Wood-burning insert vs gas insert — which should I choose?
Around Mars Hill the fuel splits by location. University-area homes lean toward easy, switch-on gas inserts, while rural Spring Creek and Gabriels Creek properties often run propane or wood — where a wood insert delivers the cheapest, most independent heat. It's one of the colder spots we serve, so whichever you pick has to genuinely heat. Both seal a drafty open firebox into an efficient one.
Two markets around one small town
Mars Hill has a college-town core and a rural surround, and they want different things. Near the university, rentals and in-town homes favor a gas insert — low-maintenance, thermostatic, lit at the flip of a switch, which suits busy academic-year households. Out in the Spring Creek and Gabriels Creek valleys, homes commonly run on propane or heat with wood; a wood insert there is cordwood heat you own outright, and many of those properties have the trees to feed it. A gas insert works on propane too, set up correctly for LP.
Cold enough that the appliance has to heat
This is one of the colder communities we cover, so an insert here isn't decoration — it has to carry real load. Both wood and gas inserts do, because both seal the firebox and run a correctly sized stainless liner, turning a heat-losing open fireplace into a genuine heater. A wood insert loaded overnight holds coals till morning; a gas insert holds a set temperature like the thermostat it effectively is. Gas is licensed work — we pull the Madison County permit and pressure-test the line before the first flame.
A short drive to the showroom
We're 30 minutes away in Asheville with gas and wood inserts lit side by side. Call (828) 545-0525 for a free in-home assessment of your Mars Hill fireplace.
Fireplace help in Mars Hill
We install and service fireplaces throughout Mars Hill and the rest of Madison County — just 30 minutes north from our Asheville-area showroom.
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