Best Fire Hearth & Patio - Service & Warehouse — Local services in Troy

Best Fire replaced a gas fireplace insert at my home. I honestly was hoping to give them a 5 star review. My experience was between a 3 or 4 to a 5+, depending on specific personnel.

My wife and I initially met with Craig Horton at their Colonie showroom. I can honestly say that I have never had a better experience buying anything than I did with Craig, and I'm in my 60's so I've made a lot of purchases over the years.

Trying to pick out a new insert can be a bit confusing because of the various options and house-related limitations. Craig walked us through all the details to make it far less confusing. I ordinarily don't trust sales people so I wasn't sure what to expect, despite Craig's very friendly demeanor. But he was simply fantastic.

For starters, we were worried about product availability because of all the covid-related supply chain problems. My wife and I were both working from home from Nov 2020 - March 2021, so we really wanted to enjoy the insert before Spring sprung. Craig gave us a timeline and explained the overall process from ordering to installation. I wasn't sure whether to believe what he told us about delivery (six weeks, as I recall). I kind of looked at him and said "is that REALLY an accurate timeline". Craig then went into details about how their units come in and from where, and provided additional details that left us believing him. That was the beginning of a very trusting relationship.

Craig continuously told us that if we had questions at anytime - even during or after installation - to call him. He was more than true to his word. We called or emailed with plenty of questions before the sale and he always got back to us with useful and trustful information.

We were REALLY surprised when Craig called to tell us that our new insert could be installed....in two or three weeks.....shortly after we made the purchase.

From there we were turned over to the installation folks, and things went a little bit downhill. Not horribly so, and maybe our experience with Craig set our expectations higher than they should have been, but the installation process had us feeling like we were just a cog on their wheel. When the installation coordinator called me, I asked if the installers could wear N-95 respirators and was told probably not. When I asked Craig that question before the sale, and when he came to our house, he honored our request and wore the N-95. I called Craig to mention the issue with the installers and he said he would take care of it, which he did - the installers did wear N-95's. We had a family member in ICU who actually passed away the day of our install, so we were extremely sensitive to potential transmission.

So, the big day came and the installers replaced our old insert. AFTER the installation the lead installer said that he could not get the unit centered in the firebox because the gas connection was located too far into the firebox. To be honest, we learned just an hour or so earlier that we lost the family member to covid, so my mind wasn't quite what it should have been, but I was curious as to why the installer didn't tell me sooner. The issue was simply that the gas supply pipe needed to be moved 1/2" away, which was literally a ten minute job for me to do.

After the installation I do have to say that the unit was shockingly beautiful - far, far nicer than we expected it to be. But, we couldn't help but see that it was lining up 1/2" off center. I called Craig and he did what was needed to have another crew come out to move the insert. I had already modified the gas service line before they arrived, and they were in and out in about 15 minutes.

But, after that, my wife tells me that the flames appear different to her than before and that there is condensation on the glass. I think she's right about the flames, and clearly right about the condensation.

I'd share more, but I'm about to exceed Google's 'character limit'.

Bottom line - trust Craig, but keep an eye on the installers. And, I would do business with...

We called to have our gas fireplace cleaned and maintained. Scheduling was a breeze and I even received a phone call to see if I wanted to bump my time slot up. Anthony came out to check our unit and clean it. He was very respectful of our home and very kind to our very interested toddler. He answered all our questions and showed us how to light the fire in a power outage. Originally we were expecting to replace a sensor and remote system. Anthony was able to repair what we had. In a world where he could have easily said nope it’s broken you need to replace it, he took the time and effort to fix it and saved us some money. We will definitely call back and plan to continue regular maintenance with the company....

Seth put me at ease with my Quadra fire pellet stove that brought off a friend went through the whole machine and check everything and made me feel safe to run this stove, the staff put up with me calling and making sure I am doing the right things.

Fair and honest pricing,...