Comments on: We Have Fire

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:22:28 +0000

Mike… I found out from Heat & Glo that you can cover the metal surround at install. The unit is capable of service after install by removing the rocks and burner from the top. My local install company did not know this.

By: ruth

ruth — Sun, 06 May 2012 05:09:48 +0000

Hi: Love the look of your house. Fireplace looks great. Do you have an issue accessing the fireplace if you need to service it? Looks like the steel covers the frame of the fireplace.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:27:08 +0000

Tim: Hmmm. Closing access to the service panel doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. What happens when you have problems? With our install, I think I can take a steel panel off of my surround in order to access the panel.

By: tim

tim — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:24:41 +0000

question on the cosmo slr…we bought one after stumbling onto your website. We love it, but my installer has not done any and I have yet to have him close the drywall on the service panel. Worried I’ll never get to clean the glass of screen again if I inclose. I see you went a different route with your install. we it to be able to access the valves and remote?

By: Katrina

Katrina — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 04:05:20 +0000

Hi…have found your website really interesting. We are extending and renovating a house in Perth, Western Australia..Seems we have similar issues, even this far away. Mind you, I think you have much more choice of product than us, possibly making it even harder!!
We are at the gas fireplace stage and also are having trouble finding real images of the gas fire we want. The Cosmo is new to Oz and I was wondering if you have had yours installed yet and if you may even have some images?? How have you found it.
Would love to hear your feedback as there’s not much around here because they are so new!.
Good luck with it all,
Katrina
Perth, Australia

By: A Cautionary Tale • A post from Full Stop Interactive's Blog

A Cautionary Tale • A post from Full Stop Interactive's Blog — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:40:35 +0000

[…] — Mike Davidson, A House by the Park. […]

By: Kevin E.

Kevin E. — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:45:09 +0000

For what its worth, and we very rarely dish on anybody in our industry, Montigo was much more frustrating for us than Kirkland Fireplace. Once we found the unit for Mike’s house that fit the bill, one of Montigo’s only pre-manufactured (and theoretically, “available”) units, we communicated with them 2 DOZEN times trying to get a price, confirm specs, and get a quote for the unit. And this is for a $9000 unit! After 4 months of total frustration, Mike located the Cosmo and we were off to the races. Assuming the Cosmo works out as we’re anticipating, I’m looking forward to losing Montigo’s contact information- in fact, I think I’ve forgotten their name already!

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 04:30:55 +0000

The Sparks look great and I almost got one, but at the time they only had the three footer and the six footer. I wanted something in-between. It appears they recently released the Direct Vent Slim 46, which looks perfect. If that was out at the time, I might have gotten it instead. Then again, it doesn't look like you can do glass or rocks inside the Slim 46, which would suck. It also would have probably cost more like $6000 shipped, taxed, and installed. As for the Omni vs. UL Listed issue, I bet Omni is fine with the insurance companies as well... not sure.

By: Toronto Modern

Toronto Modern — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:30:16 +0000

The house is looking great! Congratulations, and hang in there. It will all be worth it.

I know what you are saying about how difficult (and expensive) it is to find a modern gas fireplace. It’s really hard to find a place where you can see one “live” as well.

You’ve already made your fireplace pick (and it’s a good one), but I was wondering about the Spark modern fireplaces and if you ever considered them. We got 2 of them (one for upstairs and downstairs) and we love them. It was a huge leap of faith as we never did get to see one “live” before we committed.

Was it the UL approval issue? They have some alternate approvals. Their FAQ’s say:

“Are your products UL approved?

All of our products are certified to industry standard ANSI and CSA codes. We use OMNI test labs, which specializes in the certification of gas products. UL is a certifying agency, equivalent to OMNI. OMNI tests our products to the same codes as UL listed products. OMNI is approved by all 50 states and all local municipalities in the US and all territories and Provinces in Canada. For additional information, click on our approvals page. ”

The company is extremely helpful as well. We were having problems getting the flame look just right and when we called them, they referred us to their chief engineer (who happened to live an hour or so away!). The designer sent one of his guys out (gratis) and they tuned up the fireplace (and even touched up the black trim!). Obviously, we got lucky on the geography as well.