Little backstory. We remodeled our house 5 years ago and had a chimney and fireplace built because that is what we wanted. Fast forward and now we are ready to go the route of a wood burning insert to gain some heat from our wood burning. Have visited a couple stores and we seem to be between a Hearthstone Clydsdale and a VC Montpellier. Regency was in the mix but one store said they weren't at the trade show this year and they didn't want to carry anything they didn't seem to have full info on. Not a stranger to burning wood, however this is new territory. Would like to hear real world experience from people who own either brand. Seems like the Clyd is a little more to fine tune and VC seems to adjust itself, according to the fireplace shop. Thanks
Can you fit a stove in front of the fireplace? I had an insert didn’t like it stuck a Jotul F500 in front of fireplace it’s like 10 degrees warmer in the house.
Can't comment on those specific brands but I can share experience from my folks. Couple years ago my parents built a really nice addition on their home and put a really nice fireplace in. But.. like you, they wanted more heat out of it. Open fireplace was allowing too much heat to go up and out, plus dad is 79 and moving all that wood around (about 5 cord per season) is catching up to him. So I finally talked them into an insert. He found a brand new one on FBMP for a great deal and jumped on it. Now, they wish it was larger. They are unable to really crank out the heat with it and can barely keep it going over night, so the plan is to look for a larger one after this season. Best advice I can give is to make sure its got a large enough firebox to support your sq ft-age.
Vermont Castings is not the company it once was. Quality aside, the negative experiences reported regarding their customer service alone would be enough to keep me from making that purchase.
I had a Regency insert at my old house. It heated fine but the blower needed to be on to feel it. When we moved I put a Woodstock Fireview in front of the fireplace and ran a flex liner down the chimney and tied it into the back of the FV. Then I insulated the gap around the pipe. This set up is a lot more comfortable than the insert. The heat feels great, no noisy fan and its nicer to look at. Here's my thread on the change from standard fireplace to free standing stove Fairview fireplace install question
Sorry for the late response folks. Update is company came out, measured fireplace and checked out everything. We decided to go with the Hearthstone. It seemed a better fit and has a tax credit. Install should be early March. As someone asked, no room for a wood stove, hearth wouldn't work. Fireplace has served us well but time to move on. Thanks for the replies
Chimney got cleaned yesterday, install is set for upcoming Friday. Plan to take a few hours off work to be here as requested by the company so they can explain and go over everything. Hopefully we can use it before spring
Depends on size to heat and/or climate. For example my house is an L with insert at the short end. If I load her up full steam then the end by the fireplace insert gets real warm- like bbq. In that case a free standing stove would definitely be overkill. If my fire was on one end of a rectangle or temps were extreme then a free stander might be just the thing. As it is my Drolet keeps my upper story pretty reasonable with a fan blowing to stove helping move air. This of course is one man’s opinion- your needs/situation could be very different.
