http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/firepl

There is a Houzz Fireplace Forum. Here is the link.

I'm also considering one of these two and was wondering if anyone had thoughts or if OP ever made a decision?

thanks!

I'm considering these brands. What did you decide? Thanks, Suzanne

We are leaning toward Ortal as they have been around a while, but don't know too much more as it's hard to find reviews. Flare is a newer company few years old where an employee of Ortal went and opened his own company.

While the Flare has more options such as LED changing lights, WiFi, etc we are preferring a company that's been around a while.

Thanks very much. I agree. I did hear Ortal gives off very little heat and Flare gives off much more. It's not too big a problem in SF but I don't know what climate you live in. Good luck.

I'm in NJ. Compare the BTU and efficiency of both models. We are getting a 2 sided unit with the double glass which will give me even less heat! But if your not doing the double glass I'm sure both units will be plenty of heat.

I'm considering these brands along with one more and would love to hear any thoughts that you have to offer. Did any of you end up purchasing ?

We ended up purchasing the ortal but it still hasn't been installed. I can report back once it is in a couple months though.

We also ended up buying Ortal since our architect told us the dimensions were best and she had designed it for Ortal. the home should be completed this summer so I'm happy to report back.

Thank you both for the quick reply. Great choice as the Ortal is beautiful! I have seen it, but not the Flare.I think i'm going to go with the Flare because of it's availability, but before I did I was hoping to get some info from someone other then the contractor. When you did your research did you come across anything negative about the Flare that I should be aware of?

Truly appreciate your time in replying to me!

My advice would be DaVinci Fireplaces, Travis Industries has been around for 40 years and above and beyond manufacturing process

Evaluating linear corner fireplaces - haven’t finalized our decision yet but the Flare reps at their HQ have been incredibly helpful and extremely responsive.

Has anyone dealt with European homes fireplaces vs flare? Looking for a peninsula fireplace for dining room and living room area.

We're interested in the European Homes Lucious 100 peninsula. Yesterday, drove out to the local supplier/showroom and he was unfamiliar with what we were looking for. After searching, he suggested we drive to one of their other showrooms (45 minutes further) to talk to their one expert rep. Meantime, he seemed to be steering us toward the Flare and Ortal. Didn't find any peninsula/pier configurations in Ortal catalog. Will check out Flare.

We just finished installing / haven’t used them yet but we went with the flare fireplaces. Seamed like a few companies had very similar products but flare had better sizing selections. Their customer service is super helpful. I called them a few times to ask questions and create a plan with designing the install. I cannot tell you how they operate yet but from everyone I have talked to in the industry. They are a great product.

Thanks for update. Noticed the Flare dimensions are metric in their CAD drawings. Curious where they are designed and manufactured.

Do not get an Ortal Fireplae! We are currently deaing with a nightmare with ours. We have the Ortal and a Town & Country in our new house. We've been in here for only a year but we started noticing the Ortal issues immediately and now a year on we have no resolution. We put the Ortal upstairs to help with heat in case we wanted a tv above the fireplacde. I wish now we had Town & Country fireplaces only. The Ortal makes a ton of racket starting up. It has a series of beeps and clicks and a long delay before fire comes on. Once it starts up the metal starts popping and cracking loudly. Eventually it will die down, only to start up again when you turn it off. There'sthe typical "crackling" (which happens way less in the T&C and only maybe once or twice) but then there is the insanely loud pop or crack that happens every 10-20 seconds. After 20 minutes of this..good luck having a peacefl transition to slumber...it will have that same loud pop in the metal at random times throughout the night and even has been heard at 7am the next morning. Stay away!! Horrible. The Ortal rep and his colleagues have decided this is all normal despite videos and have stopped responding to emails. The installer won't do anything either as they say it's all been installed correctly and the issue is needing to be handled with Ortal. Maddening.

Anyone used or like Regency? Those seem to be the top ones at my local store.

@jennicola

Definitely doesn't sound normal. I've now had my ortal fireplace several years and never had any of the issues you've mentioned. Granted I use it very rarely but never any popping sounds when I have used it.

Agree, it's very odd. It's happened with two of their fireplaces. The first one was replaced and they said they had updated the metal. The new one is still making this sound. I tested it yesterday and turned it off at 8:30pm and sent the head of West Coast sales for Ortal, Sean Anderson, the videos of sounds two hours later. I slept through the periodic popping in the night as I was exhasuted (it usually wakes me up) but I was able to capture a video of the crack/pop the next morning at 6:30am. I send them all these videos and they just ignore me now. The guy came out for maybe an hour and stared at the glass, listened and then lWhie he was here he joked and asked if our house was built on an Indian burial ground. He was given the opportunity to open dry wall with our contractor present and he didn't. He left and the next day sent a follow up email saying the install was good (no idea how he confirmed that) and that it was all normal. We were just in shock. They all continue to ignore the videos. I've reached out to the CEO of Ortal on linked in with no response, I've called Ortal, left messages anywhere I can but nothing. It is the oddest thing but our contractor is filing a complaint with the contractors board today as the installer has left us high and dry in this situation as well. Just from the lack of professionalism in dealing with such an obvious issue I would stay away. It's sad were in a new house and this one little fireplace has been causing us such grief during our first year in it. Here's a video:

I can't see the video. Dang. I'm debating an Ortal or a Heat and Glo Tru model. I want the fireplace to look real, have a virtually invisible front,

and give off a lot of heat. I'm always cold!

I work for Fireside Hearth and Home, a division of Hearth & Home Technologies. We provide the Heat N Glo Steller Series which is my builders, architects and designers choice for too many reasons to post here.

My units van be seen at www.fireside.com

Please contact me: Randy Seligmann BSR - seligmannr@fireside.com

don’t use flare. customer service is 0/10. The fireplace either doesn’t turn on or doesn’t turn off. the LED lights either don’t turn on or won’t turn off. garbage
.

That's good to know. I went for the umpteenth time to the fireplace store and was shown a 50" Flare fireplace today. The flames and media looked great, it provided the right amount of heat and had a clean vent system. My next step was reads reviews and saw yours. Some people on this thread seem to love their Flare so now I'm confused. The other unit I was contemplating is the Regency Cityview series. Does anyone have experience with this brand? Thanks in advance.

We're one of many with a bond claim against Ortal, so once they disburse it we will have to share any of that with too many others who also filed thier bond claims against Ortal. There are so many people with issues with them also in the courts. I think that says a lot

i bet to differ. Unless they have changed. I installed two flare fireplaces and called customer support many times and they were great to work with. I havnt had any issues with our fireplaces but installing them myself i checked and double checked the installation specifications and made sure it was exactly right. I bet the majority of the issues is with how the fireplace should be correctly installed. Sorry but i am very happy with my two flare fireplaces and working with their team was a good experience.

Hi Amy,

Could you tell me a little about where you installed your fireplaces and what sizes? Did you use the screen system to provide some heat or the double safety glass? Also did you mount TV's above any of your units? I'm looking at installing them in my great room (70-80") and primary suite (50") but it's the great room that I'm struggling with as I would like some direct heat off of the unit that goes in there but also don't want the TV to be mounted so high that you're craning your neck to watch it. It's our main TV and gathering space so mounting a TV at reasonable height is important but so is a little heat from fireplace because we have a high vaulted ceiling and redirecting the all heat to the top won't do anything as it will just dissipate. Thanks.