Custom Backyard Fireplaces with Ventless Gas Logs.

Ventless gas log fireplaces are usually installed into homes that are already built without a working fireplace. During construction there are already permits, inspections, mass deliveries and workers on site. It is less complicated to build a fireplace, hearth, mantle and chimney running through the wall and roof durng construction. When the house is complete and lived in major installation in the walls and through the roof, scheduling inspection and pulling permits can be time consuming and get in the way of living life at home. These situations are exactly what vent free gas log fireplaces, fire boxes and ventless mantles are made for. However, we have used ventless gas logs for another reason. We have been using ventless gas logs in outdoor fireplaces.

Many customers do not think this is a great idea at first. After all, there are limitations to what a vent free fireplace can do that define flame pattern, ceramic log arrangement and gas flow. The client thinks “if we are outside, obviously low oxygen is not a problem”. Of course, they are right (because the customer is always right).

A typical chimney flue needs approximately ten feet of rise in order to “pull” smoke and fumes out of the firebox. If a flue is built too short the pull of the flue is nt strong enough to direct the smoke and fumes and the large opening in the front of the fireplace is a lot easier to flow through than the small eight inch hole in the roof. A vented firebox meant to attach to a chimney flue will have a throat that inclines the sides of the firebox to the attached flue. This way as smoke, fumes and heat rise the incline consolidates at the opening of the flue. The rise creates a current that pulls the fumes up and out.

When we design and build backyard gas fireplaces for homeowners the fireplaces are often against a wall under an overhang (and the client does not want to cut through the roof) or free-standing (and the customer does not want 10′ of chimney rising above it). A few years ago, I started using ventless gas log fireplaces in our outdoor firelaces.

The designs started looking a lot better because we were able to build very attractive chimneys or no chimney at all. Either way, we built around a ventless fire box that kept the minimal heat and fumes isolated. We got to concentrate on the design a lot more and pragmatic details of pulling fumes and staying within code regulations became unimportant. The unvented gas log fireplace is meant to be used without a chimney so chimneys became a part of the decor.

I expected to have a lot of valve problems and clogged Oxygen Depletion Sensors (ODS) but I have never yet had a complaint. I have always insisted the homeowner use a manual valve on an outdoor gas fireplace because batteries and battery operated ignitors do not last very long in Florida weather and humidity. Wind can also be a problem and we design the fireplaces and mantles to compensate for the direction of the wind. Ventless gas log fireplaces all come standard with thermocouples attached to the valve so if the flames blow out the valve shuts gas flow off.

Although no one rated a ventless gas log fireplace for outdoor use we have been using the with great success. With the expansion of alternative vent free gas logs this business has grown for clients who enjoy crushed colored glass in their outdoor fireplace reflecting flames in various patterns in the glass.