WOOD FIREPLACE INSERT COMPARISON PAGE

The secondary fire that cleans up the emissions in an EPA approved insert can as much as double the heat production. Nobody wants to live with a blast furnace in their living room, so manufacturers have had to downsize their inserts. Although this means the fuelwood for today's inserts must be cut a little shorter to fit, these smaller, more efficient fireboxes burn way less wood to heat the same area.

Note: Wood fireplace insert maximum log length doesn't tell the whole story.

As mentioned above, today's super-efficient fireplace inserts have smaller fireboxes than their smoke-belching ancestors to keep their heat output within a comfortable level. The shape of the firebox, however, is up to each manufacturer. Some models are designed to burn short, fat chunks of wood, and others burn longer pieces that are smaller in diameter.

If you cut and split your own fuelwood, choosing an insert that will hold longer lengths may or may not save you woodcutting labor. While it is true that longer lengths will require fewer cuts with the chainsaw, long fireboxes are usually smaller in the other dimensions, which may require more time and effort with the splitting maul.

No matter which shape firebox you choose, if you're upgrading to an EPA approved fireplace insert from an older model, your fuel preparation and handling labors will be reduced, as these high-efficiency models will heat the same area while burning about half the wood.