The Valor Madrona — A Fire That Needs Only a Floor
A freestanding stove changes the question a room asks. A fireplace needs a wall; a stove needs only a floor and a way out for the flue. The Valor Madrona is a gas stove drawn in the Scandinavian manner, a cast iron body with a wide window of fire at its middle, and it is made for the room that has no chimney and is not going to get one.
The window is a generous one, 283 square inches in the square and modern fronts and 274 in the arched, and behind it burns Valor’s V-Class burner over birch, driftwood or traditional logs. The heat is radiant, thrown from the glass and the iron the way a south-facing window throws it, and the basic operation needs no electricity at all; a circulating fan kit is there as an option for those who want one.
Two characters share the stove. The traditional casting comes arched or square, in black or Majolica; the modern casting comes in almond white, pewter or black. The same stove can look at home in a farmhouse kitchen or in a bare, pale loft.
A Valor Plus remote sets a temperature, programs the day and turns the fire off after bedtime. Because the Madrona is a direct-vent stove, it breathes and exhausts through a sealed pipe, and Valor lists a flex vent kit, a direct-vent sidewall terminal and co-axial venting, so the stove can usually stand where the room wants it rather than where a chimney happens to be.
We show the Madrona in the Curated collection because a stove is only as good as its position: the clearances, the vent run and the floor all have to be drawn before the stove is chosen. That is the work Maxwell Fireplace does — the choosing, the measuring, the vent, the permit and the installation, a Creative FireSpace™ from the first conversation to the final flame.
Available in natural gas (model MF28VN) or propane (MF28VP). The casting, finish, fuel bed and venting are all specified to your room — let’s look at the space together.
A fire that needs only a floor.
Questions people tend to ask
Do I need a chimney for a freestanding gas stove?
No. The Madrona is a direct-vent stove, so it vents through a sealed pipe, whether out through the wall with a sidewall terminal or by way of a flex vent kit. We plan the route and confirm the clearances before anything is ordered.
How much heat does it give?
It is a radiant heater with a maximum output of about 19,000 BTU an hour, 19,362 on natural gas and 19,549 on propane. How far that goes depends on the room, its insulation and its layout, so we match the stove to the space.
Will it work in a power outage?
Yes. Valor says the basic operation needs no electricity, and the ignition runs on batteries, so the stove lights and keeps warming the room when the power is out.
What does the Madrona come in?
The traditional casting is arched or square, in black or Majolica; the modern casting is almond white, pewter or black. Inside there are birch, driftwood and traditional log sets.
How is it different from the President?
The Madrona is the modern one, with a wide window and a choice of castings. The President is the compact cast iron classic, standing thirteen inches into the room.
More from Valor
This is one of the Valor gas fireplaces, inserts and stoves we carry and install at Maxwell Fireplace in North Vancouver. See every Valor we carry, or read on.
- The Valor L Series — three widths of low linear fire, and the taller Landscape LT1 and LT2
- The Valor LX2 — the L Series fire glazed on three sides or wrapped around a corner
- The Valor H Series — four sizes of radiant fire, from the compact H3 to the large-format H6
- The Valor H3 — the slim retrofit for the condominium
- The Valor Horizon — a wide, quiet window of fire, for an insert or a new wall
- Valor Portrait & P2 — tall, narrow and built for almost any wall, in two generations
- The Valor G3, G3.5 & G4 — the gas insert for the masonry fireplace you already have
- The Valor President — the classic cast iron gas stove, thirteen inches deep
Planning a Valor for your own home? See how we install them on the North Shore and in Whistler.
A fireplace is only half of it. The other half is who places it.
Maxwell Fireplace is North Vancouver’s Creative FireSpaces™ — and we stay involved in every part of the job. The fireplace itself is ours from the first conversation to the final flame: design and placement, permitting, delivery, installation, and the care that comes after. When the work runs to a surround, a mantel, tile or millwork, we plan it with the trades doing it — yours, or ones we bring in — so the fire and the wall are drawn as one thing rather than two. One point of contact, and nothing lost in the gap between trades.
It’s exactly why a Valor Madrona belongs with us. A freestanding stove asks for a floor, a vent run and clearances planned before the stove is chosen — and that is the difference between an appliance and a centrepiece. We serve homeowners and contractors across Greater Vancouver, the North Shore, and the Sea to Sky Corridor — Squamish to Whistler and Pemberton — and we’d love to show you what’s possible for your room.