Touchstone Sideline vs Sideline Elite

The Elite does not heat better. It looks better, and only from directly in front. Both ranges are capped at 1,500 W by a 120 V circuit, so the heat, the running cost and the room they will warm are identical. What roughly doubling the price buys is a frameless glass front, a larger proportion of the width given over to flame, and on the 60-inch unit a timer and a tighter thermostat. If the fireplace sits at eye level in a finished wall, that is worth real money. If it does not, it is not.

The four units, compared

Ranked. The running cost column is computed from each unit's rated wattage, not quoted from a manufacturer. Tap a row for the full write-up.

#	Product	Best for	Cost per hour	Price
1	Touchstone The Sideline 50The volume seller of the range, and the unit the Elite has to justify itself against. Documented, flexible and considerably cheaper.	The one most people should buy	27.5¢1,500 W · 5,118 BTU	$549.00 · View on Amazon
2	Touchstone Sideline Elite 50A frameless glass front and a larger apparent viewing area, for roughly double the money and exactly the same heat.	A finished wall at eye level	27.5¢1,500 W · 5,118 BTU	$999.00 · View on Amazon
3	Touchstone The Sideline 60 (80011)Two-stage heat, a thermostat, WiFi and the full 60 inches, at a fraction of the Elite 60's price.	The value pick at the larger width	27.5¢1,500 W · 5,118 BTU	$649.00 · View on Amazon
4	Touchstone Sideline Elite 60 (80037)A 56-inch viewing area in a 59 3/4-inch unit, plus a timer and a tighter thermostat. The best-specified unit here and the most expensive.	The most flame per inch of wall	27.5¢1,500 W · 5,118 BTU	$1,299.00 · View on Amazon
5	Touchstone Sideline Fury 65 (80056)Five inches wider than a 60, in slim-depth form. Worth knowing about before you cut, and useless afterwards.	If you are about to frame for a 60 and have the wall for more	27.5¢1,500 W · 5,118 BTU	$999.00 · View on Amazon

#ad Buy links are affiliate links — we earn a commission on Amazon purchases at no extra cost to you, and it never changes the ranking. How this site is funded. Running cost is computed at 18.34¢/kWh; see what these actually cost to run.

Touchstone quotes about 5,000 BTU per hour for the standard Sideline and 5,118 for the Elite 60, and it would be easy to read that as the Elite being marginally warmer. It is not. Watts convert to BTU at a fixed rate of 3.412142, so 1,500 W is 5,118 BTU per hour exactly. One figure is rounded down for marketing and the other is not.

Both ranges are also rated by Touchstone for about 400 square feet of supplemental heat. If you are choosing between these two on the basis of which will warm a room better, the honest answer is that the choice does not exist. Use BTU and room size to work out whether either will do what you need.

• Recessed into a finished wall at seated eye level. This is the case the Elite is built for, and where the bezel on the standard unit is genuinely conspicuous.
• A dark or plastered wall with no surround. With nothing else framing the fireplace, the unit's own frame becomes the visual edge, and a frameless front reads as an opening rather than a product.
• A large room where the fireplace is the focal point. If people look at it directly and often, the detail earns its money.

• Under a television. Nobody looks at the fireplace bezel when there is a screen above it, and the front vents matter more than the frame.
• Above a mantel or inside a surround. A surround already provides the visual frame, which is exactly what you would be paying to remove.
• Anywhere below about knee height. The frameless effect depends on looking at the unit straight on.
• If the budget could instead buy width. Going from 50 to 60 inches on the standard range changes the room more than going frameless at 50 does, and usually costs less.

Not the choice between these two. The framing. All four units are 5 1/2 inches deep, which is deeper than a standard 2x4 stud bay, so every one of them needs furring, 2x6 framing or a built-out chase. And the Elite 60 is two and a quarter inches shorter than the standard Sideline 60, which means an opening framed for one will not correctly suit the other.

Decide the model before you cut, not after. Our guide to mounting and recessing covers the rough opening, and depth and clearance covers why 5 1/2 inches is the number that catches people out.