A Third-Generation Guide To Choosing The Right Fireplace For Comfort, Safety, And Savings

A Third-Generation Guide To Choosing The Right Fireplace For Comfort, Safety and Savings

In this episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, you'll hear how a warm home isn’t just about temperature; it’s about control, safety and the feeling you get when a room simply feels right. Listen to Good Neighbor Podcast Host Bob Blaisse interview Patrick Ryan, owner of The Stove Shop Fireplace Experts, a third-generation team serving the Philadelphia region from their showroom in Phoenixville, PA. You'll hear Pat decode the sometimes-confusing world of fireplaces, stoves and outdoor heat. And if you’ve ever wondered whether natural gas, wood, pellet or electric is best for a fireplace—or whether zone heating can cut heating bills without sacrificing comfort—this conversation is the warm-up you need.

You'll learn how a Level-Two chimney inspection sets the foundation for safe fireplace installs, when a gas insert beats a traditional open hearth and why pellet stoves excel in basements where steady, clean heat can rise through the home. And you’ll quickly come to an understanding that adding a fireplace to a blank wall can add direct-vent options with consideration of natural gas and propane options for cost and convenience. In this interview, Bob and Pat talk through the tradeoffs of ambience versus serious heat for the desired experience, which can even be tested by a stop at Pat's live-burn fireplace showroom at 20 East Pothouse Road, in Phoenixville, PA, to test remotes, see flame patterns and the difference fireplace technologies offer before buying.

If you're ready to warm up the lives in your home and want to start bringing the heat to your outdoor patio, with fire tables and overhead heaters for covered porches. Or if you're looking to learn how kamado grills and quality smokers change what’s possible for backyard kitchens, this episode of  Good Neighbor Podcast is for you.

The Stove Shop Fireplace Experts
FireplaceExperts.com
facebook.com/fireplaceexperts
610-935-9334

--- About The Show--- Good Neighbor Podcast is a spotlight on local businesses in and around Delaware County, PA (“Delco” ) and Beyond...  The executive producer and host, Bob Blaisse, is a community sponsorship advocate, business branding specialist, and publisher of several hometown magazines, including: Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors, Marple Friends & Neighbors and Newtown Edgmont Friends & Neighbors, mailed monthly to more than 12,000 homes in Western Delaware County, PA, and also available for reading online.
 

Transcript

Welcome To Delco And The Show

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, Delco. This is Michael Barcan. Welcoming you to the Good Neighbor Podcast, where fans of local businesses and their neighbors come together. It's my pleasure once again to introduce my friend and neighbor, our host, Bob Lacy.

Meet Patrick Ryan And The Stove Shop

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Thank you, Michael Barcan, for that introduction. Everybody, welcome again to our episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. And if you've listened before, you know we're coming to you from Pennsylvania in the United States and really the southeast corner of Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, we lovingly refer to as Delco. And uh it's getting to be really popular. Um it has been for years, kind of a Delco vibe we like to brag on here. In fact, HBO Max got a uh new TV show again that's based here, or supposed to be based here in Delaware County, Pennsylvania for our unique ways and towns and accents, they say. Um it's called uh Task. It's on HBO. Check it out. You'll learn a little bit more about Delaware County. Today you're gonna learn a little bit more about another good neighbor business that we bring to you with this podcast. And uh sometimes we do stretch limits, we move kind of outside of Delaware County because we like to say Delaware County and beyond. And uh boy, we have found a uh a business just outside of Delaware County that serves Delaware County and the surrounding Philadelphia region, really. It's called the Stove Shop Fireplace Experts. And I'm very happy to bring to the stage and introduce the uh owner uh of uh the stove shop fireplace experts, the fireplace expert, uh Patrick Ryan. Patrick, welcome to the program.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Thank you so much, Bob. Uh really grateful to be here.

What “Fireplace Experts” Really Do

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Uh well it's nice to have an expert coming to us. Um, your business has been based in Phoenixville in recent years, but my understanding is, and the way that your business got nominated, is that you serve both Chester County, Delaware County, Bucks County, maybe even, but certainly Delaware County for um uh the fireplace products uh that uh are all around stoves and barbecues and gas grills and things like that. I think we're gonna talk about. Patrick, first let's just talk about a little bit about the business. Is this a business that you founded yourself?

SPEAKER_01 2:14

My grandfather founded the stove shop in 1977. He, along with my dad, uh, grew it and maintained the shop. Uh, we're almost 48 years old now, operating out of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania for that whole time.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Wow, third generation business of uh fireplace experts. And we should probably define what that means from a fireplace perspective, because I think when our listeners think about fireplaces, they think of that thing you might have in your living room where you put wood in and burn wood in a fireplace, the old school idea of a fireplace, but it can mean so many things because, hey, not the least of which is there's people that have fireplaces outside now, right? And and uh barbecue pits and all kinds of cooking things. Tell me the range of what the fireplace um experts do, and we really know you as the stove shop fireplace experts. What are the what are the range of the products and services that you offer?

SPEAKER_01 3:08

The big thing that we offer our customers is guidance through the process. As you mentioned, Bob, there's a lot of different options. Uh, things like open fireplaces with gas logs, a vented or ventless option. Uh, you have wood, pellet, electric, and gas. Um, and there's a lot of different ways to orient that solution in a home, depending on the way that the home is oriented and what your goals are, whether you want to be warm or just look at a beautiful fire. Um, we will work with you to kind of come up with a good plan for your home. You know, everybody's different. When you go online and you search something, it's easy to find information, but is that information relevant to you specifically and to your home? I can't type in on Google, what does my home need for heat? Um, so the stove shop is here to help homeowners in our kind of small corner of Pennsylvania figure out what is best for them. Uh, and we're there through the whole journey. So not just at the beginning to sell you something. If we don't sell you anything, that's just fine too. Um, our goal is to help give you information so that you can make the best choice for your home.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

If I'm somebody like that and looking to make a decision about a fireplace, I'm doing it either for the ambience or I'm doing it for the heat. And if I'm doing it for the ambience, could be just electricity, could be light up, uh, not heat. But if I'm doing it for heat, then we're really talking about is it truly wood burning? Is it gas burning? And are you going to be like uh doing plumbing work as well to try to get gas lines involved? And and or or is it uh inserts for fireplaces so that a fireplace that might not be built correctly is going to have the right kind of draft if it's truly a fire? What would be the range of when it comes to the actual fireplaces?

SPEAKER_01 4:48

We run the gamut. Um we're willing to do whatever it is that's necessary in order to get your home up to code. Uh, we want to make sure that you're safely burning that fire in your home. You know, we're intentionally installing fire in people's houses. Um, so the goal first and foremost is to make sure that it's safe. Uh, an inspection is kind of the first piece. Uh, it's called a level two chimney inspection. I'm sure there's been other guests on here that have talked about chimneys, and I think that's an important part of our trade. Um, what we're more focused on is once the chimney is established that it's safe. Um, we're we can install everything from a gas insert um to a wood stove. Um, most of the time, what we find is that the customer values having the choice between what they currently use for heat, because most of us have one probably heating solution in our home now, and having two uh gives us the ability to choose what it is that we're going to burn and when. Um so if you're spending a lot of time out in your family room, you might want to turn on the gas insert uh that's been installed in your masonry fireplace. Um, maybe we can plumb you know, gas line and electric as well, um, run it to that masonry fireplace so that you can use it for three, four, five hours a day and warm the space and then shut it off with a remote and go back to your bedroom and go to sleep. Most people want to have it cold when they sleep in their bedroom. Um, so we encourage folks to heat where they live as opposed to heating the entire home with uh electric heat or with oil heat.

Zone Heating And Cost Control

SPEAKER_02 6:12

So, so really, um, you're you're a lot of times people having questions. Um, look, we have this thing, uh, it's a fireplace. I don't even know if it works. I don't know if it ever has been used, but I'm nervous about burning a fire in there. If we talk about that from a perspective of, I just want to burn wood and not clean out the ashes. You're really the company that can actually come out, inspect the chimney, expect the flu, and and see if it's really designed right. Will it work as a fireplace? And then it it may be recommend uh add-ons that say, well, it'll work, but um, here's a way for it to be safer, or here's a way for it to vent heat more, something like that. So so we're more talking, more efficient. We're talking about uh in that case, somebody wants to kind of smell a fireplace and get warmed up once in a while, have the thrill of fire in the living room or whatever. But I'll bet tell me if I'm wrong, uh Pat. This is probably more so people who do want some efficiency. Can I save money by heating my house with a gas fireplace? Is that still going on, or is it always kind of an additional expense for the ambience or for the look or just the comfort that you have?

SPEAKER_01 7:16

I think most folks will find that overall, over the course of the maybe 10 years or more, I would say 10 to 20 years that you're using your unit in your home, uh a gas fireplace insert, for example, will reduce your overall cost uh when it comes to heating a home because you are not using heat pumps or an oil radiator to heat the entire house. You're just heating a specific area. Interesting. Um, it gives a lot of opportunity to homeowners to finally control their home. Uh, you can actually decide where it's warm and where it's cold, as opposed to just hitting a button and saying, Good luck, I get putrid 70 degree heat sprayed on me without any kind of satisfaction or warmth. Um, that direct heat is is just hard to compete with.

Exploring Products And Services Online

Can You Add A New Fireplace?

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Yeah, well, it's there's an expert advice coming at us from one of the fireplace experts from the stove shop. We're talking to Patrick Ryan, who is the owner of the stove shop, fireplace experts. And if you'd like to get a chance to see their website to see all the services that they're talking about, and we're going to talk about more of them here, but um, you can easily uh take a look at their website because it's easy to remember, fireplaceexperts.com. That'll introduce you to the stove shop, fireplace experts and uh Pat Ryan. Pat, can I take it from this uh gas and fire kind of fireplace? And and somebody that is of interest in having that work, what about the person that says, you know, we grew up with a fireplace, we loved it, it always made me feel comfy and holidays and warm. I don't have a fireplace in my house. Can I have a fireplace now? And I think the answer to that is yes, because I've seen people who have kind of like wall-mounted something new in a cabinet-looking thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Cut a hole in the wall and throw that bad boy right in there, and you're good to go. You know, if you have a wall that's open, you could put a fireplace in it.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Is that are they doing that with um the look of a fireplace, or are you actually bringing a gas liner or something in there that you can actually have true burning fire, or do they need a flue? What how does that work?

Gas, Electric, Wood, And Venting

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Uh typically you'll see like a metal cap on the outside of the home that that um, you know, when you're driving by most new construction houses instead of a traditional chimney, you'll see kind of almost looks like a dryer cap sticking out of the horizontal side of the house. Um very easy to install. You can do gas or electric uh in that application. With a wood, you would want to have a chimney, right? Because you need to get past the roof line. Um, but overall, if you if you grew up with a fireplace and you think to yourself, man, I don't want to have I don't have one now, I want to get one. There are more than one, there's really more than one solution for you, um, which ultimately I believe is the problem for most folks is that there's too many options and that no one knows what is the best option for their specific house. Right. So our commitment is to help people figure out and guide them through, like maybe it is the best option to get a prefabricated gas fireplace installed in a blank wall in your home. Uh, it could also be a better option to get a pellet stove in your basement because the heat rises up through your home and can heat your home effectively without ever having to turn on uh your heating solution at all. Um, a pellet stove is a great solution for a basement uh because it doesn't back puff into the into the room. Many people have wood stoves right now, um, and they're wonderful, uh, but in a basement it can cause some smoking issues. So there's some unique solutions that we can provide to folks that maybe they're not aware of that will help increase the home's efficiency, increase the heat, uh, and I think hopefully um give them long-term satisfaction with direct heat rather than just a slightly warmer room with a heat pump.

Pellet Stoves And Basement Heating

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Well, that covered a lot. I mean, we've talked about uh stoves that uh would be really uh for ambience or look. Uh, we've talked about stoves that would be for heat and even as heat, whether it's uh pellets or wood or gas and the location of the stove. Patrick, what about people who would say, you know, I don't really want to smell um fire burning? I I I more I wish we had gas wired into our house. Are there solutions for people who would say, Yeah, I'd even I'd even be willing to have a like a propane tank on the outside of my house? Do you get involved in that as well, to introduce people to that method of having a fireplace?

Propane Versus Natural Gas

SPEAKER_01 11:20

We work with a number of local companies, um, Express Propane being one of them to uh coordinate and do installation of propane tanks. Um typically we'll find that folks that do not have a propane tank that want to go that direction, uh, it is a good solution for them to get a tank installed so that they can kind of be off-grid effectively uh and control their own heating um source. We do find that natural gas is a much more affordable option. Um, so there is the advantage of if you have natural gas, there is no reason for you to not have a gas fireplace. Um, or you should feel free to spoil yourself uh by getting one. Uh but with propane, there's an additional expense where you may need to get a tank installed. Many of them will rent them out to you too. Um but there's so many different solutions that it really can be quite overwhelming. Um, really, our major focus is to make sure that our employees feel satisfied and that they're happy because we believe that a company is no better uh than the people that work for it. And most of our uh efforts are poured into this principle of unreasonable hospitality. Um so our goal is really to make sure that we go above and beyond in every situation, uh, even if we don't sell anything. Um, the goal is to provide high-quality information to our community. But give us an idea. Let people make a decision on their own.

Team, Showroom, And Growth

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Yeah, give us an idea. Your company, I'm I'm hearing now, uh, might be larger than you know the concept of uh, you know, we think of fireplace, we think of the chimney sweep guy, or we think of one man in a van kind of a business. Your company has a pretty large showroom, from what I understand, where where people can come to Phoenixville. It's by the way, the showroom is located at 20 East Pothouse Road in Phoenixville. And Pat, people can come and actually look at sample fireplaces, even right to see them burning, use the remote yourself, turn it on. Oh, actually see them burning. Wonderful. And and then, you know, with that, uh, the decision about what kind of a look of a fireplace, if you want to get a fireplace insert or one of these wall units that they've talked, Pat's talked about here. But but Pat, the the idea then uh I'm hearing is that you're a pretty big company. How many employees do you do you have with um right now we're about 14 or so?

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Um, you know, my dad and and uh just a few people ran the shop for for for many years there, and he uh did a great job of kind of keeping us keeping us going and um doing all the installations and um service himself. So you know, we we're always a small company. We've grown quite a bit. Um we've we've pulled in a number of really wonderfully talented people um and and grown to the point now where we can offer uh quite a few services that we couldn't before. Um yeah, our employees are kind of the bedrock of of what we're doing now. We we would not be able to offer any of these services. You know, I couldn't do this all by myself, that's for sure.

Outdoor Fireplaces, Heating, And Cooking

SPEAKER_02 14:05

That's a pretty big group of fireplace experts here, 14 employees and uh, you know, Patrick Ryan leading them from the stove shop, the fireplace experts in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Pat, it wouldn't be uh complete if we didn't talk about how in these times fireplaces um are not just indoors. So tell us a little bit about what's going on with this draw to have a fireplace outside and maybe even a cooking fireplace or even barbecues. Uh are you are you guys involved in that as well outside?

SPEAKER_01 14:36

No, we we've got it all. Um I think fire tables have been uh a growing uh category. It seems like folks like to have the access to fire outdoors. Uh there's also different heating uh apparatuses you can get that hang above your your porch. Um there's there's a number of different solutions for outdoor heating that we've found to be really effective, depending on, again, your situation and your goals. Uh if you have a covered porch, for example, you're going to be better off with propane, whereas if you have an uncovered space, electric heat might be better for you. Um so there's really a lot of nuance to how you heat the space and how you choose your fuel, even when it comes to outside, which you know, if I wasn't in this industry, I would assume you can just burn propane and it makes you warm, right? But there's there's a nuance to how you're doing that and to get the most out of that fuel.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

And I would say too, the people are are really uh growing in their love for outdoor cooking, too. I mean, are you actually getting involved in some design work for for barbecues and and cooking um kind of tables that are for grilling?

SPEAKER_01 15:33

We have, yeah, we we uh sell like big green eggs and that kind of stuff uh at the stove shop. We've got uh a number of different you know experts that are very passionate about barbecuing, uh, and we're very happy to kind of share our own uh tools that we use. A lot of it is based in what it what it is that your goals are. We have so many different products nowadays. It's like Netflix, right? There's so many shows to watch. Uh, it's a matter of finding what is really truly best uh for the customer because that can get quite overwhelming.

Recap And Thank You

SPEAKER_02 15:59

Well, you've uh brought it down to a level that we can understand it. Uh the expert, fireplace expert Patrick Ryan from the stove shop fireplace experts in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, serving the five county area in the Philadelphia region, uh, City of Philadelphia and Bucks and Montgomery County and Chester County, Pennsylvania, in particular, and Delaware County, where we're operating from. And uh what a great story that we've heard about some fireplace products and and and it covers that wide range of fireplaces and fireplace inserts. Pat talked about uh cabinetry that is involved in like wall fireplaces and moving into certain things like uh stoves that keep your house warm, whether you want to see the fire or not, burning wood or burning pellets. And then uh we just finished up there talking about outdoor products for something that I hadn't even thought of, Pat, is is fireplace really um heat outdoors, which is really becoming a big thing with people who have uh extensions that need a little warming in the off seasons or uh actually want to be able to kind of do some cooking, but do it from a really nice landscape perspective with outdoor cooking. What a wonderful business that you're operating here for the benefit of our Philadelphia market, the stove shop fireplace experts. Patrick Ryan, thank you for just so much for coming on the Good Neighbor Podcast, being a good neighbor business in our community and sharing this multi-generation business with our listeners and really serving your community so well. Pat, thank you so much for being a guest here today on the Good Neighbor Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Thank you so much, Bob. I couldn't do it without my team and my family. So thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, hosted by Bob Lacey. This is Michael Barkan, inviting everyone to get on the Good Neighbor team. Nominate your favorite local business to be featured on an upcoming episode by going to gntdelco.com or by following Bob at 610 557 3745.