Whether you had an architect and home builders design you a new home with a spot specifically for a fireplace or you are just looking to spice up your existing interior design with some room remodels, an electric fireplace is an excellent addition. Of course, when choosing an electric fireplace, there are many types to go with and many brands to choose from. Some people like to go with a wall-mount electric fireplace for a more modern look and to improve accessibility by not taking up floor space.
Of course, when doing this, there are a lot of questions that might come up. How do you even install an electric fireplace that hangs on the wall? Does it have to be just wall hanging or can it be a built-in electric fireplace by making it wall recessed? Can recessed fireplaces be completely flush to the wall or does the electric wall fireplace need to stick out some? Should I get a standard-width one or a linear electric fireplace like a Touchstone Sideline?
In this guide, we are going to help you by answering all of these questions and several more questions you haven’t thought of yet.
While you probably already have your mindset on a wall mount unit, it is important to understand the different types of electric fireplaces. Some are better at saving space, some have a mantel, and some are portable devices that should be avoided completely.
Here are all the different types of electrical fireplaces:
● Flat Wall Fireplace Mantel Package
● Corner Fireplace
● TV Stand Fireplace
● Corner TV Stand Fireplace
● Wall Mount Electric Fireplace
● Electric Fireplace Insert
● Freestanding Electric Fireplace Heater
● Electric Fireplace Stove
Here are the issues with wood fireplaces:
● Fire Safety – They are the leading cause of house fires.
● Harmful Emissions – They cause smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning.
● Hassle To Use – You have to do a lot of work to use them and maintain them.
● Heat Loss Problem – Heat is lost through ventilation.
● Smell – There is always a bad smoky smell.
● Stains – The smoke yellows walls and stains the furniture.
● TV Damage – Smoke from the fireplace damages TVs if you try to mount them above the mantel.
● Wood Storage – You have to have adequate wood storage space.
● Expensive To Build – If you want to add one to an existing house, it is a very expensive construction job.
Gas fireplaces also have their issues:
● Flame Is Exposed – The exposed flame still presents a house fire risk.
● Carbon Monoxide – There is no smoke but they still produce carbon monoxide.
● Ugly Flame Color – The flame color looks ugly and is sometimes a bright blue.
● Weak Flame – The flames are weak and don’t properly flicker.
● Costly Installation – The installation is costly and requires a professional.
Here are all of the benefits of electric fireplaces:
● No Added Fire Risk – Unlike a wood or gas fireplace, there is no added risk of a fire with electric fireplaces. Nothing is burning and no flame is present.
● No Harmful Emissions – Since nothing is burning with electric fireplaces, there is no harmful emissions to worry about like smoke inhalation or deadly carbon monoxide poisoning.
● No Staining or Smells – Another great benefit of there being no burning or smoke is that you aren’t going to have to worry about the smoke staining any of your walls or leaving a smoky smell in your home.
● Using it is Easy – Electric fireplaces are easy to use compared to other fireplaces. Once you turn it on, all you have to do is set it to whatever temperature that you want it at. The fireplace then works harder when the temperature needs to go up or works less when the temperature is stable. This is all automatic.
● Easy Installation – It’s very easy if you want to install a standard electric fireplace. Pick a room and select the best wall for it. Once you have found the best wall, place the fireplace down there and plug it into a 120-volt standard electrical outlet.
● Any Room in Your Home – Because electric fireplaces don’t require any kind of venting to use them, you can actually install them in any room of your home. You aren’t limited to just the main room. You can put an electric fireplace in your master bedroom, home office, dining room (learn about why is an electric fireplace best for the dining room), and more.
● Heat Efficiency – These fireplaces are very efficient due to the infrared heating element and the lack of any ventilation where the heat can escape. This means you can expect really good savings on your heating bill.
● Supplemental Zone Heating – For very large homes, you can install multiple fireplaces to only heat a zone when people are in that part of the house, further reducing your heating bill.
● Remote Control – Electric fireplaces come with a remote control so you don’t even have to get up to turn it on or change the thermostat heat settings. With the multi-function remote, you can also change the fire effects or other features. Instead of a multi-function remote, some high-end fireplaces come with a smartphone app so that you can use your touchscreen phone or tablet to control your fireplace from anywhere in your home.
● Flame Effect Captures Fireplace Ambiance – A high-end fireplace can produce fire effects that feel like the real thing.
First of all, before installing a wall fireplace that hangs, make sure that you are following the exact instructions that came with your model, don’t just rely on this section of the guide. This is just a primer of the basic steps so that you can decide if it is something that you can handle yourself or if you need to hire someone to install it for you. Here are the basic steps involved with most hanging fireplace installations:
● Secure The Mounts to the Wall – Using special wall mounts that came with your fireplace unit, secure the mounts to the studs inside of the drywall. This should be done before anything else. You don’t attach the mounts to the fireplace first. After the mounts are secured according to that model’s instructions, and you’ve checked that it is level, move on to the next step.
● Attach The Fireplace to the Mounts – Now that the mount is securely on the wall, you can attack your fireplace on the mounts that are there. While the mounts can vary in how they work with your fireplace, the most common types involve your fireplace attaching to a mounting lip that runs along the bottom of the fireplace, with secure attachment points at the top. If all of this is done correctly, the studs of the wall should easily be taking the weight of the fireplace and the fireplace won’t easily fall off. After you ensure it is level and secure, move on to the next step.
● Install the Glass – The glass of these units usually comes uninstalled. This is to make things a bit safer during installation and to reduce the weight when lifting it for hanging. After the fireplace is secure on the wall, you can pop the glass into the fireplace opening. Follow the instructions carefully when doing this so that you don’t break the glass that came with it
Yes, you can install fireplaces into a recession in a wall. This is a great thing to do if you want a really modern look and you want the fireplace to be more out of the way to save you additional space. You can install a fireplace into a recession so that it is completely flush, or you can install it to where it is still sticking out slightly from the wall. How deep you can install it will depend on the clearance inside of the wall as well as your personal preferences. Installing in a recessed wall certainly requires a lot more planning and work, but it can really pay off in the end.
If you are thinking about doing this, it is important to measure your wall and see what you are working with. Your fireplace still needs to be mounted securely, so how much space you have between studs is important. You can install a standard-sized fireplace or you can install a much wider fireplace that is called a linear fireplace. Sometimes these can span the entire length of the wall. The larger the fireplace, the harder the installation will be and the more planning it will need beforehand. Unlike typical electrical fireplace installation, installing into wall recessions can be a little bit more involved and you may want to consider enlisting a professional to come and help you out with your project.
● Type – Knowing what type of electrical fireplace you want goes a long way in figuring out how it will look in your home and what function it will serve. Keep in mind that certain brands specialize in certain types, and there are often certain types of fireplaces that you should avoid altogether due to how poorly they work. If you are having trouble choosing a type, refer to the type section in this article.
● Size – While size can have a lot to do with the type, there are different sizes within each type as well. You should consider the space you have, measure the area, and look up the sizes of the units you are considering. Try to get a picture of how it will look when it is in your home in relation to the things around it.
● Material – Material places a big part in not only how the electric fireplace looks, but how long it lasts. Getting a fireplace that is wall mounted with stainless steel, ultra-thin bezel, is going to look much different than one with a much thicker bezel. Neither is necessarily better than the other, but they will make a difference in how it looks to your particular aesthetic preferences. The same goes for using a mantel with real, solid wood, or a particleboard engineered wood.
● Color – If you have a fireplace with a visible mantel or other housing to it, then the color will place a big part in how it looks in the room that you place it in. You want to go with a lighter, solid white mantel if you have a modern home with a clean look. You can go in the dark if you already have quite a lot of dark furniture.
● Heating Ability – The ability to heat your home is very important. You want a fireplace that can handle warming an area of around 1,000 sq. ft. so that you know it is enough to warm most homes. It should also be an infrared heater in order to quickly heat the room while using minimal electricity, leaving you with some great savings on your heating bill.
● Fire Effects – The fire effects are also a crucial thing to get right. There are a lot of cheap and tacky flame effects like mechanical spinning wheels with basic color-changing LED lights. There are slightly better ones with an LED flame that might have traditional colors or be a weird multicolor flame. You also want to make sure that there is sufficient flame brightness so it can get that nostalgic glow in a dark room. If you truly want some of the most realistic fire effects, you need to go with something that does holographically projected 3D flames like a MagikFlame electric fireplace.
There are also some other features you might want to consider that have to do with the fire visuals. These are things like the ember bed, a physical driftwood log or log set in the firebox, and more.
You should always avoid generic electric fireplaces. They don’t last very long, they don’t heat homes very well, and they are not efficient with the electricity, so you will end up with a large energy bill. On top of that, they tend to have very bad fire effects which completely ruins the experience and it looks tacky in your home. Buying a generic electric fireplace means you will need to repair it shortly after buying it or replace it after a short couple of years.
Instead, invest your money more wisely and purchase a fireplace for a brand that is more trusted. Some brands are quite decent like Dimplex, Touchstone, Muskoka, Simplifier, and a few others. You will want to check their specific features and see what might be best for you.
However, if you want a top-of-the-line fireplace with a powerfully efficient heater and the most realistic fire effects ever seen in an electrical fireplace, you need to check out the next section and read all about MagikFlame electric fireplaces.
MagikFlame electric fireplaces are easily the most reliable fireplaces on the market with the most realistic fire effects that feel like a real fire. Here is everything you can expect from them:
● Realistic Holographic 3D Flames – The 3D hologram flames are projected onto the log set that is inside of the MagikFlame fireplace. There are 30 different flickering flames that you can choose from.
● Sounds of Crackling Logs – MagikFlame fireplaces take immersion to the next level with their audio effects of burning, crackling logs. In addition to these sound effects, you can also play soothing nature sounds if you want to.
● 5,200 BTU Infrared Heater – The heater inside of MagikFlame fireplaces can easily warm a space of up to 1,000 square feet: easily powerful enough for most homes. The heater works efficiently to save you as much on your heating bill as possible.
● Smartphone App – Instead of a regular remote, MagikFlame fireplace has a fantastic smartphone app that allows you to control all of the fireplace’s features right on your phone or tablet. The app is easy for people to use and includes large graphic buttons.
