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[yorkdude]

One last obstacle on a little lake house, the seller has disclosed that their is a cracked flue tile in the fireplace and the loan company wants it repaired.
The repair would require a mason and about $7,000.00 of labor and material to reline it.
The other options are lining it with a stainless liner and using a wood burning insert or lining it and using a pellet stove.
The fireplace is really pretty neat so we do want to keep it.
Does anyone have experience with pellet stoves for the home, it has central heat so it won't be the only source.
I imagine they don't put off a "flame appearance" to mimic a fire or do they?
Any help would be much appreciated as we are trying to decide how best to approach it.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Can you get a natural gas insert for the fireplace that has the flame look to it?  We had one when our home was built in Colorado Springs 20+ years ago.

[Kristin Meredith]

Do you have access to a cheap supply of wood?

[BigDave83]

A gas log would be great if you have natural gas, propane around here was to expensive for me to heat with, but I really didn't do a lot of price shopping. I bought a Harman P43 in march 2012 and I really like it. I am heating about 1000 sq ft. it has a window you can see the flame but it is no fireplace type of flame. It is my understanding that the inserts are nice but do not heat as well and are more difficult to work on or clean.

 The pellet stove gets the burn pot scraped every day or so and gets shut down maybe once a month to empty the ash pan and clean up a bit. I clean the pipe and some other things once a year. Mine runs 24 hours a day as I have it hooked to a wireless thermostat, it has a small burn going at all times until the stat says give me heat then it build up and burns until it is warmed then dies back down. I use probably 1 to 1.5 bags a day depending on temps, they run 225 or so a ton, cheaper if there happens to be a place that will bring them in bulk close to you. I don't have that option.

[GREG-B]

If you put in a fireplace pellet insert, that would be the cheaper alternative to repairing the flue.   And like Kristin said, unless you have a cheap source of wood, repairing the flue and having to buy all your wood would probably be the most expensive in the long run.  Visual is about the same as a wood fireplace but there is no audio benefit for sure.  We have a gas insert and do miss the snap crackle of real wood.

[Canadian John]

 Our daughter has had pellet burning fireplaces for years..They heat their two story 2,500 + SQ/FT well.  Nice flame to look at. Automatically controlled heat. Adjustable blower fan (heat output)... Work

side of things: Buying, storing and hauling pellets. Clean up - burn pot, ash drawer and ceramic glass. Heat exchanger needs to be scraped clean..Won't work in a power outage unless there is a back-up.

Can't cook on the fire as it's essentially a sealed unit. Chimney should be dismantled and cleaned for every 1 Ton of pellets burnt.. Not 100% on the 1 Ton. No direct vent. Uses house air for combustion.

Cleaner burning than a wood burning insert unless equipped w/a catalytic converter.

[yorkdude]

We would have to buy the wood, however it is pretty cheap here, especially based on our expected usage.
The house is propane so that is out of the question for heat.
My concern about a pellet stove is the height, I am not sure how tall the opening is of the fireplace as I did not measure it.
We just found this out on the inspection and 1st day dealing with it.
Looking at inserts, they seem to start at about $1,500.00 and go up from there and the flue is about $500.00.
Wish I had more time to address this but now that it is on everyone's radar they want it addressed before closing.
Everything else went so dang smooth and this, 2 1/2 weeks before closing. Figuring I know what I will be doing for Thanksgiving, and it aint cooking.

[yorkdude]

A gas log would be great if you have natural gas, propane around here was to expensive for me to heat with, but I really didn't do a lot of price shopping. I bought a Harman P43 in march 2012 and I really like it. I am heating about 1000 sq ft. it has a window you can see the flame but it is no fireplace type of flame. It is my understanding that the inserts are nice but do not heat as well and are more difficult to work on or clean.

 The pellet stove gets the burn pot scraped every day or so and gets shut down maybe once a month to empty the ash pan and clean up a bit. I clean the pipe and some other things once a year. Mine runs 24 hours a day as I have it hooked to a wireless thermostat, it has a small burn going at all times until the stat says give me heat then it build up and burns until it is warmed then dies back down. I use probably 1 to 1.5 bags a day depending on temps, they run 225 or so a ton, cheaper if there happens to be a place that will bring them in bulk close to you. I don't have that option.

Man I bet that is a nice stove, looks awesome but more than I want to pay for how much we would use it.
Besides it looks like it would be too tall to get to flue properly without tearing up the mantle and front of the fireplace.

[hughver]

After retirement, I got a contractors license and built several houses. I installed 4-5 gas fireplace inserts, they are easy to install, have very high efficiency and relatively inexpensive compared to $7000. 

[Bentley]

I am going to assume in the 21st century, either insert or pellet stove is going to have some type of blower or circulator on them?  Or is it pretty much just radiant still?

[yorkdude]

I am going to assume in the 21st century, either insert or pellet stove is going to have some type of blower or circulator on them?  Or is it pretty much just radiant still?

Both of them have that option and most of them come with it, at least the ones I have looked at so far on the WWW.
Just not sure which way I want to go, some of the pellet stoves say they will go 40 hours, now I know that is on low but that isn't too bad and I can get heating pellets here for $3.29 for 50# right now and I bet I can buy a pallet of them cheaper.
I am going over to the house tonight to make some measurements and see if an insert will be viable, kind of hoping it is cause I do like a wood fire and it would be a tad cheaper.
Heck I don't know, kind of wish we hadn't stumbled onto this in a way.
I went up there to fix a guys boat steering and ended up putting an offer in on a house??
Wife wants to move up there and I kinda know what that means. sheesh!

[smokin soon]

I've had a Pellet stove insert since 1992. They have come a long way since then with lighting and temp control, but mine works great. Easy install, dropped the vent and exhaust pipes down the chimney and shoved it in. I would probably avoid no-names for parts and safety reasons. Mine is a Country Flame, been in business many years. Parts can even be found on Amazon.

[BigDave83]

If the house is propane, why not a propane gas log for in it. Or is propane cost prohibitive?

[yorkdude]

If the house is propane, why not a propane gas log for in it. Or is propane cost prohibitive?

It is propane but the price is about 2.39 gal and to me that isn't worth it and those inserts, at least the nicer ones are awful expensive.
Pretty much ruled those out.

[hughver]

FWIW, A 31,000 BTU LP gas fireplace insert burns around .33 gallons of fuel per hour when it is at its maximum output.