Electric log sets vs fireplace inserts

A log set is a tray of resin logs with a heater behind it. You put it in the opening, plug it in, and the brick you already have frames it exactly as it framed the fire that used to be there. There is no trim kit to buy and no gap to close, because you are not covering anything.

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 matters more in a masonry recess than anywhere else on this site: convection has to escape the opening before it reaches anyone, and a deep brick firebox is very good at absorbing it on the way out.

The trade is obvious and worth stating plainly: everything you already dislike about the firebox is still there. Stained brick, a ragged opening, a cracked back panel — a log set puts a good-looking fire inside all of it.

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.

Dimplex publishes 25.625 by 19 by 13 inches, 25 pounds, 1,500 W at 120 V and 12.5 A, 5,118 BTU per hour and a 400 square foot rating. The flame is Revillusion LED with a glowing ash mat beneath the logs, which is the detail that separates it from the entry tier — light coming from under the fuel is what real fires do, and almost nothing at the cheap end reproduces it.

The 13-inch depth is the thing to check before anything else. Entry log sets are shallow enough to sit in almost any opening; this one needs a genuinely deep firebox. Measure front to back wall before you order, not after.

It is also the more expensive way to solve a problem the cheaper log set solves adequately. If your fireplace is in a room you sit in every evening and look at closely, the ash mat earns its money. In a guest bedroom it does not.

What it does not do: At 13 in deep it needs a genuinely deep firebox — considerably more than the shallow log sets it competes with. No enclosure or trim; the existing masonry stays visible around it.

This is the other half of the fork. A full insert brings its own housing, so what you look at afterward is the insert rather than the hole it went into. Published dimensions are 33 1/16 inches wide by 25 9/16 high, with 750 W and 1,500 W settings and a three-sided brick-effect lining.

The log sits on a grate above the ember bed rather than flat on the floor of the box, which is the same trick the Revillusion ash mat plays — get light underneath the fuel and the flame reads as three-dimensional.

Two honest cons. Masonry openings taper toward the back, so measure the REAR width as well as the front; an insert that clears the front lip and fouls the back does not go in, and this is the most common return in the category. And the trim kit that closes the gap around it is usually a separate purchase even when the product photography shows one fitted.

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.

Twenty inches wide, a 400 square foot supplemental rating, an LED flame with resin logs and a glowing ember bed, and a remote that separates flame from heat so you can run the look without the warmth.

Small period fireplaces — bedroom grates, cottage openings, anything under about 26 inches — rule out most full inserts entirely. This fits where nothing else will, which is the whole argument for it.

The con is that it is plainly a lit tray of plastic in daylight. In a dim room at night it does its job; anywhere brighter it does not, and no amount of goodwill changes that.

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.