If you are planning to visit our showrooms (open seven days a week) and are thinking of purchasing a new fire and or fireplace, then the following information will help us to direct you to the correct products for your home.
Firstly we need to know what type of chimney or flue you presently have.
You will have one of the following –
A conventional brick chimney with a chimney stack with a terracotta pot or gas terminal on it.
Normally you have a chimney breast in your lounge or a brick breast protruding outside your home.
This is an interlocking metal flue tube system identifiable by a metal flue and terminal on the roof and a metal box behind the fire.
Built from concrete or clay blocks, pre cast flues provide a rectangular section flue, they can be identified by a ridge vent or metal flue tube and terminal on the roof.Normally you have a flat wall in your home where the fire is situated and no chimney breast.Pre casts are generally the most troublesome flue types we come across and do limit the type of products you can purchase.
It’s worth letting us know what age your house is as this can effect your fire choice with some of the earlier pre 1986 flues.
Balanced flue fires are glass fronted room sealed appliances and the flues vent directly outside (normally at the rear of the fire) the flues normally vent horizontally through a concentric twin pipe.One pipe within a larger pipe.The outer pipe draws air from outside, the inner pipe expels combustion gases.
Balanced flue fires are becoming very popular as they are very efficient and have few limitations of where they can be installed.
These fires are getting less popular as they are inefficient and costly to run. Power flue fires expel the combustion gases directly outside the building through the use of an electric fan unit.Most people now change old power flue fires with more efficient balanced flue options.
If you don’t have a chimney or flue and do not want a balanced or power flue fire then an electric fire may be your best option. We have seen a massive increase in the sales of electric fires over the last five years and have over one hundred models on display including wall hung, inset, free standing and stoves.The new flame pictures on the latest electric fires are very realistic and have the benefit of a flame picture without having to have the heater turned on.Electric fires have a maximum of 2kw output and the latest LED fires cost only a couple of pounds a year to run the flame picture.
The other products you can purchase if you don’t have a chimney or flue are flue less gas fires.
After years of experience with these products and the after sales problems we experience, we have decided to not offer an installation service for these products but can still supply the limited number available in the UK market. (Please ask our sales staff for more information)
Now if you are just replacing your old inset gas fire with a new one and not replacing your fireplace it will help if you can bring in your old fire instructions and a couple of pictures of your existing fire.
If you don’t have the old instructions then some approximate sizes of your fire (width, height, depth) and fire information from the data plate of the fire (located on the fire behind the fret) will help us.
Sometimes people wish to change from an outset hearth mounted radiant brick type fire to a more modern inset living flame fire, without changing the fireplace.
This is possible but you will need the existing fire removing so we know the hole size you have to take an inset fire. (width, height, depth). A gas safe registered installer is required to remove your existing fire, this service is available at a small cost payable directly to the gas safe registered installer.
If you are changing your complete fire and fireplace then it’s worth measuring your existing fireplace and if you have a chimney breast we need to know how wide it is.
The other decision to make is if you are keeping your carpet or wooden floor, if so the chances are you will need a custom made-to-measure hearth making.
So we will need the length and depth of your carpet or flooring cut out.
If you are changing your flooring then you can purchase a standard hearth and fireplace which will be more cost effective.
For wood burning or multi fuel stoves we need to know your cubic room size for output calculations and your chimney breast width and depth.
We were the first HETAS registered retailer in Stoke on Trent and all our staff are HETAS trained.
We specialise in stove packages and have stoves available from all of Europe’s top brands.
We hope to see you in our showrooms soon, for any more information please call us on 01782 271197
