Gas fire - chimney or balanced flue

Hejo

We are looking at getting a gas fire installed and wondering whether to get the chimney cleaned and lined or install a balanced flue.

Are there any advantages of one over the other? We have the ability to do either.

DVardysShadow

The balanced flue arrangement seals the combustion space completely outside the room, which ensures that there is no draft of feed air to the fire within the room. However, the requirements for a balanced flue include specifications for distance to nearest walls and windows etc, which may scupper your plan

Hejo

Thanks, will have a survey done to check the spec, much appreciated!

Hejo

BTW any recommendations on particular brands? Have got brochures for Paragon, Flavel, Gazco, but cant find any reviews!

rustyboy21

Are you siting the fire where the original chimney is situated?

If so is it on a party wall with next door or another room?

Also the ones you are looking at will be mostly a 16'' inset fire, will you be looking at having a surround with it too?

A balanced flue fire is as said above a room sealed appliance. This means that it will take all the air needed to create flames from outside and expel the fumes outside too.

A normal flued fire will need a functioning flue in order to work and will take air from your room to create the flames and to make the fumes go up your flue.

Are you sure you need a liner? Get a sweep in pref gas safe registered and get him to sweep it and do a smoke test. You may not need it lining. Even if you do it will be approx £200-300 fitted.

An HE glass fronted fire and a balanced flue fire will be approx similar in efficiency, circa 84-89%. The BF fire will be a lot more to buy, is very restrictive on sighting ( outside wall) and it may work out cheaper for you to have the flue lined and buy an HE fire instead.

Paragon and Flavel fires are similar. They do not warranty the glass and do have a tendency to soot up, in my opinion. Gazco are a really good company, but a little dear, but quality. Valor is another decent brand. They do HE products and BF too. If you buy from an authorised dealer they give 3 year P&L free. Service is only general service. Paragon and flavel , you have to replace certain parts at your cost to get extra cover for warranty.

I would really suggest getting flue checked first, it more than likely may not need a liner.

Hejo

Yes, we'll be siting where the chimney was, the wall is clear - the other side is our driveway and yes we would like a surround, although also toying with a hole in the wall as well depending on budget! Family are keen on balanced flue as they believe this means we wont be getting cold air coming down chimney which DVardey has confirmed so we were set on that but will think again if its going to be v steep!

Thanks v much for the tip on brands - couldnt find anything anywhere!

We had the chimney checked and were told it would need to be lined, have been quoted £350 just for that :eek:

rustyboy21

Ok, Before you jump in and by one off the internet or what ever, yo will need to know how long the flue pipe will need to be.

You will have to measure from the front of the chimney breast, through the flue and also how deep your brickwork will be. From this you will need to deduct the depth of the fire and then add on approx 6'' or so for any variances. This will tell you how much flue pipe you will need.

Most Balanced flue fires come with a specific length of flue pipe. A lot of the time this cannot be added onto. For example Valor only supply pipe of max 660mm, you cannot add onto it as it is not passed by authorities to be any longer, as it may cause fumes to not exhaust properly. Flave can be added onto to make 985mm overall depth. Paragon symphony can only have 350mm flue length, but fire is deep (330mm).

Gazco is my preferred option, but they are a set length of pipe, 506mm flue + 232mm fire box on designio.

You are limiting yourself in what you can have with a BF fire, not a lot of companies make them.

Have a think again at a conventional flue fire, they are not as bad as you think, especially glass fronted ones, which a BF fire would be anyway.

DON'T under any circumstances get talked into a power flue/fan flued fire. You will live to regret it. They suck all the heat out and sound like a motor boat when going.

Hope above helps.

Hejo

Thanks very much, as you can tell I'm a total novice at this and your advice has been very helpful

Hejo

Hi, we went down to showroom today and they suggested a Legend Vantage fire - whats your opinion on these rustyboy21 please? following your advice and showroom who said the same thing we'll go for a high efficiency fire and lined chimney.

rustyboy21

Legend are a good company. I don't deal with them, but they do have a good name. Go for a manual control or a remote control, I think their slider control versions work on a 'brake cable' type system, which after a while becomes slack and needs an engineer to tighten it up. Same goes with flavel and paragon slide controls. They are a nightmare over time.

Is it the legend open fronted HE fire ( not too well up on their models ) ? They are a blackburn based co ( so you are buying british, they are well thought of in the industry, have won numerous awards in the past, and the quality of their trims is good.

Out of all the ones you mentioned ( apart from gazco) I would say you are looking at the better end of gas fires there.

You shouldn't really find much heat going up the flue with a liner fitted, not as bad as a normal flue anyway. Only downside of a liner, which you would get with a blanced flue anyway, is that if you have heavy rain or hail, you can sometimes hear it 'tinking' on the cowl on the roof. It sounds like water dripping into a tin can. Nothing you can do about it and it is only short lived. At least you wont have soot downfalls into your room. I have a liner fitted, with a valor eminence HE fitted, it is a very dull sound and shouldn't really drive you that mad ! lol. Strangely, I find the noise quite therapeutic, weird I know. lol As I said you would get the noise anyway from a balanced flue and it isn't everytime it rains, only when belting it down.

Just wanted to be honest with you.

Hope all above has helped you out, I do feel you have made the better choice and you have now been able to have a better range you can choose from, instad of a very limited BF range.

Any more questions you need answering, get in touch.

cheers

Hejo

Great, thanks for the info. Poor bloke in the showroom looked a bit crestfallen when I said I would get back to him as I'd never heard of Legend but Im shelling out a lot of cash here so want it to be right!

The model we are looking at is the Legend Vantage: http://www.fireplacemegastore.co.uk/gas-fires-for-chimneys-and-flues/legend-fires-vantage-inset-gas-fire

We really like this surround in a stone finish but it seems a bit steep considering its MDF and wondering if it would be suitable with gas - or is an MDF surround ok if the hearth and back panel are marble/granite?

http://www.fireplacemegastore.co.uk/solid-and-veneered-wood-surrounds/allwood-fireplaces-milano-4-step-fire-surround

Many thanks for your assistance and the tip about the rain -if I wasnt prepared for it it would have driven me mad!