Whether you’ve lived in your home for decades, or recently moved into a house with an existing wood-burning fireplace, you may have decided that despite all its charms, burning logs just isn’t getting the job done. Between the effort it takes to build and maintain a fire, the sooty mess it leaves behind and the overall draftiness and inefficiency, you might be wondering if your fireplace is best simply left unused. But whether you want a fire for heat or for ambiance (or both!), there’s a solution. A fireplace insert—a self-contained appliance that fits in the space left by an existing fireplace—could soothe your woes. Heat & Glo gas fireplace inserts give you gorgeous real flames and heat, but without the mess, effort and inefficiency of a wood fire.

Selecting the Right Gas Fireplace Insert

Since you’re working with an existing wood burning fireplace space, choosing your new gas fireplace insert begins with fit. Measure the opening, and then heed the advice of Ben Englund, Senior Product Manager at Heat & Glo, to select the largest possible unit. This reduces excess space between the new unit and the existing firebox. The rest is totally customizable, including:

• Logs: Do you like birch? Or do you prefer the look of oak?
• Flame: Variable flame height lets you control the amount of heat being kicked out.
• Control system: Would you like a remote? Or perhaps a switch on the surround?
• Smart home integration: An optional Wi-Fi module can connect your Heat & Glo gas insert to your smart home system and allows you to control the fireplace with an app.
• Fan: A fan is heavily advised, and generally included in most price points.
• Lights: Glowing embers are in season no matter what’s happening outside.
• Refractory (or Liner): Choose your favorite design for the back of your fireplace. Myriad brick colors and patterns abound, from traditional to modern.
• Surround: What’s your home’s aesthetic? You can find a surround to fit it. Englund advises choosing the smallest surround you can, to avoid visual bulk.

To learn more about the fireplace terms above, check out our guide, Deciphering Common Fireplace Terms.

Work With a Pro

This isn’t a DIY project. Installing a gas fireplace insert requires a professional. Why? Safety and know-how. Both a gas line and electricity need to be run, and there’s also necessary roof work. Working with a fireplace professional in Heat & Glo’s network means no safety measure goes unchecked.

Your local authorized fireplace professional can also obtain necessary permits and hire any necessary subcontractors. The number of professionals involved in your install comes down to where you live and your specific project. Whereas larger cities require multiple licensures and permits, smaller towns might allow a single contractor to do it all. Leave it to a professional to sort this out.

How to Install a Gas Fireplace Insert

Even though you won’t be installing your gas fireplace insert yourself, you might still like to know how it’s done. We had Englund walk us through the process.

1. Prep the space. Remove all doors and screens, and thoroughly clean the firebox and flue.

Your fireplace pro will haul away all the existing fireplace pieces, including the front, door, screen, logs, grates, etc.

It will take two pros to bring the new fireplace into your home.

2. Run the electrical. Again, this will depend on how your home is set up. An electrician may be able to pull electricity from a nearby outlet or it might have to come from across the house. They will also mount an outlet inside the fireplace.

3. Run a gas line. The gas line needs to come from a source—either a gas meter or your home’s utility room—and connect to the fireplace insert. Depending on location, this could amount to a couple of feet or fifty feet of gas line.

Then, a pressure test is run, and an inspector ensures everything meets code.

4. “Drop the vent.” This refers to a flexible liner that’s dropped down from the top of the chimney and topped off with a cap to seal and secure it.

Insulation is then added between the vent liner and the flue pipe to reduce loss of hot or cool air.

5. Set the fireplace insert into the firebox. A pro will carefully level it to ensure proper fit and alignment for the surround.

6. Inspection time! Your city code may require separate inspectors from each category of work completed.

7. The moment you’ve been waiting for: After all inspections are complete, your local authorized professional will return to hook up the gas, plug in the electric, set up the logs, run a test fire and finally, install the surround to reveal the fully finished product.

Englund reminds us that there’s no hard timeline, as so many variables exist. But generally speaking, the full process will take between three and ten days.

Make the Call

Hearth & Home Technologies, Heat & Glo’s parent company, produces 30,000 gas inserts each year. Their professional know-how comes as great comfort to homeowners looking to make this improvement, considering DIY isn’t a viable option. And it’s worth it. Whereas an old fireplace was used maybe once a year, gas fireplace insert owners now enjoy the heat and ambiance with ease. It’s an improvement that everyone in the home—from guests to residents—enjoys.