Are freestanding electric fireplaces with mantlepiece a bit naff?

[BooBooChicken]

We would love a fire but live in a house built without a chimney or fireplace. I was in Homebase yesterday and saw some of these things that you just plug in.

Do you think they actually put out any decent heat or are they largely decorative? Also, are they a bit cheesy?

Will try to post a link

Thanks

Don't expect it to give out a lot of heat.

Twooter ours does to be fair. It can warm our lounge/diner up to toasty in 10 minutes. I only tend to use it on the odd occasion but I think last time was on returning from sledging and being so cold we couldn't wait for central heating to kick in.

we have a similar one, we removed the skirting behind so it sits flush against the wall. It does do a very good job of heating up the room, and it doesn't seem to be hugely expensive, but we don't use it very often, which may be why. I had it mostly because the wall looked bare without a fire, and you can turn on just the light, so it looks like it's on and makes the room look all cosy, even when you don't need the heat. I also don't care if it's naff!

We have one - I don't think it's naff at all and it's brilliant as a really quick source of heat. It does kick out a lot of heat and warms the whole room up in a couple of minutes. It's a bit fake with the flame effect but not too much.

We have one too
I spent all of last Winter lurking on Ebay and managed to get a really nice one in the early Spring for £60!!!
May be worth a shot if you want to save a bob or two.
We are in a modern quite new home with nowhere to install a gas one so it was the only option. I love having a mantle piece to be able to put photos/ birthday cards on etc and love having a mirror hanging above it. It makes our sittting room look so much more homely and also stops the DC putting their sticky fingers all over a blank wall!

Update - we bought one from argos, not expensive but good reviews. It looks fab and has really finished off the room, made it much more feel much warmer and homely, even with just the light on

Pah, should read before i post and check for extra words creeping in!

Please try to avoid flueless fires as there is nowhere for the fumes and water vapour to go.

Many gas installers refuse to touch them, though as far as I know there has only been one fatal event in the UK.

Thanks
piglet, it's a plug in electric one we went for x

We bought a homebase one first but got it home and out the box and it was already damaged. The mantlepiece was chipped and scratched and gave the impression it was not v durable mdf. It looked nice though

Will try to link the argos online one, be patient i,m crap at links...

reviews.argos.co.uk/1493-en_gb/4120003/reviews.htm

Erm, it has a long cable, 6-8 ft ish, it comes out the back but can go either way, iykwim. It seems to be made of painted mdf or something but to me, but it looks real, like a proper piece of furniture. Oh arse, am i making any sense at all?!

It is a bit noisy when on, as some reviews say, but not annoyingly so.

And no you can't have mine, i am lying in front of it as i type and would miss the warmth

Thanks for the wine and flowers, it's not even my birthday

(Should also say, the cable is heavy duty and black, a bit ugly, so need to try and find a way to conceal it)

Was going to suggest a wood burner, because you can have a pipe flue thing put in, but seen that you have bought electric.

marking place

I think that looks really nice :)

Pigletjohn - are the bio ethanol fires safe??

I don't know what their fumes are. alcohol is a hydrocarbon so I suppose would emit the same substances but the mixture would vary.

Even when burning cleanly, most things emit CO2 and Water, and use up oxygen, there will be more or less CO depending on how cleanly it is burning, but whatever it is, you will be putting fumes and water vapour into your home.

The biggest problem with fires - gas, coal, charcoal, wood, even candles - is that they emit varying amounts of poisonous CO gas, and if there is no chimney or flue, it stays inside the home.

I brought a fire place and electric fire, it looked really nice and for my lounge threw out a fair bit of heat... for a year, now the element has gone and is useless, also had to keep buying bulbs for it and the plastic front melted a tad and warped but wasn't too noticeable.

The plug in fires are more decoratve as they give out 2KW of heat, other option could be flueless fires. They are decorative as well as give out more heat. Following links might would be helpful.

www.lovefireplaces.co.uk
www.lovefireplaces.co.uk/electric-fires.html
www.lovefireplaces.co.uk/bi-ethnol-fires.html