Logburner v fireplace

[mollyminniemo]

Hi all,
I may finally have the budget to transform our current non working electric fireplace into a completely new fireplace surround and either an open fire or logburner.
I ADORE fires, always have. Love the smell, the ambience they give a room/house, making the fire itself, everything!! Have stayed in houses with both open fies and logburners.
Can anyone who has one of either let me know what you love/any issues about it so I can decide which to get? Does a logburner ever create the same ambience/smell of an open fire? We have 2 DC age 4 and 6 if that sways things.

Has anyone with a logbruner got an ivory coloured one, as think these look gorgeous but can imagine soon get pretty - and obviously dirty ruining the look? Thanks!

We have a multi fuel burner which means thatwe can burn wood or coal which is a plus for us. My parents had an open fire growing up. We found that the burner gives off enough heat to use instead of heating whereas a fire supplements the heating but doesn't warm the whole room/downstairs. Log burners also don't spit which a safety plus, and you can leave more confidently unattended as they are completely enclosed. I do think they smell just as good

I have always lived in houses with open fires, and couldn't imagine being without one. A few years ago my husband persuaded me to change to a log burner and I have to say I love it. It is so much better at generating heat in the room, and still makes it feel cosy. It also feels safer than an open fire.

I would say that I think you get what you pay for, and we bought a good one which lights really easily because the air flow is good. I have been told by a fitter that people frequently buy the cheaper ones thinking the professional shops are too expensive but regret it and end up changing them eventually. Ours is black, so can't comment on the ivory. I wouldn't buy one with intricate detail, it would be too difficult to clean.

Log burner... cosier, cleaner..

Log burner/multifuel stove thing here, had it for 12 years and it’s transformed heating our house as it has a back boiler for doing hot water and radiators. Love it and it still smells of wood!

log burner . Cleaner, easier and warmer. We've got one with a water jacket so it heats the radiators. We removed completely the radiator in the sitting room as it was no longer necessary.

We’ve got both and I love both but as others have said the log burner gives out more heat and also I feel I can go to bed with it burning but wait for the fire 🔥 to go out.

We’ve got an open fire as we both love it. As we’re in London, we’re only allowed smokeless fuel. I do love the ambiance that it creates.

I lived in a house with a log burner and now live in a house with an open fire. We used the log burner every day in the winter, so much heat was generated from it, my friends never let theres go out during the winter and their central heating rarely kicked in and we both lived in North Yorkshire. I now have an open fire, its lovely but doesn't generate as much heat, it spits and i never leave the house when its lit, and because of this I've not had a fire in 18 months.

Thanks so much all who have replied, so useful. Looks like open fire would be ideal in a country cottage rental but for day to day use with kids and general ease- log burner sounds like the way?

Open fires are hugely inefficient.

With an open fire, eighty percent of the heat is up the chimney, twenty percent into the room

With a wood burner it’s the opposite, twenty percent up the chimney, eighty percent into the room. They are also much cleaner all round.

Unless self sufficient on wood and you don’t give a shit about costs, then wood burner every time.

I’d also strongly recommend against going with a cream one. We have a black one and a gun metal one, both come with spray paint to touch up. The light ones are lovely but you’d constantly be cleaning it up.

Love our log burner. Ours is attached to a backboiler which heats the whole house through the radiators so our heating bill is virtually nothing. Also we're really lucky to have a free source of wood to burn. It is a multi fuel burner but we've never burnt anything other than wood.

We have a multi fuel burner and it is brilliant.it also is eco friendly smoke free one out burns its own smoke (or something?). The logs last much longer than an open fire and it belts out a lot more heat.

Never even knew you could connect to radiators with logburner, amazing! Thanks & for tip re. against the ivory- sadly thought so...

We have two woodburners (we have sitting rooms and at either end of the house) and for about six months of the year we will light at least one of them every day. That's usually at about lunchtime, or late morning when it's really cold. With a woodburner if you then want to go out - whether that's go for a walk, to exercise, pop to the shops, or go out in the evening, you can in the knowledge that the woodburner is safe AND you don't have to let it go out. You just put some wood on, close the air vents down, and leave it. You can then open it up when you get back home.

There is no way I'd go out and leave an open fire alight and unattended. It just isn't safe. So if you want to go out in the afternoon you either have to let it go out or you wait till the evening to light it. What a pain.

That's aside from the fact that woodburners are much, much more efficient at heating than open fires.

Woodstove.
As PP have said:
Cleaner
Chucks out more heat
Uses less fuel
Safer

Also, fewer draughts as less air is being sucked across the room and up the chimney.

We used to have a lovely open fire. Five or six logs warmed the room, but we had to leave the door ajar to allow a through draught or the room filled with smoke. The odd spark hit the carpet. We replaced it with a woodstove. The room is now toasty and we use less wood.

But even with a woodstove, coal makes lots of dust.

We've got 2 wood burners and they are much better than the open fires before. Much warmer and also less drafty when not lit. One of the stoves is enamelled (though not ivory) and the enamel has been chipped, so I wouldn't recommend them over cast iron.

Swapped our open fire for a log burner and the difference is amazing. You really feel the difference throughout the house. We can shut the log burner right down so it gives out heat but burns very slowly. Ensure you get an up to date one re defra ratings.

Don't get a pale coloured one! We are having our cream one replaced with a black one next week after 5 years. The first problem was the smoking that came from the curing paint when we first started to use it - so bad that we had to cover the smoke/CO alarms and open all the windows (in february). Apparently the pigment in cream stove paint was the problem here. Even now, you still get a smell of paint from it when first lit. The other problem is the grubbiness of the thing. There are some marks that simply won't come off with a damp cloth after 5 years, so the only option would be to re-spray the thing with cream (or another) stove paint, so you then go back to the curing problem. The stove pipe is also cream (it's freestanding) so more surface to leach paint smells.
Also, be wary of enamel ones as they chip and the enamel crazes in the heat.
Make sure you use some experienced fitters. I didn't have fitting problems (just the choice of stove was wrong), but I have heard some horror stories about bodge jobs.

Don't skimp on getting it fitted or on sweeping. DH is a sweep and sees some real horrors. People don't realise how many carbon monoxide poisoning events there are from incorrectly fitted or maintained solid fuel appliances.

We have a large open fire, and my husband and I are in disagreement about it. He likes it open as it's huge and we can burn 4ft logs on it. I REALLY want a log burner, although I haven't one big enough yet. An open fire creates cold draughts elsewhere in the house as it pulls air through,it goes through a huge amount more wood because of this, it's more dangerous - you can't shut the door on the embers at night. I had a log burner in my old house before I met my husband and I loved it.

Why does he wish to burn four foot logs? Can’t he just chop them down?

Op, make sure you get a hetas fitter to fit it.

We have a multi fuel stove, and its brilliant. It literally throws out the heat, and does heat the whole house. When we got ours replaced, as the existing one when we moved in was unsafe, I asked about an open fire, but were told that they don't generate as much heat as the stove, and much less fuel efficient. I definitely wouldn't get an ivory one, as they are a bugger to keep clean!

We have both. The log burner definitely gives out more heat but the open fire looks really beautiful. In terms of efficiency and heat though, go with a log burner.

We have both too, but may swap the open fire for a cassette wood burner, as the open fire is in an aperture in the chimney breast.