If you are like most people, you want your home to be a warm, inviting place where you can entertain guests and loved ones. A fireplace can be a fantastic way to achieve this kind of environment, especially during the long, cold winter months. Fireplaces have a way of exuding a cozy feeling that is purely contagious.
However, there are multiple ways to make your home more inviting, including installing a wood-burning insert. Customers frequently get inserts confused with fireplaces and may waste time looking at the wrong product.
In order to help you make a more informed decision, we’ve made a short comparison of a wood-burning insert vs a fireplace.
A Look at Fireplaces
When someone talks about a fireplace, he or she is generally referring to a complete fireplace structure built into a home where you can burn fuel inside. These structures can be made in a traditional brick-and-mortar style, or in a zero-clearance, factory-build metal.
Typically, fireplaces burn either wood or gas and have a flue pipe from the unit that will run off the exhaust to the outside. They tend to be far larger than a wood-burning insert.
A major advantage of having a fireplace in your home is that they have a massive aesthetic appeal. Not only can they look fantastic in your home, they also make any room a cozier one. This is especially true during the holidays, where many popular activities take place near the warmth of a cozy fireplace.
In addition, installing a fireplace can be a great way to improve the value of your home. Prospective buyers will tend to be impressed with a well-constructed fireplace already installed in a home.
However, a potential downside of a traditional fireplace is that they can be quite labor intensive to install. After a fireplace is installed, there could be drywall, tile, and/or stonework projects that need to take place as well.
Aqua Rec’s Fireside Hearth N’ Home offers a wide selection of fireplaces that can improve your home’s atmosphere.
A Look at Wood-Burning Inserts
If you already have a fireplace installed, but don’t want to have intensive construction projects, you may want to look into a wood-burning insert.
A fireplace insert can be a great way to update a traditional fireplace at a fraction of the cost. An insert is essentially a metal stove that can slip into a fireplace and connects to a chimney and an already existing flue pipe, which makes installation quick and easy.
If your old fireplace isn’t working, a wood-burning insert can be a great way to enjoy your fireplace again. They are also quite energy efficient, and can lower the cost of your energy bill. Inserts typically come in gas, wood, and pellet-burning styles.
Aqua Rec’s also has a fantastic selection of inserts that can help to make your home feel even more cozy.
Learn More
If you still have questions, feel free to contact us today. We are more than happy to enlighten you further about the benefits of a wood-burning insert vs a fireplace, and can help advise you on which is best for your home.