When we converted our fireplace from wood to gas, I told the associate that it was important to me that the fireplace looks as real as possible. He told me my only choice was one that has a little tray that embers are placed in the tray in front(Looks so fake!) It was also important to have a fan, or that we could heat our home in a power outage. Obviously, the fan won't work in a power outage, and we haven't really had problems, except it's almost too much fan for our room. The lighting doesn't always work, and frankly I had more lighting in our previous Heat&Glo unit in another home.But power outages...this is not an easy conversion to use the batter pack, and today it was impossible. No matter what we did, we could not get it to work. We can't get to the motherboard without service, and this place does not provide service to us, although I do know people that say they come every year to service their fireplace. The last time I begged them for service was a couple years ago, and they cleaned the inside glass, and it has been streaked ever since. The remote is constant erroring out, and now it just won't communicate at all with the unit. The battery pack does not work in a power outage.(We changed batteries twice.) We paid $8000 for this unit, and it is so not worth it. The conversion was because I am allergic to trees, and can't be around burning wood. I don't think they care if you get what you want or not. This is nothing like our previous Heat&Glo Fireplace, which I loved, and the company would call me to remind me that service was due. We are pretty much stuck with this unit because we are retired, and not throwing money at a new unit. But please do yourself a favor, and shop somewhere else. I hate giving place bad reviews...I would rather be a happy customer. But the cost, the unit, the difficulty of use, and lack of service. I just can't. read more
