Wood burning stove vs. gas/electric? Heat/look/smell/cost?

[Flitterflutter]

I have always wanted a log-burning stove (actually I have always wanted an open fireplace with roaring fires year round...but that isn't good for the environment and is entirely illegal where I live).

Part of the reason why I want a log-burning stove is because I LOVE the smell. I am assuming I won't get that with legal logs, because I think the entire point is that they are smoke-free. So, I'm okay with that. I still LOVE the look of fire.

But, what I was wondering was, do gas stoves and/or electric give that same flame type? In other words, do they feel like having a real wood-burning stove?

I also wondered if there was any smell that comes from gas or electric?

I guess my real question is if you LOVE open fires, have you been happy with gas and/or electric stoves?

And also, how much of a pain is it to clean log-burning stoves?

Thanks!!

Alison

You are being brave! You will get the anti log burner crew along soon, so get your hard hat on

I honestly love my log burner, gas and electric stoves just dont feel the same. I wouldnt say they are hard to clean out, I empty mine fully probably every 3 days but clean the glass daily which is easy enough.

Woodburners are still bad for the environment, sorry.

They are majorly responsible for particle pollution, for some metrics worse than traffic.

It's also expensive to have the stove fitted and the chimney lined.

I'd personally never have another. It's there and the room is impossible to heat without it. But there's faffing with the ash, faffing to light it and keep it lit, storing and moving the logs and it sets my asthma off. It is all a pain in the arse which is probably why I make DH do it.

Even walking down the street when there are several houses with their woodburners lit, the smell you like so much sets off my asthma.

We have one, and there is no smell.

Burn properly dried logs (we use kiln dried) and they're fine. We used to have a gas fire in our old house - not a patch on a real fire (to look at) so we never bothered using it.

Not a pain to clean at all. They burn better on a base of ash (not that much is left if you have an efficiently burning stove), but the bottom tray gets emptied periodically. We clean the door every couple of days - just use a bit of old paper dampened down and some ash to clean off the door. Easy.