- How to Choose Your Electric Fireplace?
There is nothing like a warm fire to cozy up to on a cold winter’s day. Maybe you don’t have a traditional fireplace in your home, or you just don’t want deal with the wood, smoke and clean-up. Electric Fireplace can definitely bring the joy to your family – hassle free! Imagine having an electric fireplace that looks and sounds like this at home today:
Click Here to Check Out the Amazing Electric Fireplaces Now…
Isn’t this amazing? Before buying an electric fireplace, you need to check out a couple important criteria, including the safety features. Please read the information on this page carefully so that you can make an informed purchase decision.
Types of Electric Fireplace
For the indoor electric fireplaces, you can choose from the following types:
1. Electric Fireplace Insert: These are the “burning logs” for your existing mantel or fireplace surround:
2. Corner Electric Fireplace: The space-saving design is ideal for small rooms or where you don’t want the fireplace to be the focal point. They tuck into any corner perfectly, yet still give you all the ambiance, luxury and style of your dream:
3. Wall Mount Electric Fireplaces: Wall-mount (also known as “wall-mounted”), plasma style electric fireplaces give you contemporary looking and romantic touch. They are ideal for large rooms as well as small spaces such as condo and townhouse. Their sleek design and shimmering crystal ember beds become a natural focal point that amazes family members and friends. Wall mount fireplaces are ideal for modern families.
4. Electric Fireplace Stove: If you want to keep the memory alive for grandma’s cast iron stove, this is ideal for you. The difference is that you can place it anywhere in your house without the worry of ventilation, clean-up and safety.
5. Electric Fireplace Mantels: These are the same as the traditional fireplace mantels WITHOUT a chimney. You can easily put your fireplace anywhere in your house. You can choose to have a traditional one or one with eye-popping modern design.
How Real the Flame Is…
Your fireplace may not be the primary source for heating. Instead, it’s where family and friends get together. With the modern technology today (such as the programmable digital display), you can get the flame that looks and sounds so real that ALL your friends will think that you’ve got a traditional fireplace at home.
Keep in mind though that you get what you pay for. There are electric fireplaces that are not so real. But they are dirt cheap :-<).
Flame Dimmer / Intensity Control
Hmmm… nice for midnight chatting or a romantic conversation…
Log, Pebble or Sand?
The ember bed of your fire place can be traditional logs; or it can be river pebbles or sand for a more contemporary look. Some products give you interchangeable ember beds so that you can switch to produce a totally different style.
Flame Only
Sometimes you just need the mood, not the heating. Good electric fire places allow you to turn off the heat BUT leave the flame on – isn’t it cool? Not only that, you save big bucks too – electricity is NOT free anyway.
BTU – The Heating Power of Your Fireplace
The British Thermal Unit (BTU) is a way to measure the power of heating systems, such as furnaces and stoves. It’s the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound water by one Fahrenheit.
For electric fireplace, 5,000 BTUs can warm an area of 400 square feet. Many products go with this number.
Heating and Time Control
These are important functions for a high quality fireplace:
- Heat Blower: The blower distributes the heat effectively to your room. Many products allow you to change the speed of the blower for the best results.
- Adjustable Heat Setting: This allows you to control the temperature to maximize the comfortable level.
- Built-in Thermostat: This gives you more precise temperature reading so you can adjust the heat setting more accurately – a nice feature to increase your comfort level and cut down your electric bills.
- Timer: It turns your fireplace on or off automatically.
Remote Control – No Kidding
The old day of chopping wood and cleaning up is gone. Now the manufacturers want to spoil you even more: With the remote, you don’t even have to lift your butt – On, Off, Flame Only, Heat Setting… They are all one click away.
Style
Do you want a traditional or modern style? Do you want your new fireplace to be the focal point or blend in with your furnishing? Without the chimney and pollutants, you now have the freedom to use your new fireplace to best represent your taste and style.
Finishing
A good electric fireplace gives you real wood finishing, such as walnut, cherry or oak.
Safety
Important safety features include:
- Tip-over and overheat protection
- Automatic safety shut-off
- Tempered glass door to protect young children and pets (please see details below)
The Secret of Tempered Glass Door
Tempered glass is the safety glass. For details please click here.
Fireplace with the tempered glass door keeps little kids and pets away from the heater. The glass door itself remains cool. Therefore you can touch the door without getting burned.
Where to Buy?
There are numerous places you can buy your electric fireplace from. Based on my research and comparison, Amazon.com is a great place to start looking for a couple of simple reasons:
- Amazon has great partnership with all the leading fireplace manufacturers and large online sellers. You can find every kind of electric fire place that you can ever dream of
- More importantly, all the sellers are competing for your business. You can easily find the lowest price with a single mouse click
- Free shipping! This can save you over $122 instantly depending on where you live
- Extensive customer rating and feedback. This is critical for you to make informed purchase decision. Your electric fireplace is your long term investment. Getting a really good one means hassle free everyday!
As I said, Amazon is not the only place shopping for your electric fireplace. But it’s really a great place that you can’t afford not to check out today.
Click Here to see what kind of fireplace deals are available on Amazon at the moment…
In addition, I’ve prepared some special reviews based on my investigation by going through different shopping sites, consumer review/rating sites, discussion forums, consumer groups and other sources. For your convenience, I’ve put them on the right panel of this page.
Click Here to check out the electric fire place reviews on the right panel of this page now.
Click Here to Read My Reviews on the best electric fire places…
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