Electric fireplaces and gel fireplaces are ventless, smokeless, and fireless fireplaces. Early models in the 70s and 80s featured tacky, plastic, and obviously fake fire scenes. With modern innovation, however, electric fireplace heaters often display fairly realistic fire scenes that don’t appear false until viewed up close. While these alternative heat sources might not have quite exactly the same beautiful aesthetic as a genuine and conventional fireplace, they are far more portable and efficient. On average, they generate enough warmth to sufficiently warm up a 400 square foot room. Electric fireplaces offer hundreds of unique styles, with lots of distinctive fireboxes and fireplace mantels, so your portable electric fireplace can definitely enhance and improve your home’s appearance.

Fireplaces are excellent additions to any home. There are many different kinds of fireplaces out there, each with their own weaknesses and strengths; you are able to surely find the perfect one for your home, and enjoy the warmth and comfort it brings for several years in the future.

Fireless Fireplace Reviews

Your Fireplace Options

The value of a beautiful fireplace can't be overstated. These common home features provide warmth and luxury throughout the cold seasons, and they often facilitate camaraderie, sociality, and family togetherness. Nothing quite beats gathering around a roaring fire with your loved ones on a cold winter’s night. When most people think about fireplaces, they envision images of traditional wood fireplaces, the immovable types that are built directly into a wall within chimney. But there are a number of distinct kinds of fireplaces, including gas fireplaces, gel fireplaces, wood burning fireplaces, and electric fireplaces.

Traditional Fireplaces

The conventional fireplace consists of several parts: the foundation, the fireside or mantel, the firebox, the smoke chamber, the flue, screen, doors, and also the chimney chase. Each of these parts may have a unique design. Nearly all fireplaces are gas or wood burning models, though some use alternative energy sources, like electricity. The fireplace mantel can be a highly stylized, ornate addition to your living room, or it may be a subtle and useful surround for your firebox. Fireplace mantels and surrounds, and they're simple enough to install and interchange and may enhance your home decor. Using the right mantel, your fireplace can be a gorgeous part of your home’s design. These conventional fireplaces, however, are not very energy efficient. And if not used properly, the smoke from wood-burning models may actually pose health risks.

These flaws in traditional fireplaces have prompted the development of alternative “fireplaces” and heat sources, including free-standing electric fireplaces and gel-based fireboxes.

Electric Fireplace

Gel Fireplaces

Gel Fireplaces aren't the same as electric fireplaces for the reason that they really start a real fire. But instead of burning wood, these fireplaces burn an odorless, non-toxic, completely eco-friendly jelled alcohol compound. All gel fireplaces comply with EPA standards of cleanliness . Each canister of “gel” usually contains enough fuel to lose for 3 solid hours at approximately 3,000 BTUs, so while these fireplaces aren't quite so efficient as electric fireplaces, they're still effective at heating a localized area. Many gel fireplace owners simply burn two canisters at the same time, increasing the BTU emission and therefore promoting much more warmth over a larger area. They might be less cost-effective than electric fireplaces, but gel fireplaces have that romantic quality to them that only a real fire can bring, without any of the problems related to wood smoke.

Propane Fireplaces

One of today’s top alternative fuels is propane, a very refined substance that is a byproduct of processing oil and natural gas. Propane fireplaces burn hotter and a little more efficiently than other fireplace types, and they emit much less pollutants and particulate matter than wood-burning fireplaces. Propane fireplaces generally use a more affordable fuel than electric or gel-powered units too, though they do tend to emit more pollutants (including deadly carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide) than the other alternative fireplaces. If you would like probably the most “traditional” genuine-flame fireplace, while still doing your part to help preserve the environment as well as your health, look no further than propane fireplaces.