I bought this fireplace insert last fall (2020) and installed it just before Christmas. We have really enjoyed having a fire burning on cold nights. Where we live we'll use this insert maybe four months out of the year. The insert is heavy enough that you'll have to get creative to lift it into your fireplace. The manual does a good job of explaining how to install and use the stove. The blower motor is variable speed. I typically run it on high if I'm looking for heat but if I'm watching a movie or want quiet, I'll turn it down to half speed where the sound disappears. Always turn the blower motor off before you open the door. The moving air coming out the vent above the door will suck the smoke out of the firebox and blow it around your house, but you can avoid that by turning the fan off before opening the door slowly. There are adjustable feet on the back of the fireplace that eliminate any need to build up a surface for the fireplace to sit on. The collar where you attach the chimney liner is not the same diameter as the easier to find liner kits. You will need at minimum a stainless steel chimney liner going out. I used a fireplace caulk to seal the gap between the collar attachment and the collar. The instructions have directions about how tall the flu needs to extend above the surroundings. That is important for comfort and most especially safety. I had to extend my chimney pipe by 24" because winds outside would change chimney flow and smoke would seep out into my house through the air intake. Extending the chimney has solved the problem, though I might make it a little taller just for extra safety if I ever sense smoke coming in or if my carbon monoxide alarms go off. The door glass is not actually glass, but transparent ceramic. It has proven to be capable of handling the heat of very hot fires and cleans easily with steel wool. For the most part, a hot fire will clean the glass. It really is self cleaning. I do have to brush ash off it but soot doesn't build up much unless I burn wood too close to the front or burn wood with too much moisture content in it. I live in North Texas. We are just finishing our week of historic low temperatures. Happy Valentines Day 2021. We had a fire going pretty much nonstop until the temperatures started climbing again and it made a large difference for how much my furnace had to run. While we maintained electricity, we appreciated the extra warmth. Even when the power goes out, the fireplace will still radiate significant heat into the room until the blower can be used when the power returns. The blower definitely pushes more heat into the room when it's on. The firebox is big enough for our needs, but if I lived in a colder climate I would need a larger fireplace. I'm going to be splitting my wood smaller this next spring and cutting it shorter in the future. The aluminum trim around the fireplace is a puzzle I chose not to solve. I simply slid it onto the fireplace cover and forgot about it. The fireplace cover is 44" wide by 31' tall and kept in place by springs. I found installation to be easiest by attaching the cover springs to the fireplace before I slid it all the way in. If I could make a change, I would have the fireplace sit out farther. I might have to figure out a way to attach the springs to the insert farther back so I can have the insert sit farther out into the room. Fireplaces are good for removing moisture from the house. That will be nice on colder spring nights where we live, but necessitates a humidifier or two in the house during the cold winter months. There is an Allen type screw that stops the handle from turning around in circles. Mine broke off after a couple weeks but it's a minor annoyance. I must have eaten my wheaties that day. When I burn a dry piece of log of decent size, I turn the air down to slow the burn, but usually I burn with the air wide open. Overall I'm pleased with the purchase. At some future date I'll remodel my house and put in a free standing fireplace at which point I'll move this one out to heat my shop.

I would give this 5 stars were it not for a faulty pilot and lack of good tech support. The fireplace looks great and heats up our log cabin wonderfully. The first Winter of use was flawless and I was really patting myself on the shoulder for this purchase. Unfortunately, the second Winter has now come and our November was much colder than normal. We are at 7000 feet. 4 our of 5 times when lighting the pilot and waiting until the tip is bright red to feed the gas supply to the logs the pilot immediately begins to flicker and the gas shut-off kicks in turning off the gas supply. In order to get it to light again I relight the pilot and have to blow on the flame until it resumes the nice blue flame, turn on the gas again for the logs and then do this on average 2-3 more times before the box is hot enough that the fan kicks in which keeps the gas supply running. I would consider replacing it but that would be a lot of work to remove and honestly, once lit, this fireplace is awesome. Why was I down on tech support, they told me this issue is not the pilot but the gas supply. Really, it worked for one Winter and all of our other appliances, stove, tankless water heater, dryer work fine as did this until the warranty expired. I still recommend it and hopefully get a good pilot mechanism but if you get one like mine you will need to develop those blowing skills that make the pilot change to blue without blowing it out. :)