Wall Mounted Fire Improvements

Preface

Electric Fires have been around for several years in their various forms and in the last couple of years they have been offered in a wall mounted style. This article examines and reviews the 2014 models.

Introduction

There are two specific fires which this article will focus on, firstly an arched wall mounted electric fire with pebble effect and then a flat version. The former was available in 2012 but the flat version was only available in a smaller (65cm wide) version, this new model is actually 90cm wide!

Basic Operation

The fires operate in a similar nature to their replacement models, they both have three settings

1kw

2kw

Flame only (not heat just the flame effect)

They both come with all fixings, a remote control and instructions.

The level of heat produced is good and the internals have been improved to give a more maintained level of heat, at a more constant temperature.

They have a dimmer function to turn the flame effect up or down and they have a safety thermal cut off in case the vents get blocked etc.

Improvements to note over 2012 models

Operationally the major improvement is the noise, they are quieter than the previous model. The fans have been improved to ensure that they operate as quietly as possible (they are not silent). These fires are now some of the quietest on the market.

As previously discussed the heater elements have been improved to allow for a more constant level of heat.

Physical Appearance

This is where the major differences have been made to the fires. They have been made dramatically thinner. A trend has been set by LCD and now LED TVs in that wall mounted objects should be as thin and close to the wall as possible – this is the most aesthetically pleasing look. If we look at the two models dimensions we can see the differences:

Arched Glass Fire

2012 2013/4

Cm Cm

Width 88.5 88.5

Height 56.0 56.0

Depth 15.5 13.5

Therefore the reduction in Depth is 2cm, that is a 13% in the depth of these fires – and that is that the middle point. Due to these fires being curved the end sections are closer to the wall than the middle, so let's check these dimensions:

2012 2013/4

Cm Cm

Depth at end 8.0 6.0

So, this is a 25% decrease in the depth of the fire and the fire appears now to be hugging the wall, this is very pleasing on the eye and desirable.

IMAGES BELOW - TOP IS OLD FIRE AND BOTTOM IS NEW FIRE! DEPTH CHANGE IS VERY CLEAR!

Flat Electric Fire

We can now assess the new model fire and compare this to the smaller version which was available in 2012, this may seem a little mismatched as the smaller fire was a lot narrower BUT this model is totally new to the market and we want to demonstrate just how flat it is to the wall, so here are the dimensions:

2012 (smaller) 2013/4 (new model)

Cm Cm

Width 66.0 90.0

Height 52.0 56.0

Depth 15.0 9.5

Therefore we can see that the width of these flat fires is now less than 10cm from the wall, they have been reduced by 6.5cm, this is over 43%! A massive change and a credit to the technology employed in these fires.

IMAGES BELOW ARE OF THE NEW FIRES SHOWING THE DEPTH AND APPEARANCE!

Width to Depth Ratios

An important concept with these new fires is the ratio between the width and depth as the lower this is the closer to the wall something will appear:

2012 2013/4

Arched Fire (middle) 18% 15%

Arched Fire (ends) 9% 7%

Flat Fire 23% 10%

So the improvements are clear above, the fires are much closer to the wall and therefore much more pleasing on the eye.