GFK4, GFK4A, FK4 Fireplace Blower Kit for Heatilator

We have a Heatilator gas fireplace that was installed in a new home we had built in 2013. Having a blower kit installed with the fireplace was an option that we went back and forth with about since the builder told us there wasn't an on/off switch for the blower. We were concerned that the noise of the blower might be too loud and then we would be stuck with it every time we wanted to use the fireplace. After doing some research, I found this blower which could be turned on and off and could also be adjusted. My husband and I watched the video on youtube to figure out how to install, the written instructions that come with the blower are kind of useless. I would also recommend that people watch the video before buying this unit and then take a look at the area below your firebox and make sure you've got the room to get everything inside okay. Once you get the unit and are ready to install, I'd suggest hooking the blower up to an outlet and testing the heat sensor with a lighter to make sure the unit is working properly before going through the hassle of installing it and then finding out you have a faulty blower. I'd also suggest making sure your outlet below the fireplace is working properly. We found out the hard way that one of our outlets below the firebox wasn't live. The space where the blower was being installed on our fireplace was seriously small. You should do a dry run with the velcro tabs in place before trying to get this unit in its final position, and make sure you've gotten the area free of dust and debris. We had barely any wiggle room at all and decided to pull back the tabs on the velcro strips just a tiny bit, get the blower almost entirely in place and then pull them off at the last minute. If we had taken them off before trying to place the blower (like the video suggested) we never would have been able to get the unit inside without it sticking to every surface but the one we wanted it to adhere to. Once the unit is set up, leave the space where you installed the unit open as you test the blower and give the fireplace a trial run. It's going to take 10-15 minutes for the bottom of the fireplace to heat up to 120 degrees (which is the temperature that will activate the blower), so don't think the blower isn't working when it doesn't come on as soon as you turn your fireplace on. When we lit our fireplace, we realized that our heat sensor was a little too far away from where the real heat was being generated and we moved it more to the middle of the bottom of the firebox so it would activate sooner. Once the blower was activated, we fiddled with the blower setting until we found a sweet spot where the air was moving nicely, but the blower noise wasn't overwhelming. Then we closed everything up. This is not a difficult install if you take your time, watch the video and think about how you're going to go about placing the unit before you do it. We saved approximately $150 doing it ourselves instead of having the builder do the job and got a better understanding of how the blower and our fireplace worked.

I have an older gas fireplace (an old Mendota DXV 35). The original blower was very loud. I think my fireplace is older than the ones I can find manuals for because the replacement blowers do not match what I had. I bought this along with several others to try to find a solution that would work. This one was by far the highest quality. Most of the others I bought claimed to have ball bearing support, but didn't actually. This one does. The wiring was all pre assembled, which was nice. The pads for reducing vibration were already installed on the bottom of the unit. My personal favorite part is that there are strong magnets on the back for mounting the blower to the back of the unit. This makes installation super easy, and, presumably, any service that's needed in the future. I also appreciate that the thermodisc is magnetic... again, making installation easy. I put the rheostat on an existing control plate. The included nut was a bit odd in that there are no threads on the rheostat base, but I was able to make it work. This unit was about twice the price of others I purchased, but was definitely much higher quality and a better value! Also, for those that might be in my situation with an old Mendota DXV - 35: this isn't as wide as the original blower (original was about 12.5 inches in opening, this one is about 9.5) and is larger in diameter. I'm not certain what the CFM rating of the original blower was, but it was likely either 130 or 160 cfm. So far, I think this one has sufficient flow to circulate air. This does fit without removing the entire firebox, although it takes some finagling.

I have one in our fireplace, I installed this one in a friend's fireplace, and two other friends each have one similar to this also. They are well built units and work well. I also want to mention that the support from "fireplaceblowers" is excellent. They promptly answered questions by email and were available by phone as advertised on their website. My installation is good but my friend's installation had an issue. These work by placing the blower below and at the back of the firebox so it blows air up the back air gap and out the top grill. The issue is my friend's fireplace has a much larger air gap (3" vs 1" in my fireplace) along the sides of the firebox which allowed a lot of the air to go down the sides to the bottom instead of out the top grill and thus recirculate into the blower. This heated up the gap under of the fireplace box which should have been cooled by incoming air. Fireplaceblowers immediately answered my phone call but, unfortuneately, did not have a ready solution. However, being able to discuss it with them helped as I devised a solution. I bought a 3x3 ft sheet of galvanized steel at Lowes, cut two 2.75 inch strips and put one strip in each air gap along the sides of fireplace to restrict the air flow along the sides. I left the 0.25 inch gap to allow side air flow if the fireplace is run without the blower. I also tested this reduced air gap to ensure I did not overheat anything but since the 3" air gap is still there, the only thing is a slight restriction of a thermally driven flow. Without an exact sketch of how I placed these sheet strips, I hope you get the idea. This worked to restrict downward side air flow, recirculating air along the sides is minimal, and good warm air is flowing out the top grill.

Product arrived in one day as advertised. After watching several videos I decided to install myself. I am a fairly capable 60+ female and other than the space being tight and I needed to get on the floor, it wasn't that bad. First attempt I installed it upside down and forgot to attach the power to the terminal (OK, I learned the hard way) so I had to take it out and try again and in doing so I had to go get additional velcro from Home Depot, but once I put the new velcro on and attached the power to the terminals (Like the video said to, I just forgot) my second attempt went off without a hitch. (Learn from my mistakes) My last problem came when I plugged it in to the outlet marked "Blower" and it never came on. I unplugged it and with an extension cord plugged it into another outlet and after heating up, it worked fine. So now I had to figure out how to get power to the outlet (Junction box) inside the insert. After watching several more videos and reading blogs, I learned that others had the same problem. So I unplugged the starter which was in the first plug only to discover there were 3 plugs in the junction box. I plugged a hairdryer into each and the first 2 worked but the 3rd one labeled "blower" was not live. So I turned the starter plug around (it was a 2 prong plug with both prongs the same size so I was able to simply turn it around) which gave me enough room to use the second plug that had the 3 prongs in the second outlet. All good now. I'm not sure if there is any difference between this blower and the almost half the price blowers, but I'm happy with my decision and I would buy again. I can say that prior to purchasing, I called the seller company and reached a very nice and helpful man named Jim right away. I'm not sure that kind of customer service would be true with the other companies that sell these blowers. Good luck The only issue is the vibration that occurs when the blower is turned to high. Could be because I only adhered the blower with the 2 back velcro strips and never used the ones that attach it to the floor. I did this because it was so tight I didn't think I could get it in place with sticky parts on both the back and bottom. If I find I really need the fan higher I may try another installation using all the velcro but for now the blower is at about 50-60% and that seems fine. I also ran the knob to change the speed through the opening of the bottom vent so it is sitting outside my fireplace for easy access. I will leave it there for a while and if I don't feel I need that access I will tuck it underneath and out of view. I hope this helps others avoid my stupid mistakes. If I had done it right the first time it would have taken about 15 minutes. It is really easy to install. Test the outlets first with a hairdryer or light and make sure the fan works by plugging it in and activating it with a flame as shown in the videos and you shouldn't have any problems. UPDATE After using it every day for almost a week, the vibration has gone and I love that I can start it on high and turn it down once the room has warmed up. I am so happy I got this blower.

For those with the issue of not having Velcro, the manufacturer no longer uses Velcro and instead uses a magnetic attachment. It works great! No need to fumble with Velcro! Packaged very well and super easy to install. My first day and it works great!

I was in need of a blower fan for my fireplace insert because I felt like I was wasting gas while my fireplace was on. It did not seem very efficient to just be looking at a pretty fire even though it did put off a little heat it was very minimal. I had researched fireplace blower fans and found that this one had looked very easy to install so I purchased it. When I received it, it was packaged well and came with instructions. Although I did not need the instructions because I had already watched the video. It was as simple to install as the video showed. After I hooked it up and turned my fireplace on it took a minute or two to reach the temp for it to kick on. It works great and definitely makes my fireplace more efficient. I would recommend this to anyone who can plug a lamp in the wall. It is very quiet too.

I am so happy with my purchase of this blower kit. I used to have a fan inside my 10 year old Montigo gas fireplace. The fan unit we had was just the kind of fans that looks like a computer fan. It was loud and really not efficient in terms of blow power. What's worst was that the fans were not blowing upwards but blowing onto the wall and then reflecting upwards so the wind was leaking everywhere. With the new GFK4 blower kit, I barely hear it in mid speed level, but it's more than twice the power than my old fan units. I was hesitating to buy this one since there were similar once at less than half the price sold on Amazon. But I ended up looking at the video on Youtube and found out how much these ones were better in terms of build quality and ease of install. I am so happy I ended up buying this one instead. Pros - Super easy installation.: You just need to check you have clearance to slide the fan in to install. around 3.5 inch clearance would work. - Lots of blowing power: At maximum power it's super strong although it gets pretty noisy. Mid speed was perfect for me with the right amount of power without any noise. - Great build quality: These units are really built well. Only one that uses ball bearings. Cons - Pretty noisy at top speed: Yes it gets quite loud at top speed. But it's still about half the sound of my old units so I'm not bothered with it.

This was the best compatible fan for my fireplace since it has the temp sensor and speed adjustment capability. It works as advertised and was very easy to install. There wasn't any wiring required, I just plugged the power cord into the same outlet as my fireplace, positioned the fan and speed control in the bottom compartment using the velcro and stuck the temp sensor above the fan on the back wall. I recommend cleaning the entire area as it will be very dusty which can interfere with the velcro pads sticking properly. It wasn't necessary but I did extend the wiring to the temp sensor so I could place it in a better position further toward the top of my fireplace. I then turned on the fireplace and set the speed to balance airflow with noise level and have been very happy so far. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is I wish it moved a little more air without being so noisy. I have it set at about 80% which seems to move almost as much air as 100% but cuts the noise approximately by half. It also would have been better if the temp sensor came with enough wire to reach the top of a standard fireplace. All things considered I am very happy with this purchase!

I did a lot of research looking for a blower for our gas fireplace. This unit is the best product for the money. It was easy to install and works flawlessly. We LOVE IT and it makes a HUGE difference in the amount of heat we can generate from our fireplace. Google the YouTube videos available from the manufacturer. They are very helpful. Thanks for making a quality product 👍🏻

It definitely makes the room warmer with it on...downside is it does use up quite a bit of electricity...very noticeable on my hydro bill. I only use it when it's really cold for this reason.

this heater i have had for 1.5 YEARS now, it works amazingly, it is fully adjustable, and always comes on when the temp hits 120 F, it has made all the difference in the world in our fireplace, would recommend to anyone

The store helped me determine which kit I needed. It fit perfectly

Had this for about 2 years. It was pretty decent at first, but it just crapped out. Fan makes a bad whirring noise and no longer blows air. It wasn't great at blowing air to begin with. I guess for the price it's ok, but I hope yours lasts longer than mine.