Who makes the best wood-burning fireplace?
Regency makes the best wood-burning fireplace we install — the Grandview G600C, a 42-inch radiant unit that kept people warm through Helene when the grid was down for days. If you want EPA-certified wood performance without a premium price tag, Superior's WRT4500 is the value answer. Both burn real wood, and both heat with zero electricity.
The Grandview earned its reputation the hard way
The Regency Grandview G600C is the best wood-burning fireplace we install — a 42-inch radiant unit from Regency's Grandview series that, in our customers' homes, kept people warm through Helene while the grid was down. Radiant wood heat doesn't care about power lines, fuel deliveries, or anything else beyond dry wood and a good chimney. For families up mountain roads outside Marshall, Mars Hill, or Spruce Pine — where an outage can outlast a generator's fuel supply — that's not a lifestyle choice, it's infrastructure. It's also simply a beautiful fire — big glass, deep firebox, the kind of flame gas units work hard to imitate.
The value pick: Superior WRT4500
Not every project needs the flagship. The Superior WRT4500 is a 36-inch EPA-certified wood fireplace that delivers genuine wood-burning performance without a premium price tag, and it's the unit we suggest for new builds and remodels where the budget has to cover more than the hearth. EPA certification matters either way: modern certified fireboxes burn cleaner and pull far more heat into the room than the open masonry fireplaces in older Asheville homes, which can actually run a net heat loss. If you're torn between the two, ask how central the fireplace is to your heating plan — primary heat argues for the Grandview, ambiance-plus-backup lets the Superior shine.
Building it right in mountain country
A new wood fireplace is the biggest hearth project we do — Class A chimney, framing coordination, clearances, hearth extension, county permit, inspection. Figure two to three days of installation for most wood and chimney jobs. Elevation adds its own homework: draft is harder up here, and ridgelines and tall trees can push downdrafts into a poorly placed flue, so chimney height and termination get real attention. One company handles all of it — appliance, chimney, permit, inspector — backed by the manufacturer's warranty plus our workmanship guarantee. Call (828) 545-0525 or visit the Asheville showroom to see what a serious wood fireplace looks like burning.
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