Duluth Forge Vent Free Dual Fuel Ventless Gas Fireplace Insert-26,000 BTU, Remote Control, FDF300R, Black

I installed mine myself and I'm by no means a professional. We've had this thing for 7-8 years now and it works great with a few caveats that I'll get to shortly. It was easy to install and I ran the gas line myself. If you can't get it to work, you're doing something wrong. Period.First off, there has to be batteries installed correctly for the thing to work at all, which is my only real complaint. The batteries operate the gas actuator, not just the thermostat and controls for the remote.Second, it goes through batteries fast and they need to be taken out when it's not fireplace season, as they will corrode and ruin the contacts, which will have to be filed down to bare metal which is difficult in the small battery compartment.Theoretically, you should be able to solder a USB plug to the connections and find an equivalent DC converter but I'm not gonna try it.Third, the remote is limited to basic on/off and a single temp setting that you have to cycle through if you want to change the Thermostat setting. If like me you're using this to heat your home, I lower the temp at night to save fuel and it's a hassle changing the setting.All that being said if you can't get yours to work, check that batteries are installed and charged, that your fuel line is attached to the correct pilot light(there's 1 for gas and 1 for propane), make sure your gas valve is turned to the on position, make sure you use pipe dope on the fuel line threads, and make sure you push the fuel button in fully until gas comes from the pilot and ignite. Sometimes it's easier to take the screen off and use a grill lighter instead of the pizeo electric ignitor.It's really not rocket science....Oh, and I see that Amazon is now selling this for $2500. Lol, I paid $500 something. It's worth what I paid for it. I think you could do much better for $2500, so there's that

works great, you can adjust the flame level so to make it less powerful on small rooms. remote works good, havent figured out how to have it cycle at a certain temp. once of the logs was broken in shipment as we just glued it back together. no problems.

I think this is my first ever 1 star review. I received this fireplace promptly but it took me nearly 30 days to install it. Unfortunately it was 2 days after my return window expired when I realized the fireplace was leaking gas. I turned the unit off so the valve should have closed and it didn’t leaking gas into our home at dangerous amounts. In one night it was enough gas that we all woke up with headaches and it took over 2 hours to air out our house. I called Amazon 2 days after the return window expired asking if they would let me ship it back since it was only 2 days over and instead they contacted the manufacturer. I gave them my invoice as directed and they said they would contact me back. I never heard back from them. I gave it a week and nothing. Called Amazon again who again called the manufacturer. I waited on hold for 40 minutes but when the Amazon rep came back on said that the manufacturer would send me an email (that I confirmed was the right email) with instructions on how to ship it back and get a new one... nothing. I called a third time to Amazon and after explaining my whole ordeal she apologized that my fireplace was leaking “fire” and tried to contact the manufacture again and they didn’t pick up even though it was within business hours.Regardless of these issues I wouldn’t have given the fireplace a full 5. It feels cheap and looks a little cheap. The hoods paint had bubbles in it. It was missing a screw that should have held the heat hood up and without it it was falling down a bit. The screen is really thin and Is a little wavy. It makes a loud hiss sound when running and I’m assuming it’s because of the way they bent their pipes. There is very little adjustment on the size of the flame, there isn’t even a second job to do so. The flame is blue and unimpressive. After I saw this I researched and found out that it’s supposed to be blue because it’s burning the gas efficiently (so I guess that’s one good thing) but all the pictures show it as a tall yellow flame and so it seems like false advertising. The only pros I can give it are that the remote worked really well once you figure it out. Also it’s cheap and it turns out that it’s cheap in more ways than one.I may update this review if I get this return thing worked out.

It looks great. We use it to provide supplemental heat for a 24' x 16' room; it heats that room and more.very well. I installed it all the way into the wall; it is slightly wider than a normal wall so the back side sticks into the garage about 1 inch.

I ordered this fireplace to replace an older blue flame one that had seen its last winter in my living room. The first fireplace arrived in about 5 or 6 days. As soon as I opened the box several screws fell out as well as a piece of plastic which I now know to be the plastic on/off/remote switch cover. I emailed customer service and was told to send it back and then they'd ship out a replacement. Well, since it was a gift that had already been seen, I went ahead and bought another unit rather than wait for all of the return and reshipping delays. When the second unit arrived I opened the box and found it to be in excellent shape with nothing loose or broken except for the main (longest) fireplace log. That was not a big deal because UPS hadn't been to my house to pick up the broken unit yet, so I swapped them out. Today, a week and a half after the first one arrived, UPS finally picked up the broken one and I ought to have a refund from that purchase soon.Okay.... About the fireplace.Installation was a breeze. The only issues that I noticed were that the battery compartment was difficult to figure out how to open and after removing the entire thing from the front plate of the fireplace I noticed that to open it, the plastic switch cover needs to come off and then it can be opened. While the battery compartment was totally out of the unit I could clearly see the sticker that shows proper battery placement, however, it was incorrect and the batteries go in, in a way that seems to be not normal. By this I mean that the positive doesn't go to the flat part and the negative does not go to the spring part of the clip but rather they are reversed. This does not affect anything except that when the batteries are incorrectly inserted, the unit cannot be used with the remote. The instructions also state that to use this fireplace with propane (LP) gas that the installer must leave the blue plug inserted into the rear of the gas valve. I mistakenly removed both parts that were blue. There was an outer blue cover and then and inner blue insert. The blue insert depresses the valve's internal plunger which allows the LP to flow through the valve and without that piece inserted the valve does not open. No other installation issues to report.Heating the living room and kitchen area....WoW... This thing sure does put out the heat and looks beautiful while burning / operating. I asked several others about clearances so that I can build a nice surround for the fireplace and it seems that a minimum of 1/2" clearance is recommended. I assume that that will be fine since I used a laser temperature gauge the see just how hot the cabinet gets and the sides seem to stay between 75 and 80 degrees F while the top reaches 185 to 200 degrees F. The latter of the two temperature ratings concerned me so I looked up the flash-point or auto-combustion temperature for white pine (which is a very soft wood) and it's rated for approximately 390 - 500 degrees F with the most common definition as 451 degrees F. Will it burn your hand? Sure it will but only if you touch it for too long. Will it burn the house down after enclosing it in a nice hearth, no, as long as you follow the minimum clearances and the wood is not in direct contact with the top, back or sides of the firebox.Overall Rating... I only gave it 4 out of 5 Stars because I had to buy two units to get one whole unit but Amazon and Factory Buys Direct will remedy this as soon as UPS delivers the unit that was returned to the receiving department for Factory Buys Direct.FactoryBuysDirect is the USA Seller for these fireplaces and that do have replacement parts listed on their website. Duluth Forge Dual Fuel Vent Free Fireplace Insert - 26,000 BTU, Remote ControlDuluth Forge Dual Fuel Vent Free Fireplace Insert - 26,000 BTU, Remote Control