even after it would have been rebuilt. If we had cleaned the 15 feet of Portland Cement out of the chimney that the previous owners had dumped down there, the chimney took a little turn at one point which would have prevented it from drawing the smoke from a wood burning fire properly.

So, we've gone with a gas insert.
posted by jeanmari at 6:06 AM on September 19, 2007

If your upstairs bedroom is freezing, it's probably because their is no fresh air source for combustion air. What's happening is that the the fireplace will draw the air needed for combustion from the house, specifically, the air heated by the fireplace thus creating lower pressure downstairs. Consider running a fresh air vent.
posted by Neiltupper at 7:40 AM on September 19, 2007

there. Dammit!
posted by Neiltupper at 7:41 AM on September 19, 2007

I just updated my gas insert and the newer models are much more attractive and realistic than older inserts. I say, stick with gas and check out a new set of logs/insert ($200-$300 on the low end).
posted by mattbucher at 8:08 AM on September 19, 2007

Another reason for your other rooms being cold is the placement of your thermostat. If the fire is near (about 7 feet in my last place) your thermostat is not getting a correct reading and thinking the entire house is warmer than it really is. You may want to block your thermostat from the fire with cardboard (not pretty but should work) or something along those lines and you should see a difference.
posted by doorsfan at 9:31 AM on September 19, 2007