Outdoor electric fireplaces

Outdoor electric fireplaces do not heat. Every genuine one we could find produces no heat at all, and Touchstone states the reason outright: the weatherproof case that lets a unit live outside is the same thing that rules out a heater. These are decorative flame effects drawing 36 to 50 watts — about a hundredth of an indoor unit. Buy one for the light and the look on a covered patio. If you want warmth out there, you need a different appliance entirely.

This is not manufacturers being lazy, and it is worth understanding because it tells you the category will not change. An indoor electric fireplace makes heat with a resistive element and then has to move that heat out of the box — every unit on this site does it with a blower behind a front-facing vent. Vents are openings. Openings are how water, insects and dust get in.

Sealing a case well enough to survive outdoors means closing those openings, and once they are closed there is nowhere for heater output to go except into the electronics. So the trade is forced: you can have a weatherproof case or a heater, not both, at this price and in this form factor. Touchstone says so directly on the Elite Outdoor — no heater, because of the weatherproof protection case.

The consequence is that the search term and the product are pulling in different directions. People type "outdoor electric fireplace" in autumn wanting to sit outside for longer. What is for sale is evening atmosphere. Both are legitimate things to buy — they are just not the same thing, and no listing will tell you before you have paid.

Quick picks: outdoor-rated electric 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 Outdoor/Indoor 50 (80017)Fifty inches of flame for a covered patio at the lowest price here, with a GFI plug and the clearest documentation of the three.	The sensible one	No heaterflame effect only	$649.00 · View on Amazon
2	Touchstone Sideline Elite Outdoor 60 (80049)Sixty inches with app and voice control — and Touchstone states plainly that the weatherproof case is why there is no heater.	Smart control, and the widest	No heaterflame effect only	$1,299.00 · View on Amazon
3	SimpliFire Forum 43" Outdoor Linear (SF-OD43)IP33 in writing, 36 watts, and the best flame specification here — at a price that makes the honesty about heat sting a little more.	The only published weather rating	No heaterflame effect only	$2,259.00 · View on Amazon
—	Touchstone The Sideline 50The indoor Sideline 50 costs less, makes 5,000 BTU, and is the unit people try to put on a patio. It is not rated for it.Skip this one	Nothing outdoors — and it is the mistake people actually make	27.5¢1,500 W · 5,118 BTU	$549.00 · 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.

The running-cost arithmetic on this page is unlike anything else on the site, and it is the one genuinely delightful thing about the category. With no heater, an outdoor unit is essentially a long LED fixture.

So the cost objection that applies to the rest of this category simply does not apply here. You can leave an outdoor electric fireplace on all evening, every evening, and never notice it on a bill. Our running cost calculator will confirm it at your own rate.

Two of the three units here say "weatherproof" without a number attached. One publishes IP33, and that is the only figure in the group you can actually act on. IP ratings are two digits: the first is solids, the second is water.

• IP33 — the Forum. Protected against solids over 2.5 mm, and against water spraying up to 60 degrees from vertical. Covered patio: yes. Open sky and driving rain: no.
• "Weatherproof" with no rating — the Touchstone Elite Outdoor. Almost certainly fine under cover; without a number you are trusting the word.
• A temperature limit is also a rating. Touchstone specifies 70 °C ambient for the 80017 and warns that direct sun behind glass can exceed it. Shade and a cover matter as much as rain does.
• A GFI plug is not a weather rating — it is an electrical safety device. Useful and necessary, but it says nothing about whether water can get into the case.
• None of these are rated for open exposure. Every one is a covered-patio, porch or outdoor-kitchen product.

Then this page is the wrong page, and we would rather say so than sell you a flame. Warmth on a patio comes from radiant appliances built for it — the infrared patio heaters, wall-mounted radiant panels and freestanding units sold for exactly that job. They are a different product category, we do not cover them, and we are not going to pretend an outdoor fireplace substitutes.

The other honest option is to reverse the question. If the space is a three-season porch or an enclosed sunroom rather than a genuinely outdoor patio, it may count as an indoor location — in which case a normal heated unit is on the table, costs less, and does the thing you actually wanted. Check how the space is built and wired before assuming it is outdoors.

1. Accept that it will not heat. If that is a dealbreaker, stop here — no product in this category solves it.
2. Confirm the space is covered. Even IP33 is a spraying-water rating, not an open-sky one.
3. Check the model number, not the photo. Touchstone's indoor 80004 and outdoor 80017 look alike and are not interchangeable.
4. Use a GFCI-protected outdoor circuit, and follow the manufacturer's plug guidance rather than improvising with an extension lead.
5. Plan for a cover. Touchstone's own manual asks for one in hot weather and direct sun.
6. Check stock before committing. All three units here have been showing as low-quantity.