Well, happy to read the problem(s) don't include smoke/smell or will not maintain a fire/draft.

How big is the family room? is the ceiling in the basement insulated? Heat rises, we all know, so you may want to consider how much heat is going "upstairs", turn the furnace off and watch the heat on the floor above. If it is as warm as the family room, your heat is going up stairs.

More what are you burning? Wood? Hard wood? Seasoned hard wood? How many pounds are you burning per hour, just estimate, say a split log feels like 6 pounds, just count them. You can't get more heat out than is being generated.

Yow, this is an old thread, but I'm wondering why this pesron had both the blower AND the clean face kit, which blocks the outlet of the blower on the top face of the unit. It would seem the blower output would then have to go into the gravity outflows... an odd setup for the middle of a basement.

We're using our Villa Vista in it's second seadon, blower only. We have an 1800 sq ft "L shaped home with the Villa Vista in a very non-central location. It will flat run you out of the Large family room that it's in, and keeps the rest of thev house reasonable; If my wife uses the oven (at the other end of the house) to make a meal, it's roasty-toasty by dinner time, cold in the morning.

I live near Pittsburgh, so it gets cold enough. I'm burning mostly pine this season, which obviously goes much quicker (and you must keep an eye on the chimeny). I am looking at other ways to get better heat distribution. And I sure wish tha blower was quiter. But it's a beatiful unit, that full view glass door is just wonderful.

Tom

The Lennox Villa Vista is a piece of crap, and Lennox does not stand behind its products. Two Lennox talking heads arrived to test the fireplace with their own firewood, measuring instruments, etc. After two hours, the fireplace generated four degrees (through the warming of the day). The Lennox talking heads left saying the fireplace worked as it was designed to do. After five years and $10K, they are sending me new blowers to be installed at my expense. If you only need four degrees of warmth from your fireplace, this is the one for you!!! I was sold a bill of goods by the dealer store, who later admitted they had never sold one before. It is an expensive joke!

Have heated 2000 sq.ft. with my Villa Vista in Wisconsin weather for 6 seasons with Excellent heat. Can keep the house 50 degrees above outside temperature. Have blower kit and believe this is significant for heating but it is noisy. My Problem is that it eats catalytic combusters. I'm on my 3rd one in 6 seasons, and it is crumbling. All wood is dried 2 seasons and no snow on the wood when fueling. 30 min. warm-up before closing the by-pass damper. Don't know what I'm doing wrong. Anybody got similar problems or fixes?

I have had my Villa Vista for 6 years no. Our house is a Open floor plan 1500 square foot 2 bedroom Raised Ranch. From the back it looks like a 2 story so I have the basement ý finished with a Master suit for my daughter. I solely used this for Heating. I am very pleased at the output. I am not sure why others are having issues. This winter has been the coldest run yet and the House only dropped to 65 degrees when was 19 below zero during the night. I Cut my wood to 12â and load so I can see the cut face. I found out the any log that is 12â or smaller I no longer split as the stove burns to Hot. I keep the air chocked almost all the way down; I have the glass so the top ý is clear while the bottom gets dark from slow burning. I burn Ash, Oak, Popular, Maple not any preference. I run my Propane furnace fan during the night to keep the air moving so the basement gets some heat. It is usually 65-68 degrees. The only issue is I am on my 2nd Catalytic converter and I will pry only get one more season out of it. The other issue is the back insulation panel is cracked and needs to be replaced. I love the unit and if I wanted to heat the house to 90 it would do it but I would be feeding it a lot. I burn one face cord every 10 days, if the wife is home maybe 6 days she likes it 72-3. I pull the fans one a year and air compress off and oil the motor. On the fan comments I installed a remote dial to control the fan and I like it at ý RPM for noise and temperature. I do run a ceiling fan on medium setting to move the air in the great room, it has 10 foot ceilings. My neighbors have a similar unite with a re-burner not a Converter and I like it much better. Over all I am happy with it and do not understand all the above issues.