What is the most realistic flame effect electric/fire?stove

adzy77

Have you looked at the Dimplex Opti flame on most fires they do (not to be confused with opti myst). The LED ones seem best and are low running costs. We have recently bought the dimplex montclair and its great

vk2003

Why not look at a bioethanol fire? Real flames, no chimney, although they do output some heat (no idea how much)

Pennylane

malc_b wrote: »

Does anyone have one of these optimist? The manual doesn't say how much water is used. I wonder if this is adding a lot of water to the house and so making condensation worse?

We bought the Optimyst Fire a few weeks and while it looks good we have TERRIBLE condensation problems now. We have lived in this house for 20+ years and never, ever had condensation until we purchased this fire.

I am taking it back to the shop this afternoon as the windows (even upstairs) run with water when the fire is on. We never get condensation when we don't have the fire on.

In answer to your question ..... We use filtered water and every single evening when the fire is in use we have to use the whole water container. So it really gobbles up the water and then releases it into the atmosphere. Didn't think about this when we bought it but it makes sense

Pennylane

Returned to store. See my other post.

Fingerbobs

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'm currently in the same quandry as the original poster - need an electric fire with a realistic flame effect.

There seem to be three common types of flame effect: (i) a flat screen with a light effect projected onto it. These are the least convincing in my opinion. (ii) strips of silk blown by a fan. These are pretty good. (iii) the vapour effect ("optimyst") which does look like a real fire, but a real fire running in slow-motion.

While none of these could possibly be mistaken for a real fire, my favourite type is the strips-of-silk type - the problem being identifying which particular fires use this effect!

It's impossible to tell which of these three types of effect a particular fire uses without actually seeing the fire working in a shop, and the ranges on display are usually limited, with often only two or three models actually running.

Can anyone recommend an inset electric fire that uses the stips-of-silk-blowing-in-a-breeze flame effect?

Furts

Fingerbobs wrote: »

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'm currently in the same quandry as the original poster - need an electric fire with a realistic flame effect.

There seem to be three common types of flame effect: (i) a flat screen with a light effect projected onto it. These are the least convincing in my opinion. (ii) strips of silk blown by a fan. These are pretty good. (iii) the vapour effect ("optimyst") which does look like a real fire, but a real fire running in slow-motion.

While none of these could possibly be mistaken for a real fire, my favourite type is the strips-of-silk type - the problem being identifying which particular fires use this effect!

It's impossible to tell which of these three types of effect a particular fire uses without actually seeing the fire working in a shop, and the ranges on display are usually limited, with often only two or three models actually running.

Can anyone recommend an inset electric fire that uses the stips-of-silk-blowing-in-a-breeze flame effect?

My understanding is that Valor and Dimplex are the same company. They used to be competitors. The Valor fires with silk ribbons look good, or as good as one can get for an electric fire.

There is a Valor which uses LED lights to create the silk ribbon effect. This is the future, for at some stage the old light bulbs and ribbons will be deemed obsolete because of energy consumption. I am assuming that you have checked these out. If not give them a look - they are new and I do not think that they are available under the Dimplex name.

I think they are OK and I expect be ordering one for a project during the next few weeks.

Fraise

I think the Dimplex Optymist look good but have too many problems associated with them. You have to keep filling the tank up with distilled water every single day you're using it, and apparently, you get heaps of condensation leading to damp and mould.

They also break down very quickly, they're lifespan is short and they're hellishly expensive to repair. On eBay there is a man advertising all the time, and all he does is Dimplex Optymist Fire REPAIRS. Says it all really.....

Rachylou1981

Very grateful for this thread.

We are wanting to buy an electric stove. We don't want a real one as we are not planning on staying in this house long term.

They can be found really cheap on some websites but we are struggling to see them work in an actual shop. Have heard some complaint reviews about noisy fans with them too. The fireplace shops are starting from £499 which was rather more than we were wanting to pay. A few of these are Opti-myst.

Opti-myst is definitely not going to be an option in light of what I have read here. Our fireplace is going to be treated for damp and so we can't have anything that will create condensation.

Not sure what to do now. We definitely want the stove look as we've had a coal effect gas fire with fire surround for years and want a total change.

Rachylou1981

adzy77 wrote: »

Have you looked at the Dimplex Opti flame on most fires they do (not to be confused with opti myst). The LED ones seem best and are low running costs. We have recently bought the dimplex montclair and its great

This one is Optiflame and looks good, not a bad price either. The only issue is that I don't think we can see before we buy

http://www.thegassuperstore.co.uk/dimplex-stockbridge-optiflame-electric-stove.html?gclid=CNGX04fmmMQCFenJtAod2loA_A#fo_c=81&fo_k=1dfd8bd38c2cf52c04dd6cd189281e9f&fo_s=gplauk

G42

Here's a video from Diplex Website

http://www.dimplex.co.uk/products/fires_surrounds/what_is_the_optiflame_fire_effect.htm