Friends all want my electric heater that looks like a traditional wood burner – but better

Like many people, I love the cosy and inviting feel of a roaring fire, and I adored the real wood burner that came with our last home. But in our new house, for multiple reasons, for my family an electric ‘log burner’ has proven much more practical and affordable than restoring a real period fireplace – and it has already become a welcoming feature that all of our winter guests have commented on and asked about.

After a lot of research on retail sites, blogs, online forums and visits to stores, we finally found the model that hit the sweet spot of looking realistic and attractive while also providing plenty of heat for our living room: the Dimplex Cassia Electric Stove with Optiflame.

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We’ve now been using it for seven weeks, during which time we’ve run it for over 330 hours. While we're still mulling over interior paint colour trends to decide how to decorate our living room, the fireplace has definitely already delivered an aesthetic upgrade. But more importantly than that, as one of the best electric heaters, it’s kept us lovely and warm through storms, sleet and snow. Here are my honest thoughts on its performance.

Dimplex Cassia Electric Stove with Optiflame review

How are its heating capabilities?

Before we bought the ‘fire’, our relatively spacious (21 sq m with high ceilings, big bay window and exposed floorboards) living room was constantly chilly, especially first thing in the morning and after sundown. Now, we switch it on when we come downstairs and within five minutes, the room feels warm enough to shed my dressing gown.

It’s larger and more powerful than some other electric fireplaces, at 2 kilowatts (2kW) when on full blast, or 1kW on half-power. Heat is delivered from a fan heater underneath the legs, which is smaller than you might imagine, but surprisingly effective. On mornings when the kids drag me downstairs before dawn (and before the central heating kicks in), we put it on full blast to warm our toes as quickly as possible but then turn it down by breakfast time, if not before.

The Dimplex Cassia also has a dial to turn to adjust the temperature, and an internal thermostat that means the fan heater will automatically power down once the air reaches the ideal temperature, and power back on if it cools down again. The thermostat is a neat feature that helped sell it to us, but as there are no numbers on the dial it’s more of a feel-as-you-go rather than a case of specifying an exact temperature, like you do on your main home thermostat.

If you want more precise control over your electric heater’s temperature, you could consider the Dyson Purifier Hot + Cool HP1, which also has smart app control.

What’s it like to use?

The Dimplex Cassia is so simple to use that my toddler can operate it. There’s a switch to power it on, then another switch that you press once for the flame effect-only, twice for 1kW fan and three times for 2kW fan power.

The remote control follows the same system, with beeps and either one, two or three red LED lights flashing up for around 30 seconds to confirm your selection. You can then turn the dial if you’d like to increase or decrease the temperature, like adjusting the volume on an analogue hi-fi.

If I’m being picky, I would love it even more if you could turn on the heat with just one button press. It’s also a little annoying that to turn it from full blast to half-power or flame-only, you have to first turn the heater off and then cycle through the settings. Three buttons corresponding to each setting would be simpler to use – but, as I say, I’m being picky.

How realistic is it?

The Optiflame effect is as mesmerising as watching real flames – it has the same soothing movement, and you can almost feel it licking the back of the stove. We love it so much that we’ve had it on every morning and evening for the past seven weeks, using just the flame effect in milder weather for a cosy and calming feel without the heat. I love its flexibility in that regard.

The ‘logs’ themselves look realistic, with knotted wood-like patterns and red glitter resembling glowing embers in all the right places.

Of course, if you want an even more realistic effect then there’s a more expensive option – namely one of Dimplex’s Optimyst models, such as the Dimplex Bayport Optimyst. These use water vapour to create more of a 3D flame effect, which owners rave about as being the closest thing to a real fire.

The elephant in the (nice and toasty) room is the fact that the ‘flames’ don’t give out any heat – it’s the concealed fan heater underneath that does that. The benefit of this is that you can touch the doors and the top of the stove and they won’t be at all hot, so it’s lovely and safe for our young children, pets and visitors. The downside is that fan heaters can be noisy, and when it’s on full-blast we do have to turn the TV up a couple of notches. It’s not really annoying, but you do notice the relative quiet when it switches itself off.

Installation

On our wishlist was a heater that wouldn’t require an electrician to come and rig it up, so the fact that the Dimplex Cassia just plugs into the mains socket and is ready to use straight away was a dream come true.

It’s a big model that fills the width of our generous chimney breast nicely, but I was surprised at how lightweight it is. It’s made of plastic, steel and MDF, so I easily got it out of its box and polystyrene trappings and into place without my partner’s help.

While easy to install, the downsides of these are that you have a power lead to either live with or try to conceal with clever panelling tricks or strategic holes in walls or fireplace surrounds. And while the plastic is sturdy and looks as good as cast iron from a distance, it does attract dust and doesn’t feel as high-quality as a traditional wood burner.

Why choose an electric stove over a real wood burner?

As a former log burner user, and someone who grew up with coal fires, I do appreciate the charm of a real roaring fire. It feels nostalgic, cosy and soporific to gaze into the flames. So I'll admit I was skeptical when my partner first suggested getting an electric fire.

But I also care deeply about the environment, and the health of other humans, and recent UK studies have linked wood-burning stoves and fires in homes to 2,500 early deaths, 3,700 cases of diabetes and 1,500 cases of asthma per year. Last week, the UK government revealed plans for new wood burners to carry health warnings about the air pollution they cause, and to limit the impact of new models.

Even before these studies and guidance, more people have been moving away from traditional log burners in recent years. Where they were once rumoured to increase the value of your home, the rise of clean air zones prohibiting smoke from chimneys has led many of us to seek alternative solutions.

Lecture over, I personally find it so easy and convenient to simply flick a switch and get a blast of heat that warms the room in the time it takes me to brew a pot of coffee in the morning. I love that we can keep the flame effect on for a welcoming feel without the heat, and that we never have to empty ashes from a grate or worry about embers scorching the rug or ‘popping’ out onto a person.

On colder days, my work from home heating hack is to head into the living room and switch the fire on for a couple of extra hours – much more economical than central heating the whole house just for myself.