Can fireplace inserts be easily removed? Or do they have to be attached somehow? Thanks.

-- Amy Leone (aleone@amp.com), October 09, 1998

Answers

Some are more or less permanent, some have a sort of adjustable frame that bolts into place and can be taken out pretty quickly. If you get one, it will either go way out into the room (really a fireplace stove) or it will have a fan. If it has a fan, you might want to see about a battery backup for the fan if you are in a really cold part of the country.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), October 09, 1998.

When we had one installed in our cabin, they also installed a stainless steel chimney liner (the chimney was not in the greatest shape), which required them to chip out a few bricks and remove the old damper system so they could get the liner into the chimney and connected to the top of the insert - so it's definitely not easily removed. On the other hand, since it has a glass window in the door, giving you all the beauty of a fireplace but also lots of heating capacity, there would be no reason to remove it. It sticks out in front of the fireplace face about 6 inches. We also had a tiled hearth made up to stick under the front and an additional several inches out into the room so ash and wood dust won't drop onto the carpet. Additionally, there is a metal frame around the stove to cover over the rest of the old fireplace opening. It was a wonderful addition to the cabin, and can certainly keep the whole place warm (it's about a 900 square foot cabin), keeping a fire burning low for several hours on a load of wood with the damper shut down.

-- Dan Hunt (dhunt@hostscorp.com), October 09, 1998.

Amy- We just bought two fireplace inserts that can also be used as freestanding stoves with the addition of legs or a pedestal. We also need to have new liners put in the chimney but this really amounts to nothing different than running a stove pipe up the chimney. Mine are not installed yet (hopefully this weekend if it ever stops raining!) but once they are, if we wanted to take them out, it would be a very simple process. The stove just sits inside the fireplace and you get a separate enclosure piece to make it look built in. Make sure you buy a "convection" stove rather than a "radiant" stove. These are much more efficient than the old type of insert. A fan will probably not even be necessary. Marie

-- Marie (a7656@hotmail.com), October 09, 1998.