Fireplace Xtrordinair

How Did Fireplace Xtrordinair Start?

The name is older than its current owner. Fireplace Xtrordinair was first used on January 18, 1980, and went into commerce that August, according to the U.S. trademark that Travis Industries holds today.^[36] An earlier registration of the same name, granted in 1988 for fireplaces and fireplace inserts, was in the name of Richard L. Dailey of Woodinville, Washington.^[37] We haven't found a published account of the brand's first twelve years, so we don't tell one here.

In 1992, Travis Industries acquired Fireplace Xtrordinair.^[3] Travis's own history of the company describes it as “featuring the first EPA-certified wood burning fireplaces.”^[34] The oldest manuals Fireplace Xtrordinair still posts are for the 36A and 44A wood fireplaces, both dated from 1992.^[15]

The look came with them. An older Fireplace Xtrordinair brochure calls it the “Original Gold Arched Fireplace,” with an arched viewing area and a parallel arched face.^[31] The 36 Elite followed in 1995 and the 44 Elite in 1998,^[15] and the company's current brochure still calls the Elite models “the Original Arched Fireplace.”^[30]

Who Owns Fireplace Xtrordinair?

Travis Industries, Inc., a Washington corporation that also owns the Fireplace Xtrordinair trademark.^[36] The company calls itself the largest privately owned hearth manufacturer in North America.^[2]

Travis started as a stove company. In 1979, Kurt Rumens, a woodstove salesman and would-be rock drummer, redesigned a wood stove. When stove makers turned down his plans, he started his own company and called it Lopi.^[39][40] The Herald has put his starting money at $600 in 2013 and $625 in 2025.^[39][40] On The Fire Time Podcast in 2026, Rumens said two turndowns settled it. The Fuego stove distributor he sold for rejected his design fixes, and at a stove show in Portland, Oregon, the owner of the Nashua Stove Company told the 21-year-old to come back when he had more dealers. With no welding or engineering experience, he decided to build stoves himself.^[41][1]

In 1988, Travis Garske, a Spokane businessman, bought Lopi and the Avalon stove company, and the business became Travis Industries.^[39][34] Rumens stayed and still runs it as president and general manager.^[35][40] In 2026, he counted 39 years as Travis's president.^[1] The company moved from Kirkland to Mukilteo in 2003.^[40] In 2025, the Herald reported 450 employees, more than 40,000 fireplaces a year, and $150 million in yearly sales across its four brands, sold by more than 800 retailers in North America and Australia.^[40]

What Makes the Elite and Apex Wood Fireplaces Different?

They're built-in, zero-clearance wood fireplaces made to heat a house, not just to look at. All three current models use catalytic technology,^[16][6] and the company says each pulls its combustion air from outside.^[10] The 44 Elite is rated to heat up to 3,000 square feet and takes 32-inch logs in a 4.2-cubic-foot firebox. The 36 Elite and 42 Apex are rated for up to 2,500 square feet and take 24-inch logs.^[18][19][20]

The Elites use Posi-Pressure. It draws outside air into the cavity around the firebox, heats it, and sends it through the house with a remote fan.^[6][30] The Apex heats by natural convection instead, pulling room air in below the fireplace and sending it back out warm.^[6] You can add the GreenStart igniter to the Apex. Push a button and a hot-surface igniter blows 1,400°F air into the firebox to light the wood.^[10][8] Travis introduced GreenStart in 2012.^[34]

Then there's NexGen-Hybrid. Fireplace Xtrordinair describes it as two stages of combustion. The wood burns below a baffle, and the smoke and gases are burned again in a chamber above it.^[30] Travis introduced an earlier hybrid wood technology, Hybrid-Fyre, in 2010.^[34] The brochure lists U.S. Patent 9,170,025 among those covering its wood fireplaces. That Travis patent, filed with a 2010 priority date and granted in 2015, describes a fireplace that burns the smoke with secondary air and then passes it through a catalytic combustor.^[30][38]

The numbers show the change. An older Fireplace Xtrordinair brochure gave emissions of 2.3 grams per hour for the 36 Elite and 2.5 for the 44 Elite, with overall efficiency up to 73 percent.^[31] Today's NexGen-Hybrid versions list 0.6 grams per hour for the 36 Elite, 1.1 for the 44 Elite, and 1.2 for the 42 Apex, in crib-wood testing.^[19][18][20] The EPA's limit for wood heaters made since May 15, 2020, is 2.0 grams per hour on crib wood.^[44] The 44 Elite lists 81.3 percent efficiency (HHV), and the 36 Elite lists 79.5 percent.^[18][19] For the 44 Elite NexGen-Hybrid, the certification tests were run by OMNI-Test Laboratories of Portland, Oregon, in September 2022.^[33] Fireplace Xtrordinair posts the EPA test report summaries for all its current wood models.^[9]

What Are GreenSmart, GSR2, and Ember-Glo?

They're the names you'll see on Fireplace Xtrordinair's gas fireplaces and inserts. The story starts with Ember-Fyre, a gas burner introduced in 2000 that Popular Science named one of the year's 100 greatest achievements in science and technology.^[34][4] Today's Ember-Fyre II burner comes standard on the 564, 864, and 4237 gas fireplaces and on the 32 DVS, 34 DVL, 430, and 616 inserts.^[5] Ember-Glo adds adjustable under-lighting with colored glass and embers in front of the fire, so the ember bed glows.^[5]

GreenSmart is the control system on every Deluxe model. Its remote gives you six flame heights, six fan speeds, six levels of accent lighting, and a Smart Thermostat mode that turns the flame up and down to hold a temperature, rather than switching it on and off.^[7] Comfort Control shuts off the rear burner and keeps the front one lit, for a turndown of up to 75 percent.^[7] A battery backup keeps the system lighting during power outages.^[7]

GSR2 marks the newer version of that remote system; the manual list shows GSR1 and GS1 models before it.^[15] On a GSR2 model, you can switch the remote between a continuous pilot, which keeps the vent warm and the draft strong in cold weather, and an intermittent pilot that saves gas in milder weather. In continuous mode, the pilot turns itself off if the fireplace isn't used for seven days.^[32][7] The discontinued-manuals list dates the first GreenSmart (GS) gas models to 2008 and the first GSR2 models to 2012.^[15]

These are heaters. The 616 Deluxe insert, for example, burns up to 39,000 BTU an hour, with steady-state efficiency of up to 84.94 percent on natural gas and a Canadian P4 rating of 71.19 percent.^[28] It's certified to ANSI Z21.88/CSA 2.33, the standard for vented gas fireplace heaters.^[32][46]

What Awards Has Fireplace Xtrordinair Won?

Fireplace Xtrordinair lists seven major industry awards.^[4] The Ember-Fyre burner won a Popular Science “Best of What's New” award in 2000. The Bed & Breakfast portrait-style gas fireplace won a Vesta “Best in Show” from Hearth & Home in 2002, and the Xtreme gas fireplace did the same in 2007. The 36 DV XL gas fireplace was a Consumer Digest Best Buy in 2004, and the High Output Linear series (3615, 4415, and 6015) won a Platinum ADEX Award from Design Journal in 2015.^[4]

The Bed & Breakfast has a backstory. Kurt Rumens told the Herald that a bed-and-breakfast owner asked him for fires for the guest rooms, and every Travis unit at the time was too big. So he built one for small rooms.^[39] He told more of the story on The Fire Time Podcast in 2026. The request came from an innkeeper he met after a horseback trip in the Sierra Nevada, who wanted a compact fireplace to sit in the corner of a small room, so the Bed & Breakfast was a tall fireplace, tapered to fit a corner. Its first interior followed the cross-section of a brick beehive oven, and a shell interior took its cue from the niches below the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Two designers who had worked for Vermont Castings, Vance Smith and Al Wilker, helped him get the proportions right. Asked to pick a favorite among Travis's retired products, he chose the Bed & Breakfast.^[1]

The Xtreme came from a restaurant wall. About 30 years ago, Rumens says, he was eating at a P.F. Chang's and noticed an alcove about five feet wide, 20 inches tall, and 20 inches deep, with pottery in it, and thought it would make a cool fireplace.^[1] Across all its brands, Travis counts more than 30 Vesta Awards.^[35]

How Is Fireplace Xtrordinair Related to Lopi, DaVinci, and Avalon?

They're all Travis Industries brands, built in the same Mukilteo plant.^[12][2] On Travis's website, Lopi covers wood, pellet, and gas stoves and fireplace inserts, Fireplace Xtrordinair covers premium gas and wood fireplaces and inserts, DaVinci makes custom gas fireplaces, and Fire Garden makes outdoor fire pits and lighting.^[35]

Lopi came first. Kurt Rumens launched it in 1979, and Travis Industries grew out of it in 1988.^[34][39] The two brands share technology. Lopi also sells NexGen-Hybrid wood inserts, including Medium and Large Flush models with the same names as Fireplace Xtrordinair's.^[42][17] More in our Lopi guide.

DaVinci is the custom line. Its gas fireplaces are built to order, taking six to eight weeks, and in 2025 the Herald reported a 66-foot DaVinci gas fireplace built for a Silicon Valley development.^[43][40] More in our DaVinci guide.

Avalon is the older sister. The Avalon stove line was developed in 1985 and joined Lopi when Travis Garske bought both in 1988.^[34] A Travis fact sheet from about 2013 still listed Avalon as one of its four brands.^[34] Travis's website now lists Lopi, Fireplace Xtrordinair, DaVinci, and Fire Garden.^[35] More in our Avalon guide.

Where Are Fireplace Xtrordinair Fireplaces Made?

In Mukilteo, Washington, about 25 miles north of Seattle, at a plant Travis calls the House of Fire.^[12][47] The rating labels name Travis Industries at 12521 Harbour Reach Drive in Mukilteo,^[32] and the company says its fireplaces and inserts are built in America.^[2]

The plant is a former Boeing aircraft-interiors factory. It covers 11 acres and holds about a million square feet of production, research, and office space on an 80-acre campus.^[40] Fiber-optic lasers have replaced the old punch presses, and robots handle some of the welding, but the Herald reports that everything is still hand fit and finished, and every unit is tested before it ships.^[40][39] Travis's website counts 1,651,099 fireplaces built from 1988 through 2024, across its brands.^[35]

You can see it for yourself. Travis runs free factory tours on Thursdays from 9 to 10 a.m.; call 800-654-1177 to reserve a spot.^[12]

What Does Fireplace Xtrordinair Make Today?

Five kinds of product. The wood fireplaces are the 36 Elite, 44 Elite, and 42 Apex, all NexGen-Hybrid; the 36 Elite isn't sold in Canada.^[16][19] The wood inserts are the Medium and Large Flush NexGen-Hybrid, with arched or rectangular doors.^[17]

The premium gas fireplaces come in three collections named for their glass: the 564, with 564 square inches; the 864; and the extra-large 4237, at up to 60,000 BTU.^[21][22][23] The 4415 and 6015 High Output Deluxe are the premium linear models, at up to 42,000 and 56,000 BTU.^[24] The ProBuilder Series is the more economical line: the ProBuilder 36 and 42 clean-face fireplaces and the ProBuilder 42, 54, and 72 linears.^[25][26]

The gas inserts are the 32 DVS, 34 DVL, 430, 616, and 658, rated to heat from 1,500 to 2,000 square feet.^[27] The GreenSmart Electric fireplaces come in 39, 51, 59, and 71 sizes and put out 4,800 BTU on 120 volts or 9,500 on 240.^[29] More in our wood fireplaces guide and gas fireplaces guide.

Can I Still Get Parts for an Older Fireplace Xtrordinair?

Usually, yes. Fireplace Xtrordinair is still built by the same company, and its dealers are trained to install and service its fireplaces.^[10][11] Find the model name on your manual or rating label before you call. The company's discontinued-manuals page goes back to the 36A and 44A wood fireplaces of 1992 and the 36-DV A gas fireplace of 1995.^[15]

The warranty runs up to seven years from purchase, with parts, electronics (except light bulbs), and labor covered for the first two.^[13]

If you own a Travis gas fireplace sold between September 2006 and July 2007, check its gas valve. In 2008, American Flame recalled AF-4000 series valves, date codes 0622 through 0718, that were installed in some fireplaces from twelve makers, Travis Industries among them. The free fix is a dealer test, and a new valve if the old one leaks gas when it's off.^[45]