Best Electric Fireplace Inserts of 2025
They may not look super-real, but we've found some that can help keep you cozy
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There’s nothing quite like the warmth of a roaring fire to cozy up your living room—both literally and figuratively. But not everyone is lucky enough to have a working fireplace. And if yours happens to be the wood-burning variety, there are downsides to its charm (among them messiness, inconsistent heat output, and environmental pollution).
An electric fireplace insert just may change the way you think of sitting by the fire. Most models provide warmth to drafty spaces while at the same time simulating the appearance of the real thing. Just how realistic those faux logs and projected flames look is up to you.
Best Electric Fireplace Inserts
Four products rose to the top in our testing; three are designed to be mounted in a wall or other surround, and one is a stand-alone model.
What an Electric Fireplace Insert Is and Why You Might Want One
A self-contained electric fireplace insert is designed to fit into an existing unused or nonfunctioning fireplace or a custom-built enclosure. Using electricity to produce heat, fireplace inserts intentionally replicate the look and feel of a traditional wood-burning or gas fireplace but don’t require a chimney or vents, and plug into a standard outlet for power. They are available in a variety of styles, often with several heat settings and features like adjustable flame intensity, colors, and even “crackling” sound effects.
“I think that most consumers are looking for the visual aspect of having a fireplace without an actual fire, for whatever reason, be it safety, health, or convenience,” says Bernie Deitrick, the CR engineer who oversaw our tests of fireplace inserts. “The models we tested all have fake-looking flames, but the models with the most options have the highest likelihood of offering something that the consumer may be happy with.” While the models we tested can be used with or without heat and can take the chill off a cool room, they’re not designed to serve as a primary heat source.
What to Look For in a Fireplace Insert (and How They Look)
All the models we tested are electric and use a nominal 1,500 watts (about the same as a standard electric space heater, Deitrick says), so we did not incorporate a comparison of power consumption in our tests. But there are other things to consider when shopping for a fireplace insert, including size, cost, installation, and—not least—overall aesthetics.
Size: Tested inserts range in size from 24 inches to 36 inches wide, so you’ll want one proportionate to your space or that fits comfortably in your unused fireplace.
Price: The models we tested range in price from about $230 to over $900. But we didn’t see a correlation between price and performance: Our top-scoring models include both the least and the most expensive models we tested.
Installation: The installation of most built-in models requires some “not insignificant effort,” Deitrick says. They can be installed in existing fireplace openings, attached to framing studs (a minimum of 8 inches is recommended between the top of the unit and a TV or mantel), or in the case of the first three featured above, inserted into manufacturers’ consoles. All the models we tested can be plugged into a common 120-volt electrical outlet, but you may need an electrician to add or move power to the particular spot where you wish to locate your fireplace.
It’s safe to say that choosing an electric fireplace in lieu of the real thing is a matter of personal preference. If you’re a purist, these products aren’t for you. If, however, you like the idea of approximating the look and feel of a warm fire, you’ll want to consider the overall appearance of the models we recommend: how real the logs look and how they are configured, how the flames are projected, whether flames flicker realistically, and/or whether a model features sound. Here’s a live look at the fireplaces that scored at the top of our ratings.
Our Top-Rated Fireplace Inserts in Action
How CR Tests Fireplace Inserts
CR rates fireplace inserts on criteria that encompass functionality and how well they heat a room and the people in it.
For functionality, we look at options, which refer to the variables that you can control, and how easily you can do it. “We looked at ember and flame appearance, colors, and variable intensity,” Deitrick says. The warmer the flame color (red, orange, yellow) the more realistic the appearance. Blue hues tended to feel more dramatic but less authentic.
Because all of the models can be operated with a remote, we evaluate ease of use by assessing how intuitive the controls are, and how clearly values are displayed as you change them.
We also test the heaters on how well they heat up a standard-sized room (“room heating” in our ratings) and how good they are at heating a person directly in the same amount of time (“spot heating” in our ratings). Our spot-heating test uses a mannequin wired with sensors, so we can determine how your body will feel when you’re sitting within 4.5 feet of the product. While we don’t test the inserts for safety in the same way we do space heaters (because inserts are unlikely to tip over), remember that the vents on these appliances do get hot, so use caution around pets and children.
Most of the models earned a very good CR rating for noise, and those that didn’t typically had other shortcomings.
