Direct vent furnaces

[Fish- N- Hunt]

I am nearing the point on my fishhouse construction to start looking for a direct vent wall furnace aprox 15,000 BTU.I would be interested in input to what brands are good and what brands to stay away from.Also if anyone knows of any deals out there I would appreciate any leads.My fishhouse is 6'6" x 16'

Thanks
Fish-N-Hunt

[tightlines]

Sorry bout that. Seems most manufactorer's of ice shacks use Empire. Fleet Farm has Orbis which is a little less expensive. I think both units are good. I ended up with the Empire Direct Vent 15000btu in my shack that is 6.5 X 14 Seems like it will heat things up rather quick and it is suppose to be the best.

[Rick]

Thye reason most fish house makers use Empire heater rather than Orbis is because of the heat shielding Empire puts in place. The Orbis heaters get extremely hot and are more likely to cause severe burns. They're cheaper, but they are also more dangerous.

With that said:
Click here to check out heaters.

[beer batter]

I'll second the Orbis. $120 something less than the comparable Empire model. I thought the heat shielding was pretty good on it too. I could see a possible problem with something melting if you set it directly over the heat output opening on the top of the furnace, but I've rested my hand on it before without getting burned. It's hot to the touch but not so hot it burned me.

You'd be fine with the 15k model, but the 20k was only $30 more. They didn't have the 20k in stock when I was there.

[chadice]

I have a 6.5 x 10 with the Orbis 15K and I am very happy with it and it works great, often gets too warm in the house and needs to be turned down. They also make a 20K btu model that is not much more. Direct vent is the way to go. It was $300 at Fleet Farm.

[This message has been edited by chadice (edited 12-10-2003).]