The best electric fireplace inserts

Most inserts are trying to look modern. This one is trying to look like the fireplace that used to be there, and in a room with original masonry that is usually the correct instinct. It ships with a glass door, a mesh screen and a three-sided brick interior, which is the combination that stops an insert reading as an appliance dropped into a hole.

The published dimensions are 33 1/16 inches wide by 25 9/16 inches high, and it runs 750 W or 1,500 W on two settings. At the full 1,500 W that is the category ceiling — about 5,118 BTU per hour and 27.5 cents an hour at the June 2026 US average rate.

The resin log sits on a grate above the ember bed rather than flat on the floor of the box, which is a small detail that matters more than it sounds: light gets underneath the log, and the flame has somewhere to go. It is the same trick that makes a real fire look three-dimensional. There is also a crackling sound effect, which people either turn on once and forget or switch off permanently within a week.

What it does not do: No trim kit in the base version — an existing masonry opening wider than 33 in leaves a visible gap unless you buy the trim separately.

If your opening is a wall rather than a firebox, depth is the specification that decides everything, and this range publishes 3.86 inches. A standard interior wall framed with 2x4 studs gives about 3.5 inches of cavity, so this sits nearly flush with only a slight proud edge — no furring strips, no built-out false wall, no chase.

The heater is 750 W low and 1,500 W high on 120 V, with a manufacturer figure of 5,100 BTU per hour and a 400 square foot supplemental rating. The flame side gets 12 flame colors, 12 ember-bed colors, five brightness levels and five speeds, which is more configuration than anyone needs and does mean you can settle on something that is not the default orange.

The line runs 30, 36, 42, 50, 60 and 68 inches, so the same install approach scales if you decide 36 is too modest for the wall. What it does not solve is the receptacle: recessing anything means power inside the cavity, and that is the part of the job that needs an electrician.

What it does not do: No mantel, no surround and no trim for a masonry opening. Recessing it means cutting drywall and, in most homes, running a receptacle inside the cavity.

A log set is the least product-shaped thing in this category: a tray of resin logs with a heater behind it, which you place inside the existing firebox and plug in. The old brick stays visible around it. In a period fireplace that is exactly right, and it is why log sets outsell full inserts in older housing stock.

Duraflame rates this one for supplemental heating up to 1,000 square feet, using an infrared quartz element rather than a fan blowing across a coil. Infrared warms objects rather than air, which feels gentler and does not dry the room the way fan-forced heat can. Treat the 1,000 square foot figure as a supplemental rating and not a promise to hold that space at temperature — the arithmetic on do they actually heat a room explains why.

The trade-off is honest and obvious: with no enclosure, everything you already dislike about the old firebox is still there. If the brick is stained or the opening is ragged, a log set puts a nice fire inside an unattractive hole.

What it does not do: The 1,000 sq ft figure is the manufacturer's supplemental-heat rating, not a claim that it will hold temperature in a 1,000 sq ft room. See our BTU page for what the wattage actually buys.

This is the entry point of the whole category. It is a 20-inch log set, it heats, the flame is LED with resin logs and a glowing ember bed, and the remote handles flame and heat independently so you can run the look without the warmth.

The published rating is 400 square feet of supplemental heat rather than the 1,000 square feet on the infrared version. Both are supplemental-heat ratings computed from the same physical ceiling, so read the difference as a claim about heater type rather than a claim about output.

For a bedroom firebox, a guest room, or a fireplace you want to stop looking like a black hole in the wall, this does the job for the least money of anything here. It will not impress anyone up close, and it is not trying to.

What it does not do: No enclosure, no glass, no trim. It sits inside the masonry opening you already have, so the old firebox is still visible around it.

Touchstone is one of the few names in this space whose entire catalog is fireplaces, and the Fireplug Pro 33 is its insert-shaped product at the same nominal width as the PuraFlame Klaus. It is stocked brand-direct rather than through Amazon.

We link to it anyway, and the link earns us nothing: Touchstone is not a program we have joined, so the button is a plain untracked link. It sits in this roundup because a reader comparing 33-inch inserts should know it exists, and leaving it out to keep every entry commissionable would be exactly the behavior we criticize elsewhere on this site.

Touchstone publishes less granular specification detail on its collection pages than the Amazon-stocked units do, so verify the opening dimensions with the brand before ordering. We are not going to quote you a wattage the manufacturer has not published.

What it does not do: Not stocked on Amazon at the time of writing. We link to the brand's own store, and we earn nothing when you do — Touchstone is not a program we have joined.