Mains gas fire or multi-fuel stove?

[Tillymintsmama]

Just that really.... I'm hopefully moving to a house with boarded up chimney breasts. In the main lounge i want to open one up and have a feature fire.

Would people recommend a Mains gas fire or multi-fuel stove for this? I love real flames so electric is not an option I want to consider.

We have a multi fuel burner - no gas supply in our village.
It throws out great heat, but is dirty, messy and time consuming. Slow to heat up, not instant heat like a gas fire would be. You also need to think about where you would store your fuel, it’s cheaper to order in bulk, but obviously you need to keep it somewhere easily accessible.
No idea on costs of running a gas fire for price comparison.
Lovely to sit and watch the flames on a cold dark night.

Thanks whyis - are they actually quite a bit of work to get going and maintain then?

I have a multi fuel stove and love it. Don’t find it messy or time consuming. I love lighting a fire, it heats up pretty quick. Twice a week I slide out the drawer at the bottom, walk outside to the wheelie bin, tip the ash out and replace. That’s all the work involved. Oh, and stacking the logs once a year but that’s good exercise.

Multifuel for me too. You just can't beat the feeling of sitting in front of a real fire. We had to get rid of the old gas one in our last house and had no regrets and we're choosing to get rid of the one in this house, it provides no heat whatsoever.

Log burner - you need somewhere to store the logs. Each day you bring in more, empty the ash bin, spend two mins cleaning the glass.
Takes around an hour to really start kicking out heat and not worth lighting for less than three hours. Works in a power cut. Annual chilmney sweep needed.

Thanks for feedback so far.

What about cost? Does the multifuel stove cost less to run than a gas fire? Did I make it up or is there some restriction about stoves and the fuels they burn?

We had a gas stove fitted last year to replace an old gas fire it’s lovely . We considered a multi fuel or log burner as we were having the chimney place rebuilt but it didn’t suit our requirements .

No idea about the cost compared to a gas fire. We never used to use the old gas fire. What I like is the fact it’s paid up front.....if I have logs, coal in then I will happily have the fire roaring away and I’m not worried about a big gas bill.

Some geographical areas Are smoke controlled zones and your stove needs to be one which is deemed ok for such areas and then you can burn what you like....I guess the emissions are lower or something. Your local council will tell you if you’re in a zone.

You should also not burn house coal in a multi fuel stove....I’ve heard tales of them exploding. You need stove anthracite type things.

Our logburner is free to run as we are self sufficient , only cost is the sweep. Logs come in very big bags unless you want to pay a lot extra.

Is your chimney lined and safe?

I love our gas fire for instant heat. We used to have an open coal fire and the gas fire is less romantic c but still cozy and so much easier.