Smart and WiFi electric fireplaces

Smart features on a fireplace are worth having for one thing above all: the heat setting. Being able to drop from 1,500 W to 750 W, or switch the heater off while leaving the flame on, without standing up is the feature people actually use. Flame-color apps are a novelty you will stop opening. Buy a connected unit if you want voice control or scenes; if you only want to start the fire from the sofa, a remote does that for a fraction of the price.

The word gets used loosely in this category, and three quite different things hide behind it. Only the third is what most people mean.

• A remote. Every unit on this site has one. Not smart, and frequently sufficient.
• A touch screen on the unit. Common on the budget ultra-thins. Arguably a downgrade — you still have to walk over.
• WiFi with an app and voice assistants. The real thing: control from a phone anywhere in the house, and inclusion in Alexa or Google routines. This is the feature this page is about.

Every pick above except the deliberate skip does the third. Where a manufacturer only claims a remote or a touch panel, we have not counted it as connected.

Quick picks: connected fireplaces

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 Sideline Elite Pro 60 (80058)Touchstone's flagship linear fireplace, with the deepest firebox in the range and the fullest published control set.	The best-specified connected unit	27.5¢1,500 W · 5,118 BTU	$1,549.00 · View on Amazon
2	TURBRO In-Flame INF50W-3D 50" Smart WiFi Infrared FireplaceThe only connected unit here with an infrared heater and a published noise figure — 42 dB, which almost nobody quotes.	Smart control on a quiet heater	27.5¢1,500 W · 5,118 BTU	$279.99 · View on Amazon
3	Touchstone The Sideline 60 (80011)WiFi with Alexa and Google, a genuine 750 W low stage and front venting, at the most sensible price in the connected bracket.	Smart control for the least money	27.5¢1,500 W · 5,118 BTU	$649.00 · View on Amazon
4	Touchstone Sideline Elite 72 (80038)The widest WiFi unit we cover — a 68-inch viewing area with app and voice control, for a wall that can take it.	Connected, at six feet	27.5¢1,500 W · 5,118 BTU	$1,599.00 · View on Amazon
—	Duraflame DFI030ARU 20" Infrared Electric Fireplace Log SetOur best-value pick everywhere else, and it has no app, no WiFi and no voice control — just a remote, which for many people is enough.Skip this one	Nothing, if connectivity is the requirement	27.5¢1,500 W · 5,118 BTU	$149.99 · 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.

This is the single most common reason a smart fireplace fails to set up, and it has nothing to do with the fireplace. Almost every connected appliance in this price class — TURBRO's included, which states it explicitly — joins 2.4 GHz networks only. It cannot see a 5 GHz band at all.

Modern routers, particularly those supplied by ISPs, increasingly broadcast both bands under a single network name and decide for you which to use. When your phone is on 5 GHz and hands those credentials to a 2.4-only device, setup fails with an unhelpful error, and nothing about the message tells you why.

1. Split the bands temporarily. Give 2.4 GHz its own network name in the router settings, join your phone to it, complete setup, then re-merge if you want.
2. Or disable 5 GHz for five minutes. Cruder, works, and avoids permanent changes.
3. Check the password has no exotic characters. Some appliance firmware handles a limited character set and fails silently on the rest.
4. Put the phone next to the fireplace during pairing, not across the house.
5. Expect the app to be unremarkable. These are appliance-maker apps, not software products. Judge the fireplace, not the interface.

Heat. Every connected unit here runs the same 1,500 W ceiling a 120 V circuit imposes on the entire category, so an app cannot make a fireplace warmer, faster or cheaper to run. What it changes is how easily you use the settings the unit already has — which, for the 750 W low stage in particular, genuinely affects what you spend over a season.

That gap is the strongest financial argument for connectivity. A two-stage fireplace you actually run on low, because dropping it takes a tap rather than a trip across the room, costs roughly half as much per hour. The running cost calculator will price it against your own tariff.

• Confirm it is WiFi, not just a remote. The listing word to look for is the assistant name — Alexa or Google — not "smart".
• Check the band requirement and plan for the 2.4 GHz split before the unit arrives.
• Decide whether you want scenes. Voice control matters most if the fireplace joins a lighting routine; on its own it is a convenience.
• Do not pay for connectivity on a single-stage heater. The best use of an app is changing heat levels, which needs a unit that has more than one.
• Remember the flame runs without heat on every unit here, which is how most people use them most of the year, app or not.