My pre-fab fireplace doesn't put out a lot of heat. Everyone knows they are more for decoration and actually cause a lot of heat loss inside of a house (so it's no surprise). But I personally don't care about that as the ambience is worth it to me. However it does put out SOME heat just doesn't go very far into the room. I really only need about 6-7ft so it hits my couch. Right now it reaches only around 4ft. So I was coming across firebacks as well as vertical grates. Supposedly they can help with heat output, but it's tough to trust the claims (no real tests). Does anyone have either (or both)? If so did it make ANY difference?
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maple1
Minister of Fire
Theoretically a fireback may help reflect a little more radiant heat into the room with some poorly designed, deep fireplaces but most are decorative. A fireplace is not a great room heater. The losses up the chimney as the fire dies down exceed the gains.
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