Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

There is something so restorative and pleasurable about sitting in front of a cozy fire in the evening. Now, for a relatively low price we can enjoy that anytime we want, winter or summer, without any of the work and mess of the real thing. We have a smallish fireplace that had been set up with propane artificial logs, but has been disconnected for the 15 years we’ve owned the house. We had gone to a lot of trouble to refinish the tiles and woodwork, and now are pleased beyond words that we can enjoy our beautiful fireplace the way it was meant to be, with a cozy, welcoming fire! So easy to use; pulled it from the box and had it set up and running in two minutes. Lightweight at 14 lbs and easy to maneuver. It is important to measure the space this will go into to make sure the fit will be right; it might disappear into a fireplace that is too large. The dimensions are 20.5” wide x 8.7” deep x 12” tall Our fireplace and hearth are flat to the floor, but I would see no problem setting this unit on an existing grate or a couple of bricks if needed to raise it above a lip. We happen to have built-in wall recesses in a couple of rooms for entertainment centers. If we didn’t already have a fireplace I could see these working quite well to serve the purpose, with a little bit of additional fireplace brick/wood/hearth fakery to match. The "logs" nicely mimic the appearance of real logs in the process of burning. They won't fool anyone taking a close look, but once they’ve been running a while, you forget that they are artificial. I’ve been around fireplaces and wood stoves my whole life, and you know a fake log set is not going to look like a real one, no matter how good it is. But it also won’t smoke up the house, pop out sparks, fill up with ashes, soot up the mantle, and drop bits of wood all over the floor. This is an excellent choice for a maintenance-free fireplace. There are 2 fire effects: rippling flames and glowing logs. The “flames” are just orange light reflected off twirling foil strips projected through flame shaped windows onto the back of the fireplace, giving a surprisingly realistic look. I tend to notice patterns quite readily, and didn’t find repetition to be a problem. The distance from, and color of, the surface they shine on can affect their appearance, so feel free to experiment with that. There are 5 levels of brightness to the flames that you can control with the remote, just make sure to pause a moment between button presses to give it time to change, and the differences are subtle. The highest setting would work well, say, during a party with the lights on. The lowest setting when all the lights are off for a more tranquil atmosphere. The glowing logs are simply red LEDs inside the logs that increase and decrease intensity, and unfortunately do not do so smoothly, but rather in a jerky manner. The “ember bed undulation” control gives you the option to change this to a steady light. The really nice part is that the flames, the ember bed, and the heater can all be controlled separately: flames on (with 5 levels of brightness) or off: ember bed undulating or steady: heater on or off. Flickering flames distracting you from your movie? Turn ‘em off! Ambience of a fire in the summertime without the heat? Done! There are no popping/crackling sound effects, which we personally find distracting and don’t miss at all. Easy enough to remedy with a little speaker hidden behind the logs. The controls for the unit are located on the right side, not the front which would ruin the appearance of it being a ‘real’ fire, and are easy to reach. A remote with batteries is included, which controls everything but the thermostat. Make sure the power switch on the unit itself is switched on first. We’ve found the remote to be a bit finicky, and has to be pointed rather low to work. If you press the power button and nothing happens, try pressing one of the other buttons. The 6-foot power cord also comes out of the right side. If it is too short, the manufacturer has said that you can use a 14 gauge heavy-duty extension cord. I have convincingly hidden many cords in plain sight by painting them with background-matching acrylic paint, cheap and available at any craft store. The log set is made of plastic, but doesn’t feel cheap. Since it is made to go into a confined space, which you would avoid with a standard heater, it is made to stay cool pretty much everywhere other than the vent at the bottom front of the unit, located just under the “grate”. Despite it looking like a fire, it is impressively cool on the top and sides, so we feel safer running it. The heater is 1350 watts and 4600 BTU, so it's not the most powerful heater, but that’s kind of what small fires are like anyway, and you aren’t losing heat up the chimney. The Duraflame is of the low heat blower type. It won't heat up a room super fast, but it will get a small room warm within about a half hour. It is hot 2 inches from the blower, warm from any other distance. The blower is about as loud as you would expect from any space heater. We heat our house with propane, which is much more expensive in our area than electric, and although we have only used this for a short time we’ve already noticed that the furnace is firing a lot less often (now THERE’S a loud blower!) There is a humming sound when the flame effect motor is on, but the sound is so slight that most other noises (like conversation or the TV) block it out entirely. I don’t have glass doors on my fireplace, but I imagine they would help to muffle the hum, if used only for the light effects and not heating. This device can be plugged into a standard timer. It allows you to set it to warm up rooms at certain times, and make sure it gets turned off when not in use.