The Valor President — A Stove With a Long Memory
The President is the stove that remembers what a stove looked like. Cast iron, arched and panelled, with a small crest of fretwork above the glass and a flue rising from the top like a proper chimney, it stands thirteen inches into the room and looks as though it has been there for a century. The fire inside is thoroughly modern.
That fire is the same 258-square-inch window the Valor Portrait offers, with logs of birch, driftwood or traditional, or a bed of coals, set against a fluted black, red brick or reflective glass liner. It heats by radiance, the way a good iron stove always has, and a circulating fan kit is available as an option.
Because it vents through the top or the rear, the President is useful where a fireplace is not: the small room, the heritage house whose chimney was lost long ago, the corner that no one had thought of as a hearth. A Valor Plus remote with a thermostat comes with it, along with manual operation, so you can set a temperature and let the stove hold it.
We show the President in the Curated collection because the charm of a stove like this is in its position. A cast iron stove wants the right corner, the right clearances and a vent run that does not betray the room, and getting all three right 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 530VN) or propane (530VP). The fuel bed, liner and vent run are all specified to your room — let’s look at the space together.
A stove with a long memory.
Questions people tend to ask
Do I need a chimney for the President?
No. The President vents through the top or the rear, so it can be placed where a fireplace could not be. We plan the vent 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 15,000 BTU an hour, 15,117 on natural gas and 14,476 on propane, at a rated efficiency of 70 per cent. We match the stove to the room.
Will it work in a power outage?
Yes. The ignition runs on batteries and the stove does not depend on a fan, so it lights and keeps warming the room when the power is out.
How is it different from the Madrona?
The President is the compact cast iron classic, thirteen inches deep, with an arched front and a 258-square-inch window. The Madrona is the modern one, with a wider window and a choice of castings.
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 Madrona — the cast iron gas stove in the Scandinavian manner
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 President belongs with us. A cast iron stove asks for the right corner, the right clearances and a vent run 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.