The best electric fireplaces with mantels

Walker Edison publishes 70 inches long by 23.75 high by 15.75 deep, 126 pounds, with an 18-inch fireplace insert and a remote. It takes a television up to 80 inches, which is genuinely generous — most 70-inch consoles top out at 75.

The reeded front is the point. This is a furniture purchase with a fire in it, and the fluted detailing is what makes it read as a piece of cabinetry rather than an appliance stand. The fireplace runs with or without heat, which is how most owners use these for most of the year.

One honest note: Walker Edison does not publish a wattage or a BTU figure for the insert on its own product page. We checked. So we are not going to quote you one — assume the usual 1,500 W ceiling for cost planning and confirm on the box when it arrives.

What it does not do: Walker Edison does not publish a wattage or BTU figure for the insert on the product page. We asked the page and it is not there — so we do not quote one, and neither should anyone else.

Home Depot lists this one at 70 inches with a maximum TV size of 75 inches, model HD70FPSCDW in dark walnut. Two doors plus open center shelving, which is the layout that hides a games console and a router without hiding the things you want to reach.

If the Reema is the piece you want people to notice, this is the piece you want people not to notice. In a room where the television is already the largest object, that is often the better call.

Same caveat about the insert specification: the retailer page lists furniture dimensions, not heater wattage. Plan on 1,500 W.

What it does not do: Same caveat as the Reema: no published wattage on the retailer page. Assume the usual 1,500 W ceiling for cost planning, and verify on the box.

This is the finish-choice entry. Home Depot lists it as WECHL22704CO1 in Coastal Oak and WECHL22704MO1 in Mocha, both 70 inches, both freestanding with a fireplace bay, and the line is listed as heating up to 400 square feet.

That 400 square foot number is a supplemental-heat rating, and it is worth reading correctly: it is what the manufacturer says the unit can contribute to, not a claim that it will hold 400 square feet at temperature. The arithmetic behind that distinction is on do they actually heat a room.

A console this wide needs a wall to match. In a room under about 12 feet across it dominates everything else and the fire ends up at ankle height in the middle of the floor.

What it does not do: A console this wide needs a wall to match. In a room under about 12 ft across it dominates everything, and the fireplace ends up at ankle height.

We include it here because a stove genuinely solves a problem consoles cannot: a corner, an alcove, or a room where there is no wall long enough for 70 inches of furniture. At 24 by 23.4 by 13.1 inches it takes almost no floor.

The specification is better documented than any console on this page: 5,200 BTU per hour, 120 V at 12.5 A per the manual, a layered 3D flame across five brightness settings, an adjustable digital thermostat and an overheat shutoff.

What it does not do is hold a television, which is the entire reason most people are on this page. Buy it if the furniture is not the point.

What it does not do: It is a freestanding stove, not an insert. It will not fill a masonry opening and it needs floor space plus clearance in front of the glass door.