Not every fireplace is generous. Many of the best old ones — the brick hearth in a heritage house, the narrow stone opening in a cottage — were built for a small wood fire and a great deal of patience, and many have stood cold since, because nothing seemed to fit. The Valor G2 was made for exactly those openings. It is the most compact insert Valor builds, and it will go into a cavity as small as 25 inches wide, 18 3/8 inches high and 11 inches deep.
Small does not mean modest. Behind the glass is a viewing window of 275 square inches, set with Valor’s traditional log set and framed by a plain black liner that keeps the eye on the flames rather than the firebox. The warmth is radiant — the direct, settling kind you feel from a wood fire — and the flame has the slow, rolling quality that made people gather at a hearth in the first place.
The front is the last decision, and a simple one: three-sided or four-sided, in powder-coated steel. Either is a good deal wider than the fire itself — 42 inches across — so it frames the flames and covers the rough edge of the old opening, rather than asking the brickwork to be perfect.
Everything else about the G2 is quiet. The Valor 10 remote comes with it, and a press lights the pilot and then the fire. The controls run on four AA batteries behind the front, and as a heater the G2 asks nothing of the house’s power — so when the lights go out in a winter storm, the fire is still there.
What a brochure cannot show is the opening itself. A gas insert is a guest in an older fireplace, and the guest has to be measured: the cavity, the hearth, the mantel above, and the flue it will vent through. The G2 is a direct-vent appliance, sealed from the room and drawing its air from outdoors, so the flue has to be sound enough to carry a liner. Reading that wall is our work — in-house, at your fireplace, before anything is ordered — and it is why Maxwell Fireplace would rather measure than guess.
A narrow opening is not a reason for a modest fire.
Questions people tend to ask
Will the G2 fit my fireplace?
Probably, if the opening is small. Valor sizes the G2 for a cavity as small as 25 inches wide, 18 3/8 inches high and 11 inches deep, and approves it for installation into an existing masonry wood-burning fireplace or a factory-built, UL 127-listed wood-burning fireplace. It is not approved for combustible construction, or for use with a zero-clearance kit. A wider opening usually calls for the Valor G3, G3.5 or G4, and a tall, narrow one for the Portrait. We measure before anything is ordered, and we tell you plainly which one your wall will carry.
What is the difference between the 400AN and the 400AP?
The fuel. The 400AN burns natural gas and the 400AP burns propane. Both are rated at a maximum input of 22,000 BTU/h; the lowest setting is 12,000 BTU/h on natural gas and 11,375 on propane. Valor lists the maximum heat output at 16,986 BTU/h on natural gas and 17,296 on propane, and the fireplace efficiency (EnerGuide) at 72.03 percent and 74.14 percent. Which one you need is settled by the gas supplied to your home, and we confirm it when we measure.
Does the G2 need a chimney, and how is it vented?
It is a direct-vent appliance, sealed from the room: it draws its combustion air from outdoors and sends its exhaust back out through its own vent. Because the G2 is approved only for installation inside an existing wood-burning fireplace, that vent usually runs as a flexible liner up the flue that is already there. Valor is firm that the vent must run directly outside and must never be connected to a chimney that still serves another appliance. We look at the flue before we quote, so the venting is a known thing and not a surprise on installation day.
Will it light when the power is out?
Yes. Valor designs the G2 to run as a heater without any electrical supply from the house. The controls take four AA batteries in a holder behind the front, and the remote takes two AAA. If the batteries run flat, the fireplace can still be operated by turning the control knob at the valve. Valor suggests fresh batteries each year and says they should last one to two seasons. The only part of the G2 that wants a wall socket is the optional circulating fan.
How much heat does it give, and is there a fan?
The G2 is a radiant heater, and Valor designs and approves it as a supplemental one: it warms the room it sits in with the direct, settling warmth of a wood fire, rather than the whole house. Its maximum input is 22,000 BTU/h. A circulating fan kit is available as an optional accessory if you would like the warmth moved around the room; it needs a grounded outlet, and the fire does not depend on it.
What comes with it, and how is it finished?
The G2 comes with a traditional log set, a plain black liner and the Valor 10 remote. The front is powder-coated steel, either three-sided (42 inches wide by 26 high) or four-sided (42 by 32 5/8). A wall switch kit is available if you would rather not reach for the remote. It is a deliberately simple fireplace: few choices, each one easy to live with.
What does the warranty cover?
Valor’s printed warranty runs up to ten years on the steel casing, the glass, the cast iron parts, and the firebox and heat exchanger, against defects such as corrosion and loss of structural integrity, and two years on other parts. The terms and exclusions are in the warranty itself, and Valor recommends registering your fireplace once it is installed. We are glad to go through it with you before you decide.
