Gents,

Preface: I paint, I replace wood/drywall/cabinets, and I do landscaping and tree removal, but when it comes to things that could blow up or burn down the house (anything with the gas or electrical beyond replacing an outlet or fixture, etc.), I don't go the DIY route.

The house we bought a couple years ago already had an Astria gas fireplace installed. We grew up with wood burning fireplaces, so this was a new experience. Initially, the fireplace would run for 25-30 minutes then randomly cut off. We had it checked out and the repair guy said the blower wasn't working properly. (It had a bad power source, which was replaced, and currently works as it should.) He explained that in addition to circulating heat into the room, the blower kept the unit itself from crossing a temperature threshold. Without the fan, it would heat up and shut down as a fail safe. So, now the fireplace runs as long as you want it to, but the blower is LOUD.

The repair guy also said the model is pretty cheap, relatively speaking.

So my questions are:

1. Is the blower noise an issue common to lower end models?

2. What would it/should it cost -- ballpark, I know you can't give precise quotes -- to have the current model replaced with something mid-tier (assuming mid-tier doesn't have the same issue)?

Thanks y'all.

https://fireplaceblowersonline.com/astria/aries-series/

Thanks. Had no idea you could just upgrade to a quieter blower.

The gas fireplace we have is fairly old and the blower on it is noisy also. But I haven't found a squirrel cage fan that isn't noisy. This one is made by Central Fireplace and is probably a lower end unit.

Ever looked into what it would cost to replace rhe whole unit?

This

We had one of these installed in our new home last year. https://www.fireplacex.com/product/564-trv-25k-clean-face/

Made in America - Seems to work very well, the blower is quiet and it's a nice ambiance of the various flames and embers and such. The unit itself was $4300.00. Since it was new construction lots of other parts for the flue and such and you can spend a lot on various faces. You can likely reuse those parts. We went with a clean face since I tiled the face and built the mantle and columns myself. My wife's seasonal greenery is extra

They’re really not that hard to install. Find some local dealers and see what they have available and if it will fit in your box. It’s probably best to have the box dimensions handy when shopping for a replacement.

Grew up with static propane heaters in the house. Almost burned the house down a time or two with those damned things, but they were the norm of the day.

Built our home with CH/A.
In the winter, we run central heat at night and a wood stove during the day.

Best I can tell, those gas fire logs are basically gas heaters disguised as a wood fire.

True but with better ambiance

They really don't pay as heaters but they look nice, do produce heat and are better than hauling firewood in and the mess associated with that. The one in our last house was great when we lost power in the winter and didn't have a generator large enough for the HVAC. It was an old vent free model (now banned) and it also raised the humidity in the house a little which was nice in the winter. This new one is nice, does produce nice heat and we run it in the evening when sitting on the evening reading.

Ours runs off the same 1000 gallons propane tank that runs the radiant floor heat and water heater.

OK , without a clue he asks "other than the supposed ambiance is there any other reason to own/burn/utilize a gas fireplace"?
Does it benefit the owner of one of these to run it to augment forced air or to replace forced air?
I'm failing to see why they even exist?

Does it have a dial(switch) to slow down the blower?
Ours can adjust amount of flame as well as the speed of the blower.

We use ours as an added source of heat in the great room,where we hang out most of the time we are home.

I'm not sure which model you own but those were some of the best on the market before they stopped making them. I must be on about year 15 with mine. Not one single issue.

I just went thru this, looked at getting a replacement, 7-8 K, the blower is shot, 500.00 for a new one plus labor, if it can be found. Heating guy said furnace did shut its self off, got too hot and I couldn't get it to relight, but plot stayed on. Heatting guy said get a small fan put it behind the unit, it moves the heat plus cools the unit off. Been running better than ever. Works for us.

Except for the face, that looks a lot like ours. This one was factory installed in a 2000 sq ft mobile home five years ago. But really, how much different can they be?

I had to recently replace the remote control unit as I had dropped the hand held remote and the LCD screen turned black. As the damaged part was obsoleted, I also had to buy the receiver . $150

I have an aquarium blocking one of two HVAC vents in the family room. The other is the last vent on the line and has limited output. During the day, we run the propane fireplace to warm the family room to about 70 degrees.

Meanwhile the thermostat on the heat pump is set to 68-day/64-night. The thermostat is close enough to the family room, that the the main HVAC unit remains off all day while the fireplace is on. Our bedroom is on the opposite end of the house, so the bedroom is nice and crisp when we crawl into the blankets.

We have a 100 gallon propane tank, which fuels the fireplace only. It burns about 125 gallon per winter. Additionally, the Electric bill was $136.39 for November. An unusually cold November.