Wood fireplaces are quickly falling out of fashion when used to heat many people’s homes. To replace them, many people are turning towards safer alternatives that are less work to use and more efficient. Homeowners might want something like a gas fireplace in the living room of their new home or a room that they choose to remodel. However, if you were going to use a gas-burning fireplace like propane, you might be wondering how often you need to change the tanks. This article will go over alternatives to wood burning, such as gas heater fireplaces, and will also answer any related questions.
Within This Post, You’ll Learn About How Long Propane Lasts in an Indoor Propane Fireplace. These Questions Will Also Be Answered For You:
- Why Are Wood Fireplaces Becoming a Home Decor Element of The Past? – To begin the article, we discuss the reasons that people don’t see many wood fireplaces in homes anymore. We also cover some of the reasons people are converting their old wood fireplaces into better alternatives.
- Gas Fireplace Units Seem To Come In So Many Different Varieties. What Are The Differences Between All of These Gas Fireplace Options For a Home? – This area will talk all about fireplace types from vent-free, direct vent, and more.
- How Much Propane Gas Does an Indoor Propane Fireplace Use? – Here, we’ll talk about propane usage of a ventless gas fireplace, what factors affect how often tanks need to be changed, and more.
- Can You Get Gas Fireplaces In Different Types of Mantel Styles and Materials So They Match Different Decorating Themes? – This section explores all of the aesthetic differences between gas fireplaces, including mantel styles, fireplace types, and other visual differences.
- Do People Need To Stick With Popular Brands of Gas Fireplaces Like Duluth Forge, Blue Liner, Monessen Hearth, and Others, or Is It Safe To Get a Generic Brand of Fireplace With a Cheaper Price Tag? – While buying a generic fireplace might seem like a good idea over buying a brand name like Duluth Forge, this section will explain why an off-brand generic fireplace might end up costing you more money.
- Do Gas Fireplaces Still Have Some Problems That You Would Associate With Wood Fireplaces? Do They Have Additional Problems That Are All Their Own? – Truthfully, gas fireplaces also have some drawbacks that people may not be aware of before buying them. This section will help educate you on the downsides so that you can make an informed decision.
- Since Wood and Gas Fireplaces Are Both Unwise Choices, Are Electric Fireplaces The Best Type of Fireplace Solution in a House? – There is a long list of advantages electric fireplaces have over both wood and gas. Here we will highlight a lot of these strengths for you.
- Which Brand Is The Best To Go With If You Want All of The Ambiance That Comes With a Standard Wood Fireplace, yet In a Safer and More Reliable Unit? – To end, we make a recommendation of the best brand of electric fireplaces and all of that brand’s fireplace features.
- For People That Like What They Are Hearing About MagikFlame Electric Fireplaces, But Need a Bit More Information, Where Can People Go? – Here is a list of helpful MagikFlame links if you want to learn more about the company, the fireplace, and more.
Why Are Wood Fireplaces Becoming a Home Decor Element of The Past?
It seems that unless you bought an older house an architect has designed with a wood fireplace that a home builder constructed, it is almost impossible to get the green light to build a new wood fireplace. In many US regions, like California and other states, new wood fireplaces have been completely banned. If you are lucky and live outside of one of these regions, building a new fireplace in your home is going to require a lot of work and expensive construction.
Even for people that already have a wood-burning fireplace, they are choosing to switch to a gas fireplace or an electric fireplace anyway.
The main reason that so many areas all around the US are no longer allowing new wood fireplaces to be constructed in homes is that they are such a big safety hazard and release quite a lot of hazardous emissions into the air. Compared to other fireplace options that don’t burn wood, traditional electric fireplaces are one of the easiest ways for a house fire to start. This can spread to other homes within your neighborhood. It is easy to think that it is just the flames themselves that cause the problem. This isn’t the only reason. As the fire burns, soot builds up onto the inner wall of the chimney. This can be very flammable. The reason chimney cleaners are needed multiple times a year is so that this soot doesn’t cause your entire chimney to catch on fire.
Beyond regional restrictions, many people are choosing other fireplace options simply because they don’t like all of the work, hassle, and maintenance required just to regularly use wood fireplaces inside of their homes.
Imagine wanting to warm your home by burning wood. You’ll first need to clean out all of the old ash in your fireplace to make space. You’ll then have to go to your woodpile and split some logs if they haven’t already been split. After building your fire in the fireplace, you’ll need to wait a significant amount of time before there is even enough sufficient heat. Even after the fire is going, your job isn’t over. Now, you have to keep an eye on the fire. You have to watch it to add logs and stoke the flames when the fire dies down and more warmth is needed. You also have to keep your eye on it for safety reasons. Unfortunately, you can’t ignore a fireplace for very long, because that is when mistakes can happen. Burning wood inside of a fireplace produces a significant amount of smoke. An unfortunate result of this smoke is the smell that will be in your home. The smell of the fireplace is immediately noticeable to anyone who comes into the home, even if you are already used to it. Even after the fire is extinguished, the smell will linger for a long time, possibly several days. This is due to that smoke getting into the fibers of everything in the room. Smoke gets into the fibers of your furniture, the fibers of your carpet, and the fibers of your curtains. This isn’t all. As you enjoy the fireplace, that same smell will get into the fibers of your clothes as well. You can also expect your hair to smell like a fireplace. Even if you don’t mind it or notice it, others will. If you leave your home to go to the store, everyone you pass will notice the fireplace smell.
Smoke also causes some ugly staining in rooms of a home. If you have white walls, the smoke will stain these yellow after a year or two. They will need to be repainted much more frequently. If you have lighter-colored furniture, curtains, or carpet, you’ll likely notice some yellowing here as well. Cleaning these items can be very difficult, and you may notice that it never quite looks as good as it did before the smoke had stained it. Some fireplaces can cause soot to build upon the wall and ceiling just above the fireplace over time. This will have a darker gray or black color compared to the normal wall staining. You might be wondering why all of this smoke isn’t just leaving the home through the chimney. Most of it does. However, some will always enter a room and fill the space. This is especially terrible for people that have breathing problems. You will always be breathing a little bit of smoke when wood fireplaces are used inside of dwellings. Smoke inhalation is not only dangerous, but it can be deadly. This is also true of all of the carbon monoxide that is released throughout your home when burning wood. Although you should always have both smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors throughout your home, it is vital to your safety to have them with wood fireplaces.
Gas Fireplace Units Seem To Come In So Many Different Varieties. What Are The Differences Between All of These Gas Fireplace Options For a Home?
There are indoor propane fireplace options, natural gas options, and ethanol options. Regardless of fuel type, there are vent-free fireplace options and direct vent fireplace options. There are even gas outdoor fireplace options like a propane fire pit or another outdoor fireplace.
The two main types of gas used for gas fireplaces are propane and natural gas. The latter is from the utility gas lines that are hooked into your home so that you have a steady supply of gas available at all times. Alternatively, propane is bought in tanks and the tanks need replacement once in a while after they have run out of fuel.
Vented-style gas fireplaces need ventilation to handle the emissions released by burning gas. Ventless-style fireplaces don’t produce many if any, harmful emissions, so they don’t require ventilation. Ethanol-style fireplaces are usually much smaller, and these smaller gas fireplaces are more of a tabletop novelty. They aren’t used for serious home heating.
Whether a gas fireplace is a vent-free indoor propane fireplace or another gas fireplace type, they are a decent home improvement choice over wood fireplaces. A built-in ventless gas fireplace or deluxe direct vent gas fireplace will burn cleaner than wood fireplaces. A ventless gas fireplace produces fewer harmful emissions like carbon monoxide or smoke.
Despite still having some exposed flames, they are less dangerous than wood fireplaces. The flames are still there, and this still means that a chance of a house fire is present. However, this chance is greatly reduced because gas fireplaces don’t produce the same level of flammable smoky soot buildup found inside chimneys of wood fireplaces.
You don’t have to do all of that work to build a fire as wood fireplaces require. And while gas fireplaces do need a bit of maintenance from time to time, it is a lot less than the regular maintenance needed for wood fireplaces.
With a vented fireplace that burns propane gas, there isn’t a need for these gas fireplaces to have a large and robust chimney as you’d have for a wood fireplace. It is enough to have a smaller flue or venting pipe for ventilation for gas fireplaces that need them. Ventilation can be accomplished with a simple ventilation pipe that leads to the roof of the home for emissions to escape. The exception to this is if you get some kind of rarer hybrid system that can also be used to burn wood, then gas fireplaces may need a larger and more robust chimney.
Keep in mind, that while some types of gas fireplaces say they don’t need any kind of ventilation, if they aren’t maintained properly or the burners are damaged, they can improperly burn. This doesn’t burn as clean and still results in harmful emissions.
There are a good number of people that like fireplaces and already have a traditional one in their home. They may want to switch to a gas fireplace to be a little safer and cut down on maintenance requirements. You get a gas fireplace insert that can be installed into the open and free firebox of wood fireplaces so that you can convert them into gas burning. This is a wise choice to switch to a cleaner-burning and safer alternative.
When you are looking at these inserts, you want to check the dimensions of the unit and measure the dimensions of the opening of your current fireplace so that you know if it will fit properly or not. If the fireplace is a little bit too small, it can still be mounted securely to fill the gaps. However, if it is too big, then there is no hope of it working at all, and you’ll need a smaller insert for your specific fireplace opening.
Some gas fireplaces have a millivolt electronic ignition. A millivolt system makes it easy for people to operate gas fireplaces inside of their residences. The millivolt electronic ignition system simply creates a basic spark when a button on gas fireplaces is pressed. This ignites the gas to produce flames. You don’t have to light the gas manually with a match. While not all types of gas fireplaces have a millivolt system, they are becoming exceedingly more common. Most newer models will have some kind of ignition system like this to turn the fireplace on easily and safely.
Instead of a completely bare firebox with just a basic flame, some gas fireplace units also come with log sets to attempt to make them look more natural like wood fireplaces. Log sets are also common in many high-end brands of electric fireplaces like MagikFlame. Gas log sets can help flames look more natural. They break the flames up a bit so that it looks like it is flickering naturally instead of simply being a boring fire stream. The logs help to make it look natural with a wood fire burning inside of it. It is important to note that the logs inside of gas fireplaces shouldn’t be moved at all or rearranged. Not only are the logs situated in a way that helps break some of the flames up to flicker more naturally, but if you damage the burners under the logs, your fireplace is going to need some repairs and possibly some replacement burners installed.
Because gas fireplaces are not completely safe, they often come with safety features included to help make them a little safer to use in your home. Gas fireplaces have features including but not limited to a safety pilot, oxygen depletion sensor, and more. The safety features that come with your fireplace depend on the type. Different features are needed for a vented-style fireplace and ventless-style fireplace. Usually, higher-end gas fireplaces will have better safety ratings and more safety features to protect your home and your family. It is always a great idea to double-check what safety features are included with gas fireplaces before purchasing.
While the bulk of this section discusses vent-free fireplaces for indoor use, an outdoor fireplace or gas fire pit is a little bit different. Since an outdoor fireplace is exposed to the open air, it is almost always a ventless gas fireplace. The only time you would install any ventilation for outdoor fireplaces is if they had something covering the top that would prevent emissions from escaping. This can be a roof over an outdoor kitchen, a backyard canopy, or even a covered patio. If you do choose to go with gas fireplaces in outdoor spaces, just make sure they aren’t covered. If they are, install a ventilation flue just like you would with indoor fireplaces. Keep in mind that the sq ft that outdoor gas fireplaces can warm is severely limited compared to indoor use.
How Much Propane Does an Indoor Propane Fireplace Use?
Some people live further away from places where you can easily get gas utilities. These will usually be rural areas that aren’t close enough to any larger cities or towns. It is most common for people that enjoy having a bit of land, like a ranch or a farm. Many of these places can’t have a natural gas fireplace that is hooked up directly to the home’s gas lines since the home doesn’t have natural gas in the first place. If someone lives in an area like this and still wants a gas-burning fireplace, their only solution is to install a propane gas fireplace. So, you might be wondering, how long does a liquid propane tank even last inside of a propane gas fireplace? How often will the tanks need to be changed?
How long the gas lasts in these tanks comes down to a few factors. Of course, the size of the tank in the propane gas fireplace will be a big part of how long the tank lasts. A bigger tank will last significantly longer than smaller fireplaces with smaller tanks. Additionally, how many BTUs of heat the propane gas fireplace is putting out also matters. If you have your fireplace set to put out a lot more heat, then it will consume fuel a lot faster to do so. The last major factor is how often you use your fireplace. If you are using the fireplace only for an hour or two per day, at a lower heating output, then a single tank can last months. If you have the heat output on a high setting and you are using the fireplace 24/7, a single tank may only last a few days.
All of these factors need to be considered when choosing gas fireplaces for your home. Be sure to check out the gas consumption rate of the specific fireplace you have in mind. Keep your eyes out for any high-end gas fireplaces that have a focus on heating efficiency. More efficient heating systems will use less gas in the heating process. This will mean you don’t have to change the tanks to your fireplace as often.
Can You Get Gas Fireplaces In Different Types of Mantel Styles and Materials So They Match Different Decorating Themes?
You can get cast iron, stainless steel, enameled porcelain, and other materials that the main body of gas fireplaces is built out of. Gas fireplaces can come in a lot of different varieties. These materials can range in hardness, quality, heat resistance, and more. Materials used for gas fireplaces will affect the aesthetics, build quality, and heat efficiency of the fireplace. For instance, enameled porcelain will help a lot with the efficiency of the heat. Typically, higher-end gas fireplaces will be using higher-end materials in their products.
Of course, wood mantels for gas fireplaces also come in a lot of different looks. The woods can be darker or lighter depending on the chosen wood type or stain. They can be built in a minimalist style, ornate, and more. Many fireplace mantels also have engineered wood like MDF or particleboard. These types of engineered wood will usually end up costing less than solid wood mantels. However, engineered wood also is prone to chipping and breaking more easily. Additionally, these sometimes have laminate on the mantel to appear like natural wood grain. This laminate usually looks a little fake, and in some cases can look incredibly tacky. Over time, the glue that holds the laminate onto the mantel also tends to break down. This results in corners starting to curl and gaps to be seen between the laminate and the engineered wood.
There are also different shapes and sizes of gas fireplace types for a completely different look. Let’s say someone enjoys a more rustic and farmhouse type of interior design and the interior designer is discussing gas fireplace aesthetics with you. In a case like this, you can find gas stove fireplaces that look like a very traditional wood-burning stove. Understand that these gas-burning stove fireplaces are mostly just about home heating and aesthetics. You can’t normally cook on one of these like the basic cooking performed on top of traditional wood stoves. Because gas fireplaces that look like wood stoves from old-fashioned log cabins and rural farmhouses are a little rarer, not as many brands specialize in them. Choices will be limited.
Do People Need To Stick With Popular Brands of Gas Fireplaces Like Duluth Forge, Blue Liner, Monessen Hearth, and Others, or Is It Safe To Get a Generic Brand of Fireplace With a Cheaper Price Tag?
Usually, trusted brands of most products will be more reliable, perform better, and last longer than their generic brand competitors. This is also true with fireplaces. It can even be more crucial to choose a quality brand when fireplaces are involved. Because safety concerns are so important, generic brand gas fireplaces can be a lot more dangerous in your home than the popular brands with a history of quality and reliability. Not only are these gas fireplaces more likely to break down on you after only a short time, but they also may lack safety ratings and features.
Heat efficiency with generic fireplaces is also a major concern. You’ll end up spending more on fuel than with trusted brand names.
For these reasons, if you’re going to buy a gas-burning fireplace, you should always shop from trusted brands like Duluth Forge, Monessen, and others. Make sure to choose a brand with a great track record for safety and reliability. Generic fireplaces, gas or electric, will just end up causing you more problems than they are worth.
Do Gas Fireplaces Still Have Some Problems That You Would Associate With Wood Fireplaces? Do They Have Additional Problems That Are All Their Own?
A house fire is still definitely a big risk with gas fireplaces because there is still something burning inside of them. A hot flame is still exposed to your home’s interior spaces. They are not zero clearance fireplaces. Since they aren’t zero clearance, this means that combustible items can’t be kept anywhere near gas fireplaces.
Additionally, air quality is a concern with gas fireplaces. Carbon monoxide poisoning is still a heavy risk factor. It is produced when fuel has an incomplete burn. No matter how good the ventilation is, this harmful contaminant can still cause some serious health issues for people inside of the home.
Aesthetically speaking, the flames of gas fireplaces don’t move, dance, or flicker naturally, even with gas log sets to help with this. Some gas fireplaces have very strange flame colors. This can be a fire that is dull-colored, or it can be neon blue flames that aren’t natural or immersive.
Since Wood and Gas Fireplaces Are Both Unwise Choices, Are Electric Fireplaces The Best Type of Fireplace Solution in a House?
Electric fireplaces are the better choice. They have several advantages and strengths when using them over these other types of fireplaces. With electric fireplaces, nothing burns within them, therefore no additional risks of house fires are there to make you worry. This lack of burning also means you aren’t going to need ventilation. No bad emissions come out of the fireplace, only warm air that is clean to breathe. The hassle of building a fire or maintaining traditional fireplaces is a thing of the past. There is no extra work that you need to do to use electric fireplaces.
For people that already have an old masonry fireplace, brick fireplace, or some other type in their home that burns wood, we already established that gas inserts can be used to convert these older and more traditional fireplaces. You can also get a fireplace insert that is electric and does the same. This will convert the wood-burning fireplace so it is electric. These electric inserts are much easier to install in these traditional fireplace openings. They are also a lot more efficient with the heat since heat remains in the room rather than some rising out of a chimney.
With electric fireplaces, the thermostat is automatic. You don’t need to increase the heat settings or decrease the heat from time to time. You can just set the temperature to exactly what you want like central heat and air units. The fireplace will adjust the output as necessary to keep the temperature consistent.
Wood fireplaces need a team of people to build them in your home. Gas fireplaces need professionals to install them because if done improperly, it can be dangerous. Comparatively, electric fireplaces don’t need a professional for them to be installed properly. It is something that can be done as a DIY project by the owner most of the time. With more difficult installations like wall-mounted jobs or anytime you choose to imbed a fireplace into a recessed wall, professionals can be called for this type of job. However, even installations like these are relatively easy if homeowners want to try it themselves. Recessed wall installations can be very rewarding to do yourself and aren’t very difficult due to the countless YouTube guides available. Electric fireplaces are effortless to install in most other cases. Set it into place, plug it in, and turn it on. That’s all.
Most types of electric fireplaces come with an included type of remote control with the fireplace. They will of course have the basic function to turn the fireplace on and off. Your standard remote control devices will also change the temperature. Higher-end electric fireplaces come with better remotes or premium apps to control these fireplaces with your smartphone or tablet. A premium remote control app like this will be able to effectively control additional features like fire effects, audio effects, and more.
If you want to do an installation of electric fireplaces with a recessed wall or you want to surround the fireplace except for the viewing area, you need to make sure that the blower is also unblocked. It is vital to leave blowers completely exposed to the room. You don’t want to cover it at all during the installation. Doing so will result in overheating of the fireplace and it will shut down. It can also become damaged because of overheating. Make sure to leave this space open, especially when building custom mantels for a fireplace.
It is crucial to have larger flat wall fireplaces, corner electric fireplaces, or other substantial fireplaces in your home. While you could just as easily get some kind of smaller freestanding unit like a space heater that has some added fire effects, this won’t turn out well. These units warm homes poorly and are only designed for small spaces. The visual effects that they have are also going to be incredibly bad. Free-standing units are simply very bad alternatives to standard electric fireplaces. While they can be a nice addition to help warm a guest bedroom when needed, they shouldn’t be the main heating source.
Which Brand Is The Best To Go With If You Want All of The Ambiance That Comes With a Standard Wood Fireplace, yet In a Safer and More Reliable Unit?
For safety, reliability, amazing heating, and beautiful fire visuals choose MagikFlame electric fireplaces. You can choose many great models of their fireplaces like the deluxe MagikFlame Artemis, or you can even get an insert unit that is just as powerful as any other model they offer.
The fire effects that come inside of MagikFlame fireplaces are very realistic. These 3D flames look just as good as real flames you’d find in real fireplaces. Because of the unique Holoflame technology, the 30 different styles of 3D, holographic, flickering flames inside MagikFlame fireplaces look more realistic than flames produced by other brands of electric fireplaces on the market.
To make the entire fireplace experience even more realistic, there are atmospheric sounds of a fireplace included with them. For a lot of extra atmosphere and immersion, crackling log sounds make the flames feel even more alive and real. Seeing the flames at the same time as you hear them adds a lot of depth to the experience. Different types of calming nature sounds are also available to be played if you want to elevate the relaxation even further.
With electric fireplaces, it is common to wonder what the BTU output of a heater is. This will directly affect how many sq ft of a house the heater can successfully handle. A 5,200 BTU Heater inside of MagikFlame fireplaces can handle 1,000 square feet. This BTU output will efficiently warm small and medium houses, apartments, and condos while not using any more electricity than necessary. Larger homes can still benefit from multiple MagikFlame fireplaces. This is called zone heating. You would essentially place two or more MagikFlame fireplaces in separate areas of the homes. You only need to turn a MagikFlame fireplace on when that area of the home has people in it. To reduce the heating bill further, you would keep doors closed between zones people are in and zones that are empty. Heating a smaller space will require a lot less electricity to be used.
Instead of the standard type of remote that many electric fireplaces are bound to come with, MagikFlame fireplaces have an exclusive, premium smartphone app. The smartphone app will give users full control of the luxury fireplace, and it can be used anywhere inside of your home. No line of sight is needed for the remote to function. When you first wake up, you can turn the main room fireplace on while still laying in bed. This will allow the room to warm up while you get dressed before you even step out of your bedroom.
For People That Like What They Are Hearing About MagikFlame Electric Fireplaces, But Need a Bit More Information, Where Can People Go?
- Relish in the MagikFlame Story. Many people may be surprised to find out all about the Hollywood origins of MagikFlame. Learn how the Holoflame technology came out of experience working on special effects for big blockbuster movies like The Matrix.
- Immerse yourself in these MagikFlame Reviews. You will discover exactly what real customers of MagikFlame fireplaces are saying about their experience.
- Enjoy the MagikFlame Electric Fireplace Buying Guide. This guide will help you out with any general questions about electric fireplaces, how they operate, and more.
- Discover How MagikFlame Is Built. You can see for yourself exactly the dedication and craftsmanship that is put into MagikFlame’s fireplaces. After reading, you’ll understand why MagikFlame fireplaces are so reliable.
- View the Payment Plans and Financing. For people that want to get a MagikFlame fireplace soon and are curious about what kind of payment options there are, this will answer all of your questions.
See the great MagikFlame Warranty. With a full one year warranty included with each MagikFlame fireplace, everyone can buy in complete confidence. Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed.
