Not interested in a wood stove. I really want a a real wood burning fireplace or else maybe a new gas log kit that looks more realistic with embers and sound effects. I may have to settle for that.
How about this.....does anyone have a gas fireplace that look just as real as a wood burning??? We have only the builder grade cheap fireplace and the flame is so small and is blue. Looks so fake .
I'll give my input. We converted our wood burning insert over to gas logs. We had the wood for years, but I would never go back. There were so many downsides - dirty, wood has to be hauled into the house, wood has to be purchased or cut (cut in our case), and our biggest issue - we stayed sick a lot. Also, the older you get, the less fun it is handling that wood.
I don't have a lot of background information because we probably did it all wrong!
I actually got my logs at
Walmart on clearance for less than $30. They had been between $300 - $400 originally (I found them by accident on a low shelf in the clearance shelf in late Spring). Then we paid somebody (who was licensed) to run the gas (and whatever else you have to do).
There are red glowing embers and a big orange flame (the flame is adjustable). Ours is very realistic and gives off enough heat to take care of things if the power goes out (not going to heat the whole house but enough to keep things from freezing and to keep the living room warm).
One thing I do know is that vented gas logs look more real (ours is vented). You don't have to have a chimney (we do) to have vented logs. I found that out when we were considering buying a house that didn't have a fireplace so I did some investigation because I wanted my gas logs.
ETA: Our logs do have sound but not the popping you mentioned. The plus side to that is that the popping often results in embers popping out onto the rug or floor. With gas logs, that isn't a problem.
...I am so glad he's had somewhere to learn the "right" way to do things. Good luck!!
