Gas Fireplace
From firebox check to first flame
Every installation carries two promises, our workmanship warranty and our 100% satisfaction guarantee.
Vented and vent-free sets are different appliances
A vented set burns with the damper open and sends its exhaust up the chimney, like a wood fire. A vent-free set burns in the room and relies on an oxygen depletion sensor to shut it off if room air runs short. The fuel gas code places them under different standards and different rules. A vented set leaves much of its heat going up the chimney, while a vent-free set keeps its heat and its combustion products in the room.
Some burner systems are listed for both uses and installed to the section of the manual that matches the use chosen. We explain what each option would require of your fireplace and your room, and we put the requirements for the one you choose in the written quote.
Glass doors and the fireplace screen
Fireplace doors change how a gas set breathes. One maker's vent-free manual requires glass doors to be fully open whenever the set is running and warns that closed doors can lead to soot, burner outages and worse. The same manual asks for a fireplace screen to be in place during operation, with openings for combustion air.
We check your doors and screen against the chosen set's manual. If the doors must stay open, we make sure they can be secured that way, and we explain what the screen is there to do. Vented sets have their own door rules in their manuals, and we read those too before recommending that doors stay on the fireplace.
The first hours of burning
New burners and logs are treated with oils and paints during manufacture, and those burn off the first few times the set runs. One maker describes the smoke and smell as normal and calls for a break-in period of four to six hours with as much ventilation as possible, windows or doors open.
We light the set with you at the end of installation, explain what the break-in smell is and how long to expect it, and tell you what would be out of the ordinary. That way the first evening holds no surprises. If the smell continues well past the break-in period, or it changes, turn the set off and ask for it to be checked.
Gas logs or a gas insert
A vented gas log set is classed as a decorative appliance, and its job is the look of a real fire in an open fireplace. A sealed gas insert is a heater with its own glass front and its own vent liners. The two are different installations with different prices.
Tell us whether you care most about the look of the fire or the heat it gives. If heat is the goal, we can price a gas fireplace insert alongside the log set so you can compare the two in writing. Both options start with the same free inspection, and each one is priced in writing so you can weigh them side by side.
