Hearthlist Digest #124 - Sunday, March 29, 1998 St. Louis Thoughts, Etc by Craig Issod <[email protected]>
(back) Subject: St. Louis Thoughts, Etc From: Craig Issod <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 22:57:25 -0400 Well, another trade show come and gone. I'm sure the HPA staff members are breathing a sigh of relief. Many folks are taking a week of vacation to wind down from the show and season....that is, those that don't have to go right home and mind the store. Nothing really new at the show...again, more evolutionary than revolutionary. This is good...safety and looks of some gas products are improving. Best Fire I saw at the show...well, besides the wood fires, winner is.. Earth Stove had a new DV gas freestander...a cast unit. Amazing flame. I was fooled because it was burning right next to a wood unit - honestly, I could hardly tell the difference. Most improved Gas Product: Even since their first gas unit, Vermont Castings has claimed to have the "best flame picture" in the industry. I wondered how their competitors let them get away with this (maybe because "best flame picture" doesn't really mean anything?) because, to tell the truth, their earlier gas products had a flame that was at best mediocre. Never fear, their new ceramic burner is a vast improvement over earlier models, and probably rates an 8 out of possible 10 on the gas realism scale. Even better, their prices have not increased...and have actually decreased in some instances. The Scuttlebutt at the show - Well, besides the purchase of FMI by Desa and behind the scene guesses on how many stoves were sitting in the warehouses of certain stove manufacturers... my take was: That the specialty retailer still reigns supreme in this business. Yes, in conversations with industry know-it-alls, most agreed that the mass merchant channel for more upscale hearth products failed to produce the big sell-through. New President - My congratulations to Greg Iverson (of Southern Hearth) who is now President of the HPA board. As they say, "Better watch what you wish for, you might just get it! (grin)... And my thanks to the outgoing President, Kirk Newby, who took Dan, Tim and I out for a free dinner just because we bumped into him in a restaurant waiting area. Talk about nice guys... Best Marketing Approach: Bill Mathewson (ex of Vermont Castings) was at the show with his new company, Heat-Tec, showing mock-ups of a full new line. Word was they were talking a company line promising support and exclusives to specialty dealers. Word also was that they were writing orders. Learn something new every day... I had the honor (or horror, depending how one looks at it) of sitting on a panel discussion called "Vent Free - Answers to your Burning Questions". Besides the fact that the some panel members turned it into a VF lovefest, I did manage to learn a few things from the seminar. Samir Barudi, Superior Fireplace VP of Research, had some amazing data on the catalytic Vent-Frees. This gentleman is a scientist, not a salesman, and you can count on the accuracy of his info. Suffice it to say that these things are clean...really clean. In fact, in many cases cleaner than a Direct Vent appliance...and 10-20 times as clean as a non-cat Vent Free. The use of both an ODS and a CO sensor seems to address a lot of the "what-if" issues. Robert A. Borgeson, a researcher for the gas appliance industry, gave a short talk on the sizing of vent free appliances. The example in his study was a 425 square foot room...other factors: 1. Home is in southern part of US 2. Normal air changes 3. only 4 hour continuous use Based on these assumptions, Bob told us the appliance for such an area would be in the range of 9500 BTU if we did not want CO, CO2, Moisture and other levels to be above accepted levels. He also explained that this did not take into account the "sensitive" populations. An obvious conclusion is that a large percentage of the Vent Frees being sold and installed today are way oversized, and possibly being overused. I continue to be concerned about the "sensitive population". If current studies showing 50 million Americans living in a home with someone afflicted by Asthma are correct...and we add the other sensitive popluations - I guess my question is: What percentage of homes, when all these factors are taken into consideration, should vent frees NOT be considered in. For some reason, I don't think the manufacturers will provide us with this answer. Well, that's all for now..more when it comes to me.