The 7 Best Electric Fireplaces that Crackle

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The sounds of live fire can be comforting, but building a live fire in your home isn’t always convenient or possible.  Fortunately, electric fireplaces make it possible to have realistic looking and sounding fires in your home without mess or danger.  

If you already own an electric fireplace or fireplace insert that doesn’t have that satisfying crackle,  the Adagio Crackler System is fantastic addition. It’s easy to use and portable. Volume control allows you to have a roaring fire or gentle background noise. Create instant ambiance with your electric fireplace with sounds to match.

The Best Electric Fireplaces with Natural Crackling Sounds

1)56” Brighton Coffee Black Electric Fireplace Media Cabinet

56" Brighton Coffee Black Electric Fireplace Media Cabinet
56″ Brighton Coffee Black Electric Fireplace Media Cabinet

This cabinet fireplace is perfect for smaller homes and apartments, providing stylish storage and a glorious fire. Infrared quartz technology helps retain natural humidity in the air for extra comfort. The fire’s brightness is adjustable to your liking with several color ways to cycle through. Family movie nights are made that much cozier with this crackling fireplace.

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The 5 Best Electric Fireplace Inserts

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Electric fireplace inserts are an efficient way to heat the heart of your home. They come in a variety of styles, with a variety of features. To choose the best electric fireplace insert for you, decide what’s important to you. Are you looking for realistic flame? How about that cozy crackle sound that real wood fires provide?

At Portable Fireplace.com, we pride ourselves on offering high quality fireplaces and inserts, at the best prices guaranteed. We’ve gathered this list of our best electric fireplace inserts, with different styles and unique features, so you can keep toasty all year-round.

1)25” Dimplex Acrylic Ice Contemporary Electric Fireplace Insert

25" Dimplex Acrylic Ice Electric Fireplace Insert
25″ Dimplex Acrylic Ice Electric Fireplace Insert

This stunning insert features shimmering acrylic ice embers that create a multi-color adjustable light display. The heat radius reaches up to 1,000 feet, ideal for heating living areas. The front of the box remains cool to the touch, making this insert a safe choice for families. Sustainable and energy efficient, this insert costs pennies to run and its LED lights require zero upkeep.  Enjoy the calming flame effect with or without heat, for a soothing visual experience any day of the year.

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Which Electric Fireplace Insert is the Best?

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Electric fireplace inserts are the quick, modern solution to update your fireplace so that you can enjoy a cozy night by the fire, any night of the week. An electric fireplace insert fits into your existing mantel or fireplace. Inserts are designed to provide a realistic experience with faux logs and glowing lights, and even, the comforting crackle, with none of the mess. Use our guide to help you find the perfect electric insert for your home.

Top Rated Electric Inserts

Each of our fireplace inserts has been carefully chosen for its high quality, but these inserts have been rated our top inserts by you, our customers. At portablefireplace.com, we’re the fireplace experts, but only you know what you want in style and features for your home.

16” Dimplex Opti-Myst Cassette Fireplace Insert

16" Dimplex Opti Myst Cassette Fireplace Insert
16″ Dimplex Opti Myst Cassette Fireplace Insert

This deceptively simple insert provides up to 12 hours of warmth and realistic looking flame and “smoke.” Quick set up with a remote allows you to place, fill the water reservoir, and enjoy your fireplace within minutes.

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Fireplace Inserts: What You Need to Know

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What is a Fireplace Insert?

What is a Fireplace Insert
Installation of the Dimplex Revillusion is as simple as plugging it in

A fireplace insert is a unit that’s installed into a pre-existing wood or stone fireplace, and serves as the primary heating element. An insert typically includes the interior walls of the fireplace, a grate, and life-like logs that are made of materials such as resin.

The first fireplace inserts were invented in 1896 by Joab R. Donaldson. These early inserts used smokeless coke fuel—a derivative of distilling coal—and used an electric blower to make the insert more efficient.

Early fireplace inserts were adopted and used primarily by low-income coal mining families because the coal could be procured from their own backyards. There are many varieties of inserts and can be categorized by fuel type.

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Tabletop Fireplaces: What is the Difference between Bioethanol Liquid Fuel and Gel Fuel?

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When shopping for a tabletop fireplace, you need to learn about the different ways such fireplaces are fueled. Most tabletop fireplaces use either bioethanol liquid fuel or alcohol gel fuel. I created an organized presentation of the differences between the two types of fuels.

Two important considerations to note:

  • Fueling methods for devices are not interchangeable. Tabletop fireplaces are designed specifically to utilize only one type of fuel. The owner’s manual will specify which fuel to use.
  • These fuels create REAL flames, just like those created by wood burning. Therefore, fuels and flames should be kept away from pets and children.

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Pearl Mantels: Dedicated to Home and Hearth

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For humankind throughout the ages, a fireplace and mantel have evoked a sense of warmth, stability, safety… home. It is, and should be, the centerpiece of a room. As important as the raw, organic flame, the mantel that surrounds it should be beautiful.

Pearl Mantels has but one passion, creating mantels that are the perfect complement to provocative, glittering flames. In fact, the company has dedicated itself to the art of fireplace mantel design for over 20 years. Their artisans and craftsmen, like the ones of yore, lovingly hand cut and polish each mantel. Overseen by the master artist herself, Mother Nature, the mantels often retain the rudimental features only she can imbue. Her exquisite and sensual touches to wood make each mantel a one-of-kind piece of art.

Many of Pearl’s mantels are made from live edge wood. Live edge wood furniture is created by retaining the original lines of the tree trunk, including edges, knots, gnarls and holes. This technique elicits the innate glory of the tree. The master of this technique was woodworker and architect George Nakashima, who believed that furniture could evince “the soul of a tree.” (See his 1981 memoir: The Soul of a Tree: A Master Woodworker’s Reflections

The Soul of a Tree by George Nakashima

George Nakashima’s book “The Soul of a Tree: A Master Woodworker’s Reflections”

Featured below are some of Pearl Mantels original mantel designs:
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Guide to Ethanol Fireplaces

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Ethanol fireplaces are fireplaces that burn using bio ethanol fuel, a renewable fuel source that’s only by-products are heat, carbon dioxide, and steam, making it an eco-friendly alternative to traditional fireplaces. Bio ethanol, or gel fireplaces as they’re sometimes referred to as, give off of the warmth of an authentic flame while eliminating the emissions released into the air by traditional gas or wood burning fireplaces.

Bio ethanol only gives off carbon dioxide, similar to burning candles indoors, so they don’t require a flu or chimney in most cases. As with any other source of flame like candles or wood fires, it is not recommended to burn ethanol flames indoors in non-ventilated rooms for extended periods of time because of the carbon dioxide. Aside from this, bio ethanol fireplaces are completely safe to be used indoors or outdoors.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when shopping for an ethanol fireplace.
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History of the Electric Fireplace

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The history of electric fireplaces is more interesting, and perhaps a bit longer than some might think at first. From its belittling introduction to the majestic marble mantle-clad wonders of today, knowing this history will make you unable to look at your electric fireplace the same way again.

Humble Origins Among the Stars

Traversing the ages, fire has been a common theme in man’s journey and advancement, especially in technological improvements. While the electric fireplace sits relatively late in the table of harnessing fire, it can claim to be an important innovation, rightly deserving to be made a part of the modern home. But for the first electric fires in 1912, the play was their restriction.

First Electric Fireplaces in Theater Productions

Electric fires were first used in theatre productions like this one – By Central Litho. & Eng. Co. (signed) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons; available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID var.1527.; image is a reproduction, also in the public domain.

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Calculating BTU’s Per Square Foot

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The British Thermal Unit, or BTU, is the Imperial system’s basic unit of heat. One BTU is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. When you’re able to determine how many BTUs per square foot of space a room requires, you’ll can pick a heating device with the right heating capacity for your home.

Calculating BTU

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Do electric fireplaces really work?

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Staying warm can be done efficiently, affordably, and aesthetically through the use of an electric fireplace. It’s commonly and incorrectly assumed that electric fireplaces can’t produce any heat; however, many models can produce anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 British Thermal Units (BTU’s) of heat. This may not be enough to warm your entire home, but it is certainly enough heat to warm up a small apartment or an entire home living room.

Dimplex Prism Wall Mount Electric Fireplace

The best-selling electric linear fireplace just got better with the all new Prism Series. View the all new Dimplex Prism Wall Mount Electric Fireplace with 4,198 BTUs.

What is an Electric Fireplace?

An electric fireplace is a heater that uses electricity to work, rather than a traditional fireplace that burns coal, wood, or natural gas. The electric fireplace is present in many modern homes, as it is better for the environment while also just as effective and aesthetic as the traditional counterpart.
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