There are three major types of Electric fireplaces out there. This article will go over the various types of electric fireplaces and their pros and cons with a direct correlation on cost and realism along with features. There is an electric fireplace style out there for everyone and every price range. We will go into detail on the major types and if they’re right for your home and budget.
The Worst Type – Mechanical Back Screen Faux Fireplaces
By far the most fake looking of any electric fireplaces are the ones with the mechanical effects built into the back of the unit. These operate by using a spindal attached to a motor that has a series of randomly placed reflectors or tabs attached to the central axis.
The motor slowly spins and reflects the light from a bank of multi-colored LEDs back onto the screen located behind the log sets. Often a stencil or static flame shape will be visible on the screen and the reflected light simply fills in the rough fire shape and also produces an upwards movement.
The problem is the flames just look like a blob of orange and red and doesn’t look or move like real fire. It also lacks the fine details of fire like rolling smoke off of the logs and burning embers.
PROS: The price. The backlit mechanical effect fireplaces are by far the most common and also the cheapest to buy.
CONS: The fire looks extremely fake, often lacks any sound, and the mechanical effects always break down over time due to the moving parts.
The Mediocre Type – Myst Fireplaces
A few companies out there like Dimplex manufacture their patented Opti-Myst system and Modern Flames manufacturer their Fusion Fire systems which use water myst or steam to produce the flame effects. These types of fireplace are often more expensive than those with mechanical effects but look quite a bit better.
These work by concerting water into a vapor mist or steam and coloring it orange using a bank of hot burning halogen lamps or LED lights in firey colors. These are usually safe to the touch and look decent but they both suffer from two major problems.
To begin with they have only one type of flame effect and these can get boring over time as the user stairs into exactly the same flame effect day in and day out. Secondly these types of fireplaces fail as soon as the internal water reservoirs run out of H20. The steam and vapor effects can no longer be generated once the tank is empty in requires constant re-fills to maintain the fire effect. Also of water is left stagnant for long periods of time mold can begin to grow which is a problem with stagnant water and it can spread through your home.
PROS: More realistic flame effects that seem to move naturally.
CONS: Stops working as soon as you run out of water and only one flame effect.
The Best – Holographic Electric Fireplaces
By far the best and most Realistic electric fireplaces are those that use holographic technology to project a real flame video into a physical log set that appears to burn in front of the user’s eyes. These types of systems are usually a bit more expensive than the others but produce by far the most realistic flames since they use actual video of real fires instead of mechanical effects to produce the faux fire.
The Dimplex Opti-V looks good but has only one fire effect and needs to be built directly into a wall making major modifications to your dwelling to install and it lacks a heater for warming the room. A much better Holographic fireplace is the HoloFlame manufactured by MagikFlame located in Florida.
Their units ship with 26 flames vs. 1 on the Dimplex Opti-V and the MagikFlame HoloFlame (http://magikflame.com) has a heater than can warm the room. More importantly it can be fitted into a variety of wall mantels that can be easily assembled using just a screwdriver and does not require extensive modification to a dwelling.
PROS: Holographic fireplaces look by far the best because they use real video of real fire.
CONS: Often much more expensive than the other types mentioned.
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