Appearance Choices for the L-8
Normal
The NORMAL JUCA L-8 Fireplace Insert uses a
healthy 465 cfm blower.
This blower is much stronger than ANY competing blower, which are usually
just 60 cfm or 100 cfm blowers. Unfortunately, the large output is
matched by physically large dimensions. This is why the grille chambers
on the L-8 must be about 9" deep, which makes the main body
of the L-8 stick out about 9" from the fireplace facing.
That configuration is the most efficient possible arrangement. However,
we know that there are some people who don't have 9" available
on the hearth to use up. For this type of situation, we offer a
"pancake" version of the L-8 (which is the way you
would order this option).
.
Pancake
The PANCAKE option reduces the body depth to about 5" instead of
9". This has some expense as to performance. The
blower which must be used in this option
is only rated at 336 cfm, still well more than
competitors, but considerably less than the normal L-8 blower.
For several technical reasons, this reduces the efficiency and the net
output capability of the unit, even though it uses the exact same
heat exchanger structure. A second disadvantage of this option is
that the skinnier blower must rotate at much higher rotational speed,
(3000 rpm versus 1550 rpm), which can mean more noise. A variable
speed control is a good extra option with this option, but using it
lowers the cfm of the blower even more. If at all possible, use the
standard depth L-8!
There is no additional charge for the PANCAKE option.
.
L-10
There is yet another version of the Pancake option of the L-8. We call it
the L-10. All the description of the Pancake option (above) apply to the
L-10, including all the DISADVANTAGES of the
smaller 336 cfm skinny blower.
The up-side regarding the L-10 is that the front appearance
is an absolutely normal set of brass fireplace doors, situated out
about 5" in front of the fireplace facing. The skinny blower
is hidden behind one of the sides of the brass door frame structure,
and it has a black grille next to it which hides it. On the opposite
side is a similar grille which allows the heated air back out into the
room.
We use a good quality set of doors as the main facing. The normal ones
we use sell for about $450 by themselves.
Since we use normal fireplace doors, you get the
choice of Polished Brass, Antique Brass, or Black as its finish.
Presently, we actually don't charge much more for building the L-10 than
the L-8, but since we have to buy the door assembly, the unit total price
is higher than the L-8 by that difference of cost ($180 differential).
We are receptive to other options as to the facing of the L-10. The
side frames MUST be about 3" wide (to hide the blower), so very
narrow framed door sets are unusable. But other styles of available doors
might be more suitable to the decor you have. Of course, if the door set
costs us more, the unit cost would be higher by about that amount. This
means that Nickel, Chrome, Copper, Pewter, etc are within the realm of
possibility. You might want to visit our F-9A Built-In Fireplace models
to view the 1,500+ door styles available
there, for ideas. See the Diff'l with F-9A Price column and then add the
$180 mentioned above to find the total price differential for an L-10
that includes that set of doors. Before agreeing to build such a unit,
we reserved the right to accept or deny your choice of door style,
mostly based on the width of the side frames of it.
The JUCA Home Page is at:
http://mb-soft.com/juca/index.html
E-mail to: JUCA1@mb-soft.com