7 Best Fireplace Inserts Consumer Ratings & Reports 2023

You have a fireplace in your home but you don’t use it- why?

Because they are not as efficient as they use to be and do not make warm your home to cut your electricity bills.

I have seen many households complaining about the hassle it requires for lighting the fire and then cleaning up the mess or the ashes afterward.

Listen, nothing warms your home as good as Fireplaces, they are designed in a way to produce a uniform cozy warm experience in winters.

To help you enjoy the warmness and coziness of your fireplaces minus the ashes and mess it produces is Fireplaces inserts.

With a fireplace insert, you can enjoy easy roaring and a crackling fire in your fireplace without spreading any mess.

Plus, with them, you would be cutting your electricity bills, as they would be as efficient as electric heaters in the production and transmission of heat.

Fireplace inserts come in a variety of designs and styles. It becomes hard to decide and pick the best.

I am going to do the heavy lifting for you, in this post, I am going to review the top best fireplace inserts to help you pick the best one as per your needs. So without further ado, let’s get started.

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QUICK PICKS

Here are the top-rated products we picked out that you would be interested in depending on your budget…

Best Fireplace Inserts Consumer Ratings & Reports

These are the 7 best fireplace inserts based on consumer ratings and reports 2023.

1. ClassicFlame Infrared Quartz Fireplace Insert

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If you like traditional fireplaces and want the feeling of wooden logs with visuals, this is the Fireplace insert you should go with.

We are moving backward, now we eat organic food, love classic things, mud-constructed homes and the same goes with the fireplace.

This fireplace insert gives your modern home a contemporary look as well as sufficient heating.

This classic fireplace inserter shares 5200 BTU heating, plus zone controls. It can heat around 1,000 square feet of area and comes with a timer.

You can easily set the heating time, and the heater shuts off automatically without you being involved in the operations manually.

It provides five brightness settings for the running flame effect. You can pick your favorite flame effect with color brightness adjustment.

In other words, this fireplace can turn your home ready for any occasion or festival by just changing the fame color and its brightness.

It comes with a multifunctional remote that allows you to change the heat settings, zone settings, flame setting, and brightness level. It allows you to change the temperature between 60-degree F to 90-Degree F.

For me, its most astounding feature is the timer setting. If you know that it’s cozy around and you could fall asleep anytime, and it is dangerous to sleep with the heat turned on, you can set the timer. In that way, the Fireplace insert will automatically turn off at the set time.

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2. Duluth Forge FDF400RT-ZC Dual Fuel Ventless Fireplace

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If you are looking for reliable and flexible fireplace inserts that adopt every home’s heating needs, this is the option you get hands-on.

It is easier to use in homes even with the kids and pets around, it is cool on touch, and it would not terrify your pets, they can easily see it throughout the night without any worry.

But in performance and usability what makes it stand out? Its feature allows dual-fuel technology which allows you to use either gas or propane liquid as a fuel. You can use different fuel types even in liquids to cut your cost.

As per the manufacturer’s claims, it is sufficient to heat even a large living open space around 1500 square feet.

You would not have to buy another insert to make your area cozy warm for yourself and your family. It also features a remote control; the variable remote control helps you control the heat.

The product is also going to save you lots of money in terms of electricity bills. It offers 99.99% energy-efficient operation and emits almost no harmful particles or airborne to impact your health badly.

It comes with an oxygen depletion sensor that automatically detects the lack of oxygen in the surroundings and turns off automatically.

By all means, this fireplace insert is one of the best options for households where kids and pets roam around. It is safe, comes with greater versatility and convenience, and is easy to use.

It cuts your electricity prices down to minimal, and built-in oxygen depletion sensors sense the oxygen level indoors.

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3. DIMPLEX Electric Fireplace Insert

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If you have a small space of up to 400 square feet and looking for a reliable and compact designed electric fireplace, this is the best option to get hands-on. This fireplace gives a realistic look to your home and heats the space quite well.

It comes powered with electric fame patented technology, this pulsating ember with hand-finishing logs showcases real-wood logs with incredible realism.

In other words, it helps you not only warm your space or surrounding but your soul as well. It includes on/off fame control that controls the flame speed and helps you set the right brightness for your heater.

This electric fireplace insert comes with a powerful fan-forced heater. This heater keeps the room warm, cozy, and comfortable. You can reduce the central furnace temperature and cut costs easily.

If you don’t like the LED logs and ember dance and glow, it comes with multi-fame technology that allows you to change the logs and produces the desired flame effect.

This Electric fireplace inserts come with no harmful particles or airborne released in your indoors. It is green and comes with no such emissions which could be harmful to you.

It is 100-percent safe and efficient to be used in a home with kids and pets around. There will be no flame or heat emission out, the outer shell is made of glass, cool on touch. If someone touches it accidentally, there will be no harm at all.

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4. Drolet Escape 1800 Wood Insert

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If you have tested lots of inserts but nothing did really work for you, and now you want to buy something reliable and cover it with a lifetime warranty, this is the fireplace insert you can go with.

It comes with a lifetime warranty that assures you if anything bad happens, or if the fireplace did not work as was promised, and you got covered for the loss.

Plus, it is safe to use in a home with kids and pets around. It is both UL and EPA certified, you can have this installed in your home, nothing to worry about even if your kid or pet touches it, cold on touch.

It is a wood fireplace insert, it comes with a slot that holds and burns the firewood you put. It is pretty spacious, easily fits up to 20-inches logs into it.

Plus, when burning the wood fire logs, it leaves all the other options in the dust, so that you only enjoy the heat output.

It allows you to change the heat as per your needs. For instance, if you don’t want to heat the entire space, and use only a limited area of your indoor space, you can prevent it from having a full blast.

You can adjust the heat between 500-square feet to 2100 square feet depending on your needs.

It comes with a premium, heavy-duty constructed door latch. This latch prevents the flames inside and constrains them within the wood insert.

The only negative side of using it is installation. To install it you require professional experience.

As you require a masonry fireplace for emissions in the outlet. And its assembly is pretty hard, which requires professional expertise.

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5. Touchstone the Sideline Electric Fireplace

If you are looking for a wall mounting electric fireplace insert that provides a cozy and toasty environment indoors, go with Touchstone electric fireplace. It produces realistic flames; you will have visuals of real firewood burning as well as cracking sounds.

Moreover, it allows you to change the flame intensity as well as they look. You can switch it from ember glow to an intense blaze, as well as the brightness up to 4 different levels.

It comes with a remote control that allows you to change the flame, its intensity, as well as whether you want logs or crystals, or a mix of both.

This contemporary designed wall mounting electric fireplace is great for those who like mess-free heating production.

You can simply install it on a wall, and without any mess, smoke or ashes around can get required heating without any issue.

This electric fireplace designed by Touchstone is designed to provide heating up to 400 square feet area.

That means, it would not be able to produce heat for a larger sized home but a big sized room or a small area like drawing or others.

This too comes with a built-in timer, so sleeping with this electric fireplace would be a no-brainer. You can use the built-in timer and set it to be turned off after 30-minutes to 7.5 hours.

But, we don’t recommend a 7-hours auto turn-off if you are just falling asleep, because it is dangerous to sleep on with an electric heater on.

It comes with a year-long warranty, to give you a sigh of relief, in case it does not work you got covered.

Plus, its installation is a breeze too, I don’t think you would hire professional expertise to install it, by reading the user manual you can do that without any issue.

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6. R.W.FLAME Electric Fireplace

If you are looking for a slim-designed, aesthetically appealing constructed wall-mounted electric Fireplace Insert, this is the product you should get your hands on. It is great even for the basements, preventing you from freezing down.

It is good for a 400-square feet area, comes with remote control, and allows you easily tweak through different functions to enjoy a customized heating experience.

This is actually a remodeled version, the previous one was thicker around 6 inches and this one with just 3-inches thickness takes the tiniest space out of your drawing room, movie theater, or basement to enjoy the winters.

It comes with a touchscreen as well as a remote controlling feature. So, without getting out of your comfort zone you can change the heating setting, flame setting, speed modes, and flame brightness level too. It has 12-flames and LED flame color modes, five speeds, and brightness.

It Looks sleek and slim even for the ladies to easily shift it when they relocate the space. The new model comes with easy to turn on/off buttons which were not convenient in the previous model.

In an older model in recessed installation, the buttons were hard to access. In the latest model, this issue has been fixed and you can access them in wall mounted as well as recessed mode.

related: best electric fireplace

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7. Drolet Escape 1500-I wood insert with faceplate

If you have a large living space and looking for an ideal unit for heating a large space, this is the option you should get hands-on.

It is pretty powerful in terms of producing heat, but at the use of minimal resources. It is a medium-sized fireplace insert; it does not require too much space.

There is more than one thing to like and praise about this insert. The most highlighted one is that it uses a second combustion system which is capable of heating your living space quite effectively.

As per the brand’s claims, the unit can easily produce heat up to 65000 BTU, which can easily warm an area around 1800 square feet.

I love its minimum energy consumption; it allows you to have an effective heating solution without consuming too much energy.

It is an EPA-certified model that has minimum carbon footprints. That means, indoors you would not be inhaling lots of carbon footprints. Plus, it has a blower and back faceplate to further elevate your experience.

The only downside is that is pretty heavy. It is hard for a single person to lift it up. And if you live on the second or third floor, maybe you have to hire labor to get this done.

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Fireplace Inserts Buying Guide

Fireplace inserts may look like Fireplaces but they are not the same. They cost way much less than the entire renovation of the fireplace, but without breaking the bank help you change the ambiance of your room, plus the benefits of heating.

In this section, we are going to help you learn what makes a fireplace insert stand out. By reading this tiny portion, you would be able to buy one for yourself without any big trouble.

Types

Type is the first thing you should decide. Learn the types of fireplaces and pick what you require for your home.

1. Natural GAS

If you don’t want to deal with the clean-up ashes in the morning, go with natural gas designed or electric inserts. They are very popular, convenient and cheap as well. Here a gas line can be connected to your fireplace to light the flames.

Gas-type fireplaces come in vented and ventless options. The vented options take oxygen from our home and expel the gas from the same pathway. The ventless are more efficient, they warm up the space quicker but at the same time are harmful.

2. Electric Fireplace inserts

Electric fireplaces same like gas types connect to the electric powerful outlet. They look like logs and come with many flames control or brightness control features.

3. Wood

Wood inserts are designed to burn wood fire logs. They are hard to manage, you will have to clean up the ashes in the morning, start the fire.

But it’s the real and live experience of watching the fire, and it can never be placed with anything else.

Durability

A fireplace insert is an investment. And the vitally important aspect whenever you do investment is durability.

You should check the construction of the fireplace insert, and check if it can run for a long-time making it a worthy investment for you?

Ventilation System

Ventilation is going to have a direct impact on you. If you are buying an insert with ventilation, the smoke or exhaust will leave directly. With a ventless system, you would not have an open channel system for the exhaustion of the smoke.

So, if you have kids around, or if any of your family members suffer from asthma, go with a vented system. Because here, the CO2 will directly go out of your house, without suffocating those already suffering from breathing issues.

Flame levels, and other settings

If it’s an electric insert, you should also check its flame level, brightness, and controls. With these controls, you can easily change the flame type or style, or its brightness to make it look good as per the needs or requirements.

Remote control

Remote allows you easily control the functionality of your insert. Without leaving your toasty, warm and comfortable space, you can increase or decrease the temperature, its flame setting, use the timer to turn it off after a set amount of time passes, or turn it off.

Final Verdict

If your fireplace is not as functioning as it uses to be and does not qualify for your needs, and you are thinking of upgrading it with a new one. Wait, rather than renovating the entire fireplace you can buy an inserter and get the same functionality as a new or upgraded Fireplace.

In this long guide, we provided you with the best fireplace inserters. These are the top-rated and most-followed options to make your purchase help you provide the most out of them.

We can hope that you liked this guide, and this guide helps you pick the most suitable option for you.

FAQs About Fireplace Inserts

Does A Wood Stove Insert Need Electricity?

The answer to this question depends. If you don’t want the blower to run, a wood stove insert can run without electricity.

But mostly you require electricity to run the built-in blower for enhanced efficiency and maximum heat disruption.

Will there be any smell of burning?

If you are using a wood-burning stove or gas, there will be a smell.

If you don’t want this faint smell, you may go with electric inserts because they rely on electricity and you would not have any smell or hassle of burning, etc.

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