If you are planning to visit our showroom at Spider Bridge, Allenton, Derby, then the following information will help us to direct you to the correct products.
Firstly we need to know what type of chimney or flue you presently have.
You will have one of the following:
Brick chimney
Conventional chimneys are easily recognizable. The stack rises well above the roofline and is topped by a traditional chimney pot or gas terminal. This type of chimney relies on the natural circulation of heated air to expel the products of combustion up your chimney.
Pre-fabricated flue
Conventional chimneys are easily recognizable. The stack rises well above the roofline and is topped by a traditional chimney pot or gas terminal. This type of chimney relies on the natural circulation of heated air to expel the products of combustion up your chimney.
Pre-cast flue
Many modern homes have been built with such flues. You can readily identify them by either a metal flue cowl or a raised ridge terminal on your roof. The natural circulation of heated air expels the products of combustion. This flue tends to be very shallow in depth, so a slimmer fire is often required. It’s worth letting us know what age your house is as this can affect your fire choice with some earlier pre-1986 flues.
Balanced flues
Balanced flues work in conjunction with glass fronted gas fires. The appliance is completely sealed from the room into which it is installed (so there are no draughts and heating efficiency is increased) and a twin-wall pipe vents directly to an outside wall. Air for combustion is drawn in through the outer pipe, whilst the inner pipe removes the combustion gases to the exterior of the property. Depending on the fire selected, the twin-walled pipe may exit horizontally through an external wall or vertically through the roof. No electric supply is required; therefore there is no sound with a balanced flue system.
Power/fan flues
This works by coupling our externally driven flue system to the fire so that it expels the products of combustion through a flue to the outdoors. You can have up to three bends in the flue, so the fire can be located in more rooms around your home. The fire does not necessarily have to be installed on an external wall.
No flue or chimney?
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. 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.
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 (on your mobile phone is fine). 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. If you are changing your complete fire and fireplace then its worth measuring your existing fireplace (metric or imperial, we work in both!) 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 that will be more cost-effective. If you are thinking of a fireplace with electric down lights or an electric fire then making note of existing plug sockets would be useful.