They will all work fine with out the fans going but you will not get nearly as much heat off of them with out the fan. But if you are worried about not being able to use an insert if the power goes out it is not an issue. Many freestanders work much better with a fan running on them as well. All that being said a freestander in front of the fire box will generally give you more heat in the room than an insert
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why do you not want to run a fan if you get an insert? It would be a great mistake to buy an insert without a fan. The fan is what heats the room. Inserts are space heaters so be sure to know how much space you want and need to heat before buying or you could end up being sorry. Always go bigger with an insert and always burn dry wood under 20% MC in order to get good results..... Good luck and keep learning....
Thanks. I was just curious about inserts and radiant heat. We lose power a lot here in the winter which is one of the reasons I want to heat with wood. Not saying I wouldn't install the fan, but wouldn't want to have to rely on it in a power outage.
Looks like the Lopi & regency stick out of the hearth more. I will look at those locally as well as standalone woodstove for the front.