Aurora Archer Gas Log Fires

Do Not Buy Archer – Gas heater was not igniting 12 months after install. Turns out Archers Warranty is parts only. [Name Removed] from Archer/ Aurora approved the repairs and then the bill was sent to me. Companies like this are ruining the reputation of Australian made products. Would never buy again and will tell every builder, plumber and home-owner I know not to touch Archer. [Name Removed] is not suited for customer service to put it lightly. Show details

If you want a heater to work don’t buy an Archer – I bought an Archer gas log fire from Jarrahdale heating in WA 3 years ago, it has never worked properly in all of this time. Have had numerous visits to try and rectify it but to no avail. After this experience I would not recommend Archer to anyone, to say that I am disappointed with the product & service is an understatement. Show details

can not believe – after having a condensate problem with our IS 700 and talking to Lee from Aurora we now have a perfectly working Gas log fire... i just can not believe after all this time it was something simple that cost nothing to fix would highly recommend these heaters... Show details

Brilliant heater with excellent support – We’ve had our archer heater for over 6 years with no issues at all! It does an amazing job at heating all of our house at a fraction of the cost of our ducted heating. Show details

Great Heater pumps out the heat – Had the heater for about 4 years. best heater we have had, beats the old heater hands down. Very fast to warm the room and never had an issue. Plumber who did the install advised if installed correctly won't have any issues..and he was right. Could not fault the heater and well worth the money  Show details

Total design flaw – Whoever designed this must have been a drunk. Absolute total rubbish and it’s with that in mind I wonder if anything has changed over the years. If you buy a house with one of these installed do yourself a favour, bin it ASAP Show details

Worst customer service – Heater is great and works as expected, but on the other hand, the customer service of this company is absolutely disgusting and appalling. I will be telling people to avoid this company when and where I can!

Constant problems since purchasing – We purchased an Archer gas log fire unit FS100 aprox 15 years ago. We have had nothing but problems with it from the word go. The thermastat, main fan, overheating, burners not turning on. The current problem is the back fan. A plumber from Laser spent over 3 hrs fixing it yesterday. Upon using it yesterday, the remote control wouldn't work. … Read more

Now just over 24hrs after repair, the back fan isn't working properly again. It now makes a loud vibrating noise again. Not Happy.

Older unit but effective – Unit effectively heats our large open concept space. Only need the unit running for short periods of time because the heat is held well within the space. Very satisfied with this heaters ability to heat up our large space and maintain desired temperature. Show details

Ripping heater that warms a big house – Had this heater installed and working for 14 years now. It heats soo well, and only minor issues, 1 was a gas cock which was easy to self diagnose and replace, the other a flue fan annoyance. In 14 years this is certainly to be expected. the Heater works with the wireless remote and having the program function allows us to get up to a warm house without heating the place all night. I would definitely buy again Show details

Best Heater I've Owned – After putting up with a wood fire heater for the past 13 years, We decided to buy a gas log fire heater. As our house is open planned we needed something with a bit of grunt, to heat the place up, so we opted to buy the IS900 heater. The difference it made to warming the house was unbelievable. We had to install a ceiling fan upstairs to… Read more

recirculate the heat downstairs, as it was getting a bit too hot upstairs, but that was a minor issue. However after one year, we did have a minor issue with the flue fan, and rang Archer to see if they could send out a technician to replace it as it was still under warranty. The friendly technician from Archer by the name of Marcel came out, and spent three hours replacing the fan and checking everything was working fine,and with a few adjustments. the heater is warming up the place very nicely. Thank-you very much Marcel, your knowledge and expertise was very much appreciated. All the best from Spike and Bebie

BUYER BEWARE. MINIMAL VISIBLE FLAME WHEN CONNECTED TO NATURAL GAS. MISLEADING ADVERTISING – If you are purchasing an Archer gas log fire in order to enjoy looking at the flames, this heater is NOT for you. Do not expect it to perform as advertised. 42% of homes in Australia have Natural Gas, however the pictures and videos advertising the Archer fires are using LPG gas which burns differently. This was confirmed by the National Sales… Read more

Manager. From our experience, Customer Service is worse than nonexistent. Over the past month since installation, my husband has called on multiple occasions and I have personally spoken with the National Sales Manager on 2 separate occasions to arrange for a technician, with zero result. I have read each of the reviews posted on this site and each time a customer raises a negative concern or complaint, the company responds with a standard template or in one of the following ways :- defensive, insulting or arrogant. Very poor business practice. Customers only write negative reviews when there is no other option. My advice to the consumer is spend your 7K elsewhere and save yourself the terrible disappointment. FYI Consumer Affairs in Victoria handle false or misleading representations and target businesses with inadequate complaints handling and unfair business practices.

Love it – Bought the heater from a shop in Balcatta, Perth about two months ago. We have only had a few cold nights so far but it has done everything the salesman said it would do. The fire looks nice and it heats my space, about 80 square meters, perfectly well. Have read some mean reviews on here but my experience has been nothing but good. Show details

Expensive over-engineered garbage ! – Bought an Archer Gas Log mid 2017 - it has failed under 2 years. It cost $5.5k installed. Leaks water - flue fell off - runs for a short time then shuts down - won't restart. Don't be stupid - by a Rinnai instead ! Worst experience I've ever had !!!!!! annoying!!! Customer Service NIL. Going to Consumer Affairs and want a full refund !!! Show details

Archer - Honest review after 18 months, I'm disappointed – An honest and balanced review of my heater. Installed February 2017 at a cost of $6,500 (I needed a gas main connection as well). First the bad. There is no ambiance to it. Don't believe any pictures you see with nice long bright orange flames. It's false advertising I feel. The pictures are not what it looks like at all. I initially paid so… Read more

much because I wanted something that looked like an open fire to read next to, and was going to get a simple rock pattern. I was sold on the logs and stones, you won't see any flame. The logs glow and you may see a small lick of blue flame every now and then but that's it. They will tell you it all depends on the length of flue / gas main vs gas bottle fuel, but the pictures are very misleading. See it in action before you decide. It was adjusted once by a technician after I complained and was met with very rude and abrasive customer service reps from Archer at the time, it made little difference.

The Good? It will heat your home very effectively and quickly. It's not quiet, but it is a space heater so I understand the fan needs to work hard to pump the heat out. I'm not an expert at how economical it is, I didn't have gas before this and it is the only gas appliance I have now, but it seems very reasonable for how much I use it in winter, coming on early in the morning and in the afternoon to warm the house. I have floorboards and cathedral ceilings and it very quickly warms up and keeps it warm. The controls are easy to use just a couple of switches and a red button that will keep the hear on low mode. You can link a remote to it which I recommend the extra few hundred for to operate on a thermostat - in the middle of winter I left it on 19C and it kept the house nice for the entire weekend, coming on and going off when needed. I've been told by 3 gas fitters they wouldn't have anything else in their home as its the most efficient and powerful heater they have (they are linked to Archer, but it does do the job very well).

The ugly? This year there is a horrible buzzing sound coming from the back of the heater. I don't recall this happening last year at all, I would have asked for it to be looked at. I called the gas fitters about this numerous times and it took 7 weeks to get someone out. They said the solenoids had gone (after 1 winter season - 12 month warranty is actually 5 or 6 month as it sits idle for the rest of the year) which they replaced under warranty. It still makes the noise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmsW7cQ--kg

And

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElBHMNA6rhA

The upload to youtube has downed the volume significantly unfortunately. I asked if it were potentially dangerous and the gas fitter said no. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme nor reason to this, sometimes it's so loud I turn it off as you can hear it over the TV. Other times, it doesn't make the sound and you can just hear the fan. I've tried to gas fitters 3 more times who won't return my calls, so I tried the retailer, Gasworks. They called and said someone from Archer was in Adelaide for a conference and they would come personally and take a look - nobody turned up and I never heard from the retailer again. After sales support doesn't seem to be strong unfortunately which is a shame after spending so much.

It's a strong heater to warm your home, but for the price, I would carefully consider it, as a split system on an inverter would do the same for a much lower outlay.

----------------------UPDATE - 16/10/2018----------------------

Archer responded and sent a technician out at the end of September. He looked over the heater and said he couldn't locate the noise, but replaced some circuitry and the coils. The heater then stopped firing on the front burner 4 days later, and would only in rare circumstances light up. The buzzing sound has persisted when the heater runs for extended periods, which is incredibly annoying.

A second technician has come to look at the heater since, and replaced the control board again - it seems the one installed at the end of September was faulty. He has also correctly diagnosed the buzzing sound as the bracket that houses the coils. It is getting some resonance through it, when he put his screwdriver onto this housing the buzzing stopped as the vibrations ceased. This is incredibly frustrating and it continues to make this sound when the heater has been running for an hour or so, even on the low burner. Perhaps some insulating material or nylon screws may make a difference here, and is something that could be improved on in future design changes.

Overall I liken this heater to a Formula 1 car - highly efficient, will blow out a lot of heat, but has its technical issues that cause problems.

Disappointing performance – Purchased the IS700 - I believe ours was an IS762. It looks good, and suits our decor. This heater is apparently able to heat 180sqm (we have around 100sqm), no doubt this is on the highest setting. Unfortunately, the fan speed on high heat is way too loud, so we run it on medium (the back burner only). The fan speed is not user adjustable and… Read more

even on low, the fan constantly changes between low and medium speeds. Fortunately the fan stays on medium, when at the medium heat setting. This heater keeps the combustion and heating air separate. It recycles the room air and I do understand it has to keep the flame box relatively cool otherwise the combustion exhaust air would melt the PVC flue. The volume and pressure of air seems to do a better job of cooling the heater, rather than heating the room ! It's just a shame the roar of the fan is way too loud on high. Using the remote as a room temperature monitor, and comparing the Archer with our reverse cycle heating, I have to say the aircon is a more effective heating system (even when using only the ceiling vents in the same area as the Archer). Why is it more effective ? Because with the reverse cycle heating, I'm looking to turn it down after a while. I certainly am not doing that with the Archer. In hindsight, the $5,500 may have been better saved for future aircon reverse cycle running costs.

Excellent Performance Great Service – Hello we have had an archer running in our house for the last 8 years it is our only form of heating and has performed better than we could have hoped for, we found the running costs to be very low, probably because we mainly just ran it on low due to its excellent efficiency, we did have the heater serviced twice since we had it installed the… Read more

last time being 3 years ago for 95 dollars, we are now about to move into a new home and after some research have decided to go with an Archer 700 model mainly due to its plastic flueing arrangement which makes the install in my case very simple, the flue type should help with the automatic humidifier which is a unique feature to all archer models, we are hoping to move in, in the next 2 weeks, can't wait, we will keep you posted best regards Luvlee.

Disappointing performance – We bought this particular Archer heater 10 years ago on recommendation from the then AGL Shop after a rep visited our home. (It replaced an aging slow combustion flued wood heater that heated the whole house - but the smoke!) The Archer was expensive, $4234 with installation and we expected a quality product. Initially we had a lot of trouble with… Read more

the remote and had it replaced (our expense) with no improvement and after a while had the heater modified to run without it (again at our expense). We were very disappointed with the lack of glow of the logs and the model recommended to us was to too powerful to use in the living area on the higher settings. The paint peeled in sections and were were given a can of spray paint. A positive was the flue so that there was only clean heated air coming into the room. On low setting the room is warm and comfortable but we use air con upstairs.

Initially we were able to get the heater serviced annually but last year we couldn't find anyone at all. Previous gasfitters that we had used said they wouldn't service Archer any more due to lack of training. This year I got a contact from Archer but the person had no idea. He couldn't even open the appliance till I gave him the installation booklet. He managed to break a probe (it was a Friday) leaving us without a heater for several days while we waited for replacements from Archer and him to return. We now, having spent over $300 for a service have a heater that cuts out for no apparent reason and has to be turned off and then on again to restart. I will look to buy a better system from a major store that can service the appliance for next winter.

Beautiful looking, and works amazing – Had my 700 model heater for about two years now, and haven't had a single issue. Heats the house really well and is aesthetically pleasing to look at. The logs and flames look very natural. The remote is very handy and easy to use too. Was worth every dollar I spent on it.  Show details

Heater has brought warmth into my life!!!! – I bought this heater 12 mths ago and I love it! i read the comments on product review and decided to buy an archer it is the best decision I have made. The heater looks great and is so easy to use it has been fantastic this winter heating the whole house and looks fantastic everyone that comes in to my warm home loves it. The only addition I… Read more

made to my heater is I added a remote. The people at archer in Melbourne were so friendly and happy to help me out. So now I can set the remote to come on early in the morning and go off. So thank you archer bringing warmth into my life!!!

Best Heater I've owned – I've previously owned a heater of a different brand and I wasn't happy with there customer service , mainly when they sent one of there service men out I found he was slightly rude and he still didn't fix the problem ( it basically was not starting ) , so I decided to get rid of that heater and take on my friends suggestion of buying a Archer gas… Read more

log heater , I went for the beach fire log set seeing as I live close to the water I just thought it would make sense , they did a wonderful job with the layout my husband and I were very impressed . I own a 30 square 2 story house and it's my only form of heating , our bedroom is positioned in the up stairs but we decided to put it on the first floor in the living room after a couple months of owning the heater we decided it would be best to purchase a remote and installed it in our room so we wouldn't have to walk up and down during the night to turn it up or down. We really like the fact that it has an automatic humidification , well what Ouse is there to say we have had no problems with the heater as yet , we get it cleaned about every 2 years to make sure everything is running right , we did have some trouble working out how to use the remote but we called up Archer in Melbourne and they were very nice and detailed in telling us how to get it set up

I am thrilled with this heater ! – I have had this heater for 10 years and it has done a brilliant job at heating the whole house hold , 3 years ago we installed a remote and it was a very handy edition to the heater , the log setup looks great they did a great job at making it look natural. All in all i am very pleased with this heater  Show details ·  1

Had nothing but problems since it was installed on the first day – The day my archer was installed it needed new parts. We have had to replace about 6 parts all up and now its dead, so I'm up for a new heater. Everytime we tried dealing with archer they were rude and aggressive. And often would send the wrong parts that we had to pay for. I will never recommend an archer. August 10th 2018 Update: Re my past… Read more

review.

I was sent an inbox with archer telling me they would fix my heater free of charge, and they asked me to call them. I have called them twice now and the person that i need to speak to is out of the office and will return my call. Its been 3 weeks since my first call to them and surprise surprise still no return call.

Maybe i should contact everyone who has had problems with their archer and we could talk about a class action;

Perfect it’s never let me down – Hello I had a Archer gas log fire for seven years and did not have any issues with it,just had it cleaned every 3 or 4 years,we are about to buy a new one for our new house,we were very pleased with the performance of our Archer,we had used another brand for the past couple of years which was ok,but we decided to go back to the Archer,has great glowing logs,thermostat remote control and automatic humidification.  Show details ·  1

Not happy – Had this heater installed today and is faulty. The front burner doesn’t light up completely. The colour of the flame is too blue and doesn’t look natural like other gas heaters that I have seen. Eg the canon. Should have read the reviews before purchasing this heater. Would not recommend this heater to anyone.  Show details

Avoid these heaters like the plague!! – Purchased the IS700 gas log fire with ducted heating in May 2017. Since then have had nothing but issues! The inline fan has been replaced 6 times because the blades warp under heat, catch on the casing & burn the motor out. The ignition system on the front & back burners works sporadically and often requires the unit to be manually turned off… Read more

& back on again.

The only saving grace is that the local service agent has been very responsive & patient, but he is continually coming out to fix the same issues.

We spent over $7,000 on this unit & it's been the biggest mistake of my life.