How many leave your fireplace on all night?

[Driftwoodgal]

Didn't want to high jack a thread about fireplaces, so I wanted to post this question to people that own a fireplace.

Does anyone leave there fireplace on all night? If so what model and year do you own? Have you had problems with the wood/fake mantel heating up? Are you worried about the mantel catching fire?

We use a ceramic heater right now to heat the living room at night. We don't like a hot bedroom, but it sure gets cold for DH when he gets up earlier than I do, in the morning, and makes coffee if you don't leave something on.

We have only had to use our propane heat for two nights, because of really cold temperatures. Normally we aren't camped weekly or monthly so we don't have to pay for electricity. I would rather use the campgrounds money than mine.

Colleen

[MikeM]

We routinely leave our fireplace on overnite with no problems and no concerns. I checked the mantle a number of times and never found it too hot to touch.

Even if you are paying for electricity, I think you would find that it would be cheaper to use the fireplace than the propane furnace to provide the minimal heat you need to take the chill off.

Forgot to mention-that was in our 2005 3475RL. We've since upgraded to a Big Sky but haven't had an opportunity/need for heat.

[HamRad]

Colleen,

We have a 2002 model year Monty. It is a 3295RK. It has the fireplace. We did not want the fireplace but it was on the model we ended up buying. We thought it was simply a waste of good storage space. Since then we have changed our minds. Now I would not buy a rig without a built in fireplace.

We have run our fireplace for days at a time. And I mean the 24 hour day! In April of this year we were visiting the Grand Canyon. Our furnace ran for most of the night but stopped on us about 4am. Thought we were going to freeze as there was a cold front moving through the area.

I got our portable electric heater and plugged it in hoping that we'd be able to make it until we could get our furnace repaired. We ended up being more than warm enough with just the two electric heaters.

I've read here on the MOC that some folks have had their fireplace heaters catch on fire. Others that have had the mantle get so hot that it scorched the wood. I've checked all the wiring on our fireplace and monitored the area above the fireplace for excess heat. We've never had a problem. It gets warm but nothing near burning.

I'm sure it is not the best or safest thing to run the fireplace like we have but we do monitor it fairly closely.

Dennis and Mary Kay

[David Salzman]

Hence this is another concern that I brought before Keystone. I have a 2005 with the mantle above the fire place. It gets so hot you can't touch it. Their reply was we haven't had a problem with them. So since they wern't concerned about it I did something to correct it. I placed foil above where the heat comes out and folded it over the top of the wood. This stopped the mantle from getting hot. Since this worked I placed a brass push plate om the underside of the wood and still no problem with overheating. I leave the unit on all the time now without any concerns.

[OntMont]

We leave ours on occasionally, but I prefer to use a much cheaper ceramic heater at night when we are not there to appreciate the visual effect of the fireplace. I don't want to burn out the bulbs or cause any other failure in the relatively expensive fireplace. I have never noticed excessive heating of the wood trim. I do always set the thermostat down so that it is not running 100% of the time.

[Driftwoodgal]

David,

We have a 2006 3400RL model that has a mantel that does get really warm/hot when we leave the fireplace on, thus we don't leave it on at night. The mantel is not just warm, but hot after using the fireplace. We are worried about burning alive in a tube if we leave it on at night. The fireplace was one of the reasons that we bought the Montana, thinking that we could keep the living room warm when camping.

Colleen

[rubble express]

Our 3400's mantel got really hot after only 30 minutes or so. So did the bottom of the TV. I put self stick aluminum foil under the mantel and the crack (90 degrees worth) and it has helped appreciatably. The mantel and the bottom of the TV stay relativly non-hot now. Still warm, but not hot. Personally, I would not leave it on while sleeping. Ceramic heaters take less power and provide more heat and are safer in my humble little opinion.

[rldriver]

We have a 2007 Big Sky and used the fireplace 24/7 all winter to help heat the rig during the up to -10 deg temperature.

we did have a problem and found out we are not the first. Search "Fireplace electrical fire warning" with user "rldriver"
I fixed it and still use it all the time. Well all the time when it's cold out.

Dick

[bsmeaton]

We leave ours on through the night (2007 3400 with the wood mantle). The mantle gets hot - but not that hot.

There must have been a few complaints, as I notice the wood trim and mantles are gone on the 2009. Too bad.

[stiles watson]

I guess I am the contraflow on this one. I turn it off at night. We sleep cool. We set the thermostat to 60. When arising, we turn on the fireplace for a fairly quick warm up of the living area.

[rames14]

We have used both the fireplace and ceramic heaters. We have a 2004 3400. We just got back from a 4500 mile trip and had temps from 20's to 90's. So, we used the air, furnace, heaters and fireplace at various times. I like the fireplace if it's in the 40's to 50's to keep the trailer in the 60's. Below that it's the ceramic heaters. Haven't had any problems going into our 5th year in the Monty.

[adelmoll]

We were one of those that had the wires burn in our fireplace and thankfully it shorted out. We had the wireing replaced and have never had a problem again but I can still remember the smell of the burning wire and never leave it on when we go to bed or leave the RV. We turn it on as soon as we get up in the morning and by the time we pour the coffee, it is nice and snug on these cooler mornings.

Helen

[Ozz]

Colleen,
There have been a few of us that have had the wires melt inside the heater where the connections are made.
Mine failed the first time we used it, as did Michael's,; Snfexpress.
I don't trust the wiring in mine enough to leave it unattended, it's just built too cheap, without the safety overloads that I think it should have. I took mine apart when it failed, and was not happy with the safety aspect of it. It's like many other things, maybe it will be fine for many, and really bad for some.
I would just get a nice ceramic heater, put it on a timer, so it warms up a little for Bob in the mornings downstairs.
Glad you two made it back to Driftwood, keep us up to speed on any new assignments.
We still don't know what we will do this winter.
Ozz

[jretz]

We turn our fireplace off at night. I usually get up around 6am so I turn the fireplace on to take the chill off. This last year in temperatures down to 15 degrees we average a tank of propane a week. During that time the thermostat was set at 60 to 62 degrees most of the time. During the day we have the fireplace going and it really helps warm things up. When we are not around we turn the fireplace off and lower the thermostat.

[dsprik]

I'm one of the "run all the time - no problems" people.

[exav8tr]

I'm one of the "turn off when in bed or leaving the trailer". This last year we haven't needed much heat due to our travel schedule, but we do have a 1500 watt electric we use more often than the fireplace. We seem to use it more in the winter than fall and spring, It's an ambience thing I think.....I will admit though, it takes the chill off the LR, but don't trust it unattended......

[rogersuemegan]

we have a 2005 - 3400 and use ours at night without any problems.

[mail2us]

Our 2008 3400 model was purchased new October 2007 with a Dimplex Fireplace (Optiflame) that has 1500 watts of heating at 5200 BTU range.

It works great and here's what it has:

- Equipped with a thermostat and it turns on and off automatically as set
- Heater is protected with a safety device to prevent overheating
- If Heater does overheat, an automatic cutoff will turn the Heater off and cannot come back on until reset.

I've never had it so hot that it's cutoff automatically nor have I had to reset it.

Use: we've used it in temps as low as about 25-30 so far.

We do leave it on at low temperature during the night depending on temperature predictions.

Not to be flip: If we leave it on during a cool/cold day, why not at night?

[Parrothead]

We have a 2005 3400 and did run it all night. The bulbs burnt out and a switch broke. We replaced the bulbs and the switch. We found that with just the fire on and no heat, the mantle still gets warm. There are 4 60 watt bulbs in there. Several months later another switch broke and we smelled something burning. We unplugged it and as yet haven't fixed it as we haven't needed it until now. We are going to replace the bulbs with 40 watt.
Happy trails..........................

[Delaine and Lindy]

We have the same set up as mail2us and our use is just about the same. We have really enjoyed our Fireplace and have had three of them and never had a issue. Good Luck. GBY...