I have a gas fireplace in my house. The thing is set up with the ceramic logs. If I were to move the ceramic logs would it be okay to burn duraflame logs in there? I can’t see why it would be a problem if the flue is open (duh). Am I missing something that would make this a bad idea?
Yes, don’t forget there would still be a direct line to the gas tank outside. Unless what was uncoupled from the unit OUTSIDE I would not try what you are proposing. I know peopel who have done it, but I know of non who did it without consulting a fireplace store or someone who has done it before.
No gas tank, it is a natural gas line. I could leave it on, at a very low flow, or off.
Bad idea. Natural gas and wood have very different combustion products, and use different types of venting (chimney). You could easily get a room/house full of smoke, or worse. I wouldn’t try this.
Phone your local fire department.
Once they stop laughing, I’m pretty sure they will be able to give you several lengthy explanations of all the reasons why this is a bad idea.
A very bad idea.
Don’t do this thing, a more realistic fire is hardly worth risking your home and the lives of your family for.
Peace
Better yet, ask your home insurance carrier.
Fireplaces are almost always a disappointment. They’re stuck in a corner, too small, and usually suck more heat away than they produce. Now you want to produce a bunch of ashes to clean up and smoke to stain the brick.
I’d recommend an aqarium insert.
If you want to go crazy, look into a pellet burning stove.
Gas fireplaces have a relatively high efficiency as compared to wood-burning fireplaces, so they have a smaller flue - or no flue at all (some vent directly through the wall, if they are located on an outside wall). Burning wood or artificial (duraflame) logs could damage your chimney or flue liner, or even release CO into your house (if the flue was too small to exhaust all of the smoke and gases). A side-venting fireplace could even set your exterior siding afire, since it is not meant to handle really hot exhaust gases.
In short, I wouldn’t take the chance.
So, other than burning my house down or dying, what could possibly go wrong?
I’ll refrain from giving in to the temptation.
This is based on what? 
[sup]In other words “CITE”[/sup]
And Lord help the bricks might get stained and make it actually look like a fireplace. :rolleyes:
My wood fireplace came with a natural gas line installed when the house was built. It was plumbed to a long pipe with many holes drilled in it. This pipe acted as a log lighter.
So all I am saying here, is that in the mid 50’s when my house was built, this was obviously in complicance with code. So you got a cite to go with that?
It’s true. The Internet is full of cites (just google on “Fireplace Efficiency” for some examples; this is just the first one on a long, long list).
An open fireplace is esthetically very pleasing, but inefficient - anywhere from 5% to negative numbers (taking out more heat from your house than it generates). Screens, glass doors, heat exchangers, and fireplace inserts can change these numbers, but at a cost of losing some of the “look and feel” of the fire - the sound of the crackling wood, the faint smoky smell - that is, for many, a part of the experience.
Highest efficiency (75 to 85%) can be reached with gas fireplaces that are fully enclosed, using piped-in outside air to support combustion. Heat exchangers extract heat from the exhaust gases (and the firebox itself) and pump it into the room. As I said earlier, the efficiency can get so high that a traditional chimney and flue are no longer needed. But these are finely balanced systems, and burning logs (or even paper) can screw up your system, void the warranty, or put your life and property at risk (and yes, I have a cite ).
Gas log lighters are not uncommon, there are many different models, shapes and sizes available (example)
But they should only be used in a fireplace that is designed to be a wood-burning fireplace, and they have been banned in some jurisdictions because of a risk of explosion if they are used incorrectly (cite) .
Basically, if you have a true chimney and flu, here are your real options:
Keep the gas log set up. It is probably not going to heat very much of anything. (Watch somone pop in with anectdotal contrary evidence) Seriously, don’t rely on this for heat…it just isn’t all that.
You can use real wood if you have the line sealed/pulled/removed…consult expert…and get the flu checked by a sweep company. Bigass real wood fires are alot of work (watch someone pop in with anecdotal contrary evidence) and use a lot of wood and energy to create heat. And it is inneficient heat as has been noted.
If you have no chimney…your options for heat IMPROVE!
Direct vent fireplaces use seal combustion chambers (the firebox is sealed by glass) and they need to vent out of the house, not required a full chimney…maybe a ‘bump out’. These fireplaces are kits, sold by companies like Lennox or Heatalator. Some heat up entire first floors. I have a Lennox and bought it for it’s heating properties and good looks. Works with a thermostat, too!
Ventless: these don’t vent, produce decent heat, but can’t be run very long as they don’t have glass…and they rob the air of oxygen and add moisture to it. Sorta unhealthy, and some states require warnign devices or sensors to shut them down…some run for ‘x’ hours only.
The OP was about a gas fireplace, not a wood burning fireplace with a gas starter line. Two very different things as others have pointed out.
My gas fireplace is a direct vent sort of like this. It has no chimney - just an aluminum vent that goes to a metal box on an outside wall. Unfortunately Lennox doesn’t put their user manuals on their website, but the manual I have is full of “Warning - do not burn wood in the fireplace!”.
So unless he’s got a flue/chimney rated for a wood fire, he shouldn’t burn wood in it.
Well, I do have a real chimney and a real flue. There is a gas line like the one that Rick describes. I really do think that the thing is wood burning, but the previous owners went with the ceramic logs for some reason.
Oops, my mistake then. Your best bet is to call a chimney sweep and see what he thinks. He should be able to tell you in about 2 minutes if it’s OK to burn wood in your fireplace.
This is common. You can get the thing to wood burning status by getting the gas line issue resolved and having the flue inspected.
People ‘convert’ real fireplaces/flues to gas because real fires are real work. You can make it easy by burning premade logs though.
I would spend a couple hundred bucks on a chimney guy and someone else to get the gas line out. Any holes need to be patched professionally as well.
You can go back to wood under these conditions.
I think that somewhere this thread took a detour. I don’t want to burn wood, I want to burn a Duraflame.
Also, why would the gas need to come out? Growing up we had wood burning fireplaces with gas in them.
I am going to call massive bullshit on this one. My house was built in 1760 and has 5 fireplaces. They were the only source of heating for over 150 years and they easily replace the furnace with only a couple of fires. My inlaw’s farmhouse was built in 1790 and when it gets cool indoors when I am visiting, they ask me to fire up only one fireplace. The whole bottom floor is warm and sometimes even too hot after an hour. Sometimes I have to let the fire die down to let the house cool down to an comfortable temperature. This is in New Hampshire where the temperature drops below zero sometimes and is frozen for 4 solid months of the year.
If you want to qualify that with “some fireplace designs” you might have a point but this is not even close to universally true. What do you think people heated with between the thousands of years that permanent homes were invented and outside fuel was piped in?