Englander Blue Ridge 300-I Fireplace Insert

We are chimney professionals and now only use Rockford as our wood burning appliance retailer. We’ve found appliances that were only in stock here at peak busy season. Those same appliances arrived, as ordered, in a week. We can’t even get that turnaround with local-to-us National Chimney Supply and liner material. They have an excellent and responsive customer service team that always answers the phone and always clearly answers your questions. Delivery has always been a breeze with clear communication and punctual arrival from the delivery company. Also - no sales tax and free delivery on these appliances every time is the cincher. It would cost us more in cash and time to find a local appliance retailer. We also like that the Englander appliances we purchase are coming straight from the Englander headquarters here in our home state of Virginia.

If you are looking for an affordable, well built, easy-to-install and highly efficient fireplace insert, I highly recommend the Englander Blue Ridge 300-I Fireplace Insert.

I recently installed this unity in a 1400 Square ft. ranch home. The house was built and 1969 and a full stone fireplace was built into the home. Over the years, the owner of the home stopped using the fireplace and installed a home-made fire box. The firebox was in poor shape and I did not feel comfortable using it as it really looked like a fire hazard and was very inefficient at heating the home.

I decided to install a new wood-burning insert. That's when a few searches led me to Rockford Chimney Supply. I looked at all of their models along side of wood-burning insert models from other companies.

After taking dimensions and photos of the stone fireplace, I contacted Rockford Chimney Supply by phone. I shared the fireplace dimensions and photos. The person I talked to on several occasions was very knowledgeable about all of their inserts and was very helpful in answering all of my questions.

Base upon the design, size, efficiency, and the price, I decided to go with the Englander Blue Ridge 300-I Fireplace Insert.

I ordered via phone through the person I had been dealing with. They made sure my order included everything I needed to install the insert based upon the dimensions and photos I had shared.

The install did not take long. The majority of time spent was on getting the home-made insert out of the fireplace, cleaning everything up and getting ready to put the insert in place.

This insert is HEAVY weighing in at 420 lbs. We took the fire bricks which were already laid out in the fireplace insert out to make the insert a bit lighter. It took two of us to pick it up and place it on the fireplace hearth. Before, sliding the insert in place, we went on the roof and dropped the stainless steel flex pipe down the chimney made sure it would fit around the old damper wedge. The flex pipe allowed us to bring the pipe around the damper wedge (a steel plate over solid stone) and down to where it would meet the connector at the top of the insert.

We slid the insert into place and connected the chimney pipe per the included instructions. The fit was perfect! we then put fireplace cement around the chimney pipe connection per the instructions.

I ordered the ceramic fire blanket to insulate the areas between the insert and the original fireplace. I cut sections of the fire blanket, rolled it up and wedged in on the top and sides. This was done to prevent any drafting of air from inside the home into the chimney.

Then we installed the three included face panels. Easy peasy!

After installing the face panels, we slide the included blower onto the front bottom face of the fireplace insert and secured with the included screws.

I put the fire bricks back in their proper layout and loaded the insert with good, dry wood and lighted a fire.

What a BEAUTIFUL fire! If you've never seen a high efficiency fireplace or wood burner burn, it is an enlightening experience! I'll explain.

What makes a high efficiency wood-burning fireplace insert so efficient is the design; most specifically the baffle tubes that are located at the op of the firebox. These tubes draw in fresh air. The air is super-heated from the fire as it travels through the tubes and through the series of small holes that face towards the front of the firebox.

As the super-heated air exits the baffle holes, the gases from the wood spontaneously ignite, creating dancing plumes of fire suspended above the wood. Quite a beautiful and entertaining sight to behold!

I learned from my first high efficiency wood-burning fireplace insert I installed in my other home 15 years ago that wood does not actually burn. The fire that appears to be burning on the wood is from the combustion of the gasses that are exiting the wood. In an open environment, it appears as thought the wood is burning, it is not, the gasses exiting the wood is what is burning. In an enclosed environment like the high efficiency Englander Blue Ridge 300-I Fireplace Insert, the gasses that exit the wood immediately combust as they mix with the super-heated air from the baffle tubes. This is what makes units like this so efficient. In an open environment or a closed environment like a wood burner or wood-burning fireplace that does not have the baffle tube, a lot of the gasses from the wood simply rise up into the air or the chimney and dissipate into the air.

Three advantages of burning wood in a high efficiency fireplace insert like the Englander Blue Ridge 300-I Fireplace Insert:

1. The Englander Blue Ridge 300-I Fireplace Insert has four baffle tubes in the top of the firebox. The unit I installed in my other home 15 years ago only has 3 baffle tubes. The fourth tube in the Englander Blue Ridge 300-I Fireplace Insert makes a huge difference in the efficiency of the burn!

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