Skip to content

MagikFlame vs. Costco Fireplace

Because the fireplace is the focal point when people walk into your home, you need to make sure your fireplace is the best one for your home. Electric fireplaces are the type that many people are going with these days. Unfortunately, there are a lot of different types and brands out there on the market regarding electric fireplaces. You have quality brands like MagikFlame, and you have many brands that are offered by big box stores like Costco. Which is best for you?

This article is going to discuss electric fireplaces, why you need them, what types there are, and which brand you should choose. By the time you are finished reading this article, you’ll have a much better idea of what fireplace is best to put inside of your house.

For This Review, We Will Answer These Following Questions:

  • Why Do Homeowners Pick Electric Fireplaces Over Wood-Burning Fireplaces and Gas-Burning Fireplaces? – We begin by comparing electric fireplaces with traditional options just in case you are still on the fence.

  • Which of The Different Electric Fireplaces Are The Best To Install Inside of a New Home or For a Home Renovation? – We list many of the common body types of electric fireplaces and mention why certain ones may be best for your home situation.

  • Do Electric Fireplaces Work With a Variety of Interior Design or Home Decor Styles? – We briefly touch on the versatility of electric fireplaces in their ability to work with many decorating styles.

  • How Difficult Is It To Install Electric Fireplaces Inside of Homes? – This section explores the difficulty of installing different types of electric fireplaces.

  • Can You Completely Customize a Fireplace Area With an Electric Fireplace Insert? – For people who want a custom fireplace area, we talk about the best way to go about that project.

  • How Important Are The Fire Effects That are Generated By Electric Fireplaces? – We explain how vital good fire effects are to the fireplace you end up choosing.

  • Is It Better To Get a Fireplace That Is Made By a High-End Brand or Will a Generic Fireplace Be Good Enough? – We show the contrasting quality between brand-name fireplaces like MagikFlame and generic brands.

  • Do They Offer Electric Fireplaces At Local Retail Centers Like Costco, Home Depot, or Lowe’s Stores? – This explores what big box stores have available when it comes to electric fireplaces.

  • Are Costco Fireplace Units or Fireplaces From Other Big Box Retail Stores High-Quality? – We examine how good the quality of the fireplaces from local retailers can be.

  • If a Fireplace From Costco Is a Bad Idea, Who Should You Order an Electric Fireplace From? – We cover exactly why so many people have decided that MagikFlame is the only fireplace brand worth their money.
Why Do Homeowners Pick Electric Fireplaces Over Wood-Burning Fireplaces and Gas-Burning Fireplaces?


Wood fireplaces can be fun if they are a fire pit in your backyard, but indoor wood fireplaces have too many issues. They are completely unsafe due to the fire hazard and they put out many harmful emissions that fill your home. A residential architect is needed to design it if you don’t already have one in your home. They are also too much work to use every day.
 
Gas fireplaces have similar issues. they are unsafe and they can produce carbon monoxide. They require maintenance or their issues can become even worse.
 
Electric fireplaces are much better. For example, in the bedroom electric fireplace will create a cozy and at the same time safe ambiance. They are not fire hazards like those other types. They don’t generate any harmful emissions. You can easily install one in a living room or another house like the dining room. A dining room fireplace isn’t common with traditional fireplaces.
 
They are easy to use. A remote control device can change the adjustable thermostat and keep your home at the perfect consistent temperature.

Which of The Different Electric Fireplaces Are The Best To Install Inside of a New Home or For a Home Renovation?


There are many great types of electric fireplaces. Certain ones might be better for your specific needs, while a couple you may want to avoid:

●       Mantel Package – This is the most common type people go with. It is a standard fireplace with a beautiful fireplace mantel surrounding it. These fireplaces are purchased as a single unit, however, it is usually two separate pieces that are combined during installation.

●       Corner Fireplace – These fireplace types work the same as the previous type, however, they are built with a corner-shaped design. This means that they can be placed in a corner of any room inside your house, rather than against a normal flat wall. These units are perfect if you have more space in the corner than you do against any flat wall.

●       Electric Fireplace TV Stand – An electric fireplace TV stand is what it sounds like: an entertainment center or media console with a fireplace built into it. These allow you a space for your flat panel TV but have a fireplace inside of them so that you don’t have to purchase a separate fireplace. Unfortunately, because the body also needs space for things like glass doors, storage shelves, and more, a media fireplace like this can end up having a poor-performing fireplace. Be cautious if you are looking at these.

●       Corner Electric Fireplace TV Stand – This is another entertainment center or media console with a fireplace built into its body. This fireplace console is shaped for the corner. Of course, any issues that traditional fireplace TV stands will also be present with these corner varieties.

●       Wall Mount Electric Fireplace – If you have a home with a modern aesthetic, these wall-mounted fireplaces may fit. These are fireplaces that are securely mounted onto a wall, much like you would mount a TV set. Additionally, these can be embedded into the drywall of your home so that the fireplace is flush with the wall. This type of fireplace can be slightly more difficult to install, but will often look great once it is finished.

●       Fireplace Insert – An insert is placed into the firebox of any traditional fireplace that is already inside of your home. They are used to convert your fireplace from burning wood to running on electricity. These are great if your home came with a fireplace when you purchased it and you are seeing the advantages of electric fireplaces.

●       Freestanding Heater – A freestanding heater fireplace is a portable heater with simple fire effects. Unfortunately, due to their small size and trying to cram too much technology into that small size, they often are bad at heating and their fire effects look cheap. Avoid these and look at better electric fireplaces.

●       Electric Stove – For a home with a strong rural aesthetic, you can get electric fireplaces that have a wood stove appearance. However, in most cases, these fireplaces will look out of place.

Do Electric Fireplaces Work With a Variety of Interior Design or Home Decor Styles?


Regardless if you have an interior designer or you have decorated your home by yourself, you want to make sure that the fireplace that you choose to put in your home looks great. Luckily, electric fireplaces come in a wide variety of styles. We have already covered the available fireplace types, but by choosing a different mantel option, you can completely transform the style of your fireplace. You can get mantels with real wood, tile, stone, and more.
 
If you like rustic fireplaces, you can use an older wood mantel with deeper grains in it. This rich wood will look like it came directly off of a modern farm and will enhance any home with a rustic style.
 
If you like a natural look, you can install a mantel that uses cobblestone or other natural types of stone. Of course, you don’t need to use real stone. Faux stone can look very realistic. Faux stone is easier to install and will cost less. You can get sheets of stones to add to your fireplace area that looks like river stones, flat stones, and more.
 
If you prefer an electric fireplace that has a modern and minimalistic appearance, go with a mantel that is bright white. The mantel should have straight lines, simple shapes, and no ornamentation. The shape of the mantel should be the focus, not any smaller details.
 
Regardless of what home decorating style that you have in your home, some fireplaces and mantels can match it perfectly. Even if you want a specific brand for your fireplace but their mantel choices are limited, you can get the mantel from a third-party company to combine it during installation. This way, you get the best of both worlds.

How Difficult Is It To Install Electric Fireplaces Inside of Homes?


The difficulty of installing a fireplace in your home is dependent on which type that you get and whether you want it embedded in the wall or not. For many types of electric fireplaces, the installation of the unit is incredibly simple. It is a DIY home improvement project you can accomplish quickly and easily. For many mantel package units, place them on the floor and up against a flat wall. Make sure the blowers are facing the room and aren’t blocked by any nearby elements. After you plug the fireplace into the wall, you are free to use it.
 
The installation will be slightly more involved if you choose to embed your fireplace into a recessed wall or hang it onto a wall. Both of these jobs will require more drywall work. Securing the fireplace to the wall is also important, but it isn’t much different than wall mounting a television set. Even this type of installation is something that your average person can handle without too many issues. Many YouTube instructional videos are available. You can watch some and see how easy the installation can be.
 
If you are handy and adventurous, you can completely customize a wall, fireplace, and mantel too.

Can You Completely Customize a Fireplace Area With an Electric Fireplace Insert?


If you’d like to customize an entire fireplace area, you can use an insert as the base. While an insert is often used to remodel an existing fireplace and transform it into an electric variety, this isn’t the only use for it.
 
With an insert as your starting point, you can partially embed it into a flat wall so that the fireplace looks like it is connected to an outdoor chimney. From there, you can build a mantel using whatever material that you prefer. By doing this instead of purchasing a mantel, you can match everything with the decor you already have present within your room. You can match the wood type, the style of the shapes and lines, the stain of the wood, and more.
 
If this is a road you think you might want to go down, start researching custom electric fireplaces online and find plenty of visual inspiration. After you have tons of images and find videos of these installations being performed, you’ll develop a vision of what you want your fireplace to look like. For inspiration, check websites and apps like Pinterest and Instagram. For tutorials and other ideas, search blog posts on Google or check videos on YouTube.

How Important Are The Fire Effects That are Generated By Electric Fireplaces?


If you want realistic flames that capture the beautiful ambiance that you’d find with traditional fireplaces, then the flame effect that a fireplace can produce is incredibly important. Unfortunately, there are a lot of brands of fireplaces on the market that have simple LED light effects. These are flames that are 2D on a flat screen. It doesn’t look anything like a real flame.
 
If you want a fireplace that looks realistic, you have to invest in a brand with quality visual effects. This means your flames will need to look 3D. Now, there are some models like the Dimplex Opti-Myst that attempt to make the fire look 3D. They do this by projecting LED flames onto streams of water vapor. By projecting the lights onto water vapor, the flames look slightly 3D and the moving streams help add a flickering effect to the flames. Unfortunately, it isn’t quite as realistic as it could be.
 
For the absolute best fire effects inside of electric fireplaces, you need to go with Holoflame technology. Holoflame technology is only available in MagikFlame fireplaces. These are 3D holographic flames. There are 30 different styles of flames that come with each MagikFlame. You can toggle between these beautiful 3D flames easily. The holographically-projected flames look incredibly realistic due to their flickering movements. They even spark small embers in the 3D projection. To make the flames look more realistic, the flames are projected over physical logs. This is a log set that sits inside of a MagikFlame fireplace above a bed of embers. Since realism is vital to a good electric fireplace, then you need to invest in a MagikFlame fireplace that has this holographic technology included with it.

Is It Better To Get a Fireplace That Is Made By a High-End Brand or Will a Generic Fireplace Be Good Enough?


You should always choose to get a fireplace that is made by a high-end brand. While generic fireplaces may seem like good deals due to their extremely cheap price tags, there is a reason they are so cheap.
 
Generic fireplaces cut many corners in their build process and material choices to keep their costs down. With generic brands, you’re going to end up with an electric heater inside of your fireplace with a low BTU output. The technology used to produce the heat may also lack efficiency. With higher-end brands of electric fireplaces, the heater will be both powerful and efficient. Because generic fireplaces are so weak, they will be working at maximum capacity, barely warming a portion of your home. Because it has to work so hard to do so little, you will notice a much higher electric bill than if you went with a quality brand. Additionally, the hard work these generic fireplaces do ends up costing you when the fireplace needs repairs.
 
Brand-name fireplaces will use less energy to warm a large space. Because of a superior infrared quartz heater inside of quality brands like MagikFlame, you’re going to be able to warm 1,000 sq ft of your residence. For most people, this will warm their entire home. Even for people with larger homes, an additional fireplace can be added to a different part of the home, breaking up the large home into multiple zones.
 
Besides the heating ability, the flame effects will always be better with quality brand-name fireplaces. You’ll get flames that look realistic with high-end brands like MagikFlame. Generic fireplaces with a low price tag will end up looking cheap and tacky in your home. Using a generic fireplace when guests are over will just leave you feeling embarrassed. of course, you’ll feel pride in using a fireplace like MagikFlame when the guests don’t even realize that your fireplace is electric.

Do They Offer Electric Fireplaces At Local Retail Centers Like Costco, Home Depot, or Lowe’s Stores?


Yes, they have fireplaces of all types at local stores like these. However, you need to remember that the types of fireplaces will be limited and so will the brands that are carried. Certain stores have deals with specific brands, so the brand you want may not be available at your local store. If you have a specific brand that you want to get or a specific model of a brand, you should call ahead and see if it is available.
 
These stores often have online websites as well. You can order a Costco fireplace on the website and they will let you know when it is available for pick up from your nearby store. Unfortunately, it may be a while before your order status changes due to limited inventory availability. If you aren’t interested in going through all of that hassle with your order, you can try and order directly from the manufacturer’s website of the brand that you want. This is usually the best solution. By ordering directly from the manufacturer, the model you want is more likely to be available, the price will be the lowest, and the company can help you with any of your questions or concerns.

Are Costco Fireplace Units or Fireplaces From Other Big Box Retail Stores High-Quality?


Before running down to your local retailer to buy a Costco fireplace with your credit card in hand, you need to be aware of what kinds of fireplaces are available. Most Costco fireplace units are the generic brands that we spoke about in a previous section. While it can seem exciting to run out and purchase a fireplace so you can install it today, this isn’t a great idea. If you are patient and order a quality fireplace directly from a high-end brand, you’re going to end up with a much better fireplace inside of your home.
 
Even if you purchase a fireplace from a local store like Costco, when your generic fireplace eventually has issues, there is usually a limited amount of time that it can be returned to the store for a refund or a replacement. After that, you have to deal with the manufacturer directly. What is incredibly unfortunate is that so many of these generic fireplace companies will have some tricky wording in their warranties so they can keep from replacing it or refunding your money.
 
For the best experience, go with a quality company like MagikFlame and order your fireplace directly from them. Not only will your fireplace look amazing and last much longer, but you’ll be dealing directly with a company that cares about its customers.

If a Fireplace From Costco Is a Bad Idea, Who Should You Order an Electric Fireplace From?


Clearly, a MagikFlame fireplace is better than any Costco fireplace that you can buy. From models like the MagikFlame Insert to the beautiful MagikFlame Smith, there is no shortage of great fireplaces to choose from. Additionally, every MagikFlame fireplace has all of these benefits and features:

●       Fantastic Ultra-Realistic Fire Effects
●       Impressive Crackling Log Sounds
●       Cozy 5,200 BTU Heat
●       Completely UL Certified and Safe
●       Luxury Smartphone App Control

Traditional White Electric Fireplace Mantel & Insert with Sound and Heater
Stand-Alone Electric Fireplace Insert with Sound and Heater
Modern White Electric Fireplace Mantel & Insert with Sound and Heater
European Style White Electric Fireplace Mantel & Insert with Sound and Heater
Related Posts

Highest Rated Fireplaces

homepage-slider-bg-Athena
homepage-slider-bg-Trinity
homepage-slider-bg-Insert
homepage-slider-bg-Artemis
Athena
Trinity
Stand-Alone Electric Fireplace Insert with Sound and Heater
Artemis

SAVE $300 + FREE SHIPPING

MagikFlame VIP

All the essentials: trends, promotions, and interior design tips.
Be the first to know

VIP DEALS

Celebrate the season with savings directly in your box. Subscribe now for a limited time, exclusive offers, and promotions.

By submitting your email address or phone number, you agree to receive promotional emails and texts from MagikFlame.

Thanks for signing up!

Please check your inbox for a confirmation email, as well as any upcoming emails from us.