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Nothing beats a 'real' fireplace fire with burning wood. I absolutely love the real deal even with all the downsides. My grown kids all have instant (remote) gas fired fireplaces and I can't stand the smell. Apples and oranges .....
We relocated back up North due to my husbands job, but our home in NC has a wood burning fire place. Nothing like Cedar or Cherry burning during the Winter looking at falling snow flakes! Boy, do I miss my fireplace!
Don't care one way or the other about having a fireplace really (I guess it is better for resale) but if I'm going to have one; I'd rather it be the real deal. I have a fireplace surounded by built-ins now which is a good look but it's unfortunately a gas fireplace.
I agree with the person above who said they hate the smell of a gas fireplace. That smell gives me a headache. I like the smell that a wood-burining fireplace gives off though.
I love a wood burning fireplace, and had one in my last home. But I rarely used it. I have a gas fireplace in my current home and use it all the time. Flip a switch, instant fire. Want to go out or go to bed? Flip a switch. For me, the convenience outweighs the sound and smell from the wood burning fireplace.
I had a real wood fireplace in my first house and never used it. I considered it too much work and didn't want the lingering smoke smell in my house.
My second house had a gas fireplace and I loved it! We used it throughout the winter and found it heated up our downstairs nicely so we didn't have to run the heat as high.
Our new (3rd) house also has a gas fireplace and I know we'll use it just as much as our last house. I don't notice a smell at all as others have noted.
You gotta commit to wood, where with gas you can just use the thing for 20 minutes if you want.
This summed up my thoughts before I got a chance to try
I love the smell, crackle, and quirks of an old school wood fire, but I don't like the commitment, the maintenance, the mess, the wood storage, etc.
The smell of anything (good or bad) loses its luster quickly as the nose adapts. I have smelled gas fireplaces before but I think they were improperly installed (and even if they do smell the owner probably gets used to it and cannot smell it after the first day or so). I have also seen gas fireplaces that had poor heat output and didn't add a lot of ambiance / character to the room, but I have also seen good gas fireplace installs that had plenty of heat and beauty.
But at the end of it all, in this area at least, gas fireplaces end up winning, because the beauty and ambiance is easily achievable, cost to operate is laughably low, heat output is typically more than adequate (since they are usually not the only source of heat in the home), and most homeowners do not want to regularly invest time in the startup and wind-down of a real fire.
Convenience wins out in this case. Some of these ceramic logs are visually indistinguishable to the naked eye, and are a joy to own. There's nothing less real about the actual fire. Only less trees killed.
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