Electactic 24" Electric Fireplace Stove Review: Cozy looks, decent heat, a few quirks

I picked up the Electactic 24" electric fireplace stove because my main heating doesn’t quite keep up in one room, and I wanted something that looks nicer than a basic space heater. I’ve used small ceramic heaters before, and they usually either blast hot air like a hairdryer or barely warm the room. I wanted something that could run for hours, look like a small fireplace, and not sound like a jet engine.

I’ve been using this stove mainly in a medium-sized living room and occasionally dragging it into a home office. So far, I’ve run it in the morning to take the edge off the cold and in the evening for a few hours while watching TV. I’ve used both the low and high heat modes, played with the flame settings, and used the remote and timer pretty regularly.

Overall, it’s not perfect, but it does what I bought it for: it adds heat and makes the room feel more cozy than a plain plastic heater. The flame effect is better than I expected at this price, and the heat output is solid for a 1500W unit, as long as your expectations are realistic. It’s not going to replace a full central heating system in a big, drafty house, but it can help a lot in one room.

If you’re thinking about it as a mix between decoration and a practical heater, that’s the right mindset. If you expect it to heat your whole house or turn an ice-cold 1,000 sq ft open space into a sauna in 10 minutes, you’ll be disappointed. Used as a supplemental heater in a normal-sized room, it’s pretty solid.

Price-wise, this sits above the cheap $30–$40 plastic space heaters, but below the high-end electric fireplaces and wall inserts. So the big question is: are you getting enough extra to justify the higher price? In my opinion, if you only care about raw heat and don’t care about looks at all, a plain ceramic tower heater will warm a room similarly for less money. But it will look like a boring appliance you’ll want to hide in a corner.

Where this Electactic stove makes more sense is if you want something that doubles as decor and a heater. You’re paying for the metal body, the fake log set, the curved flame screen, and the extra features like multi-color flames, thermostat, timer, and remote. For that combo, the value is pretty decent. It’s not dirt cheap, but you’re also not paying luxury prices. The build feels sturdy enough that I’d expect it to last several winters if you don’t abuse it.

Compared to some other electric stove-style fireplaces in the same range, it stacks up well: similar heat output, similar or better flame effects, and the top-vent design that avoids cooking the floor. Some competitors might have slightly quieter fans or different styles, but you’re in the same ballpark. If you catch it on sale, it becomes a fairly good deal for what it offers.

If your budget is tight and you honestly don’t care how it looks, you can save money with a basic heater. But if you want something you don’t mind looking at every day, that adds some ambiance and still helps with the cold, the price feels reasonable. I wouldn’t say it’s a steal, but for a combination of heat + aesthetics + features, the value is solid.

Design-wise, this thing leans more toward a classic stove look than a modern glass-panel fireplace. The black cast iron-style body, the little door-style front with windows on the sides, and the pedestal legs give it a decent fake-wood-stove vibe. It’s not high-end furniture, but sitting in a living room corner it looks way better than the typical white or gray plastic space heater. If you care about aesthetics at all, that’s one of the main reasons to consider it.

The size is pretty reasonable: about 23.5" wide, 10.7" deep, and 24.3" high. So it’s not tiny, but it also doesn’t dominate the room. It fits well under a window or against a blank wall section. I’d say it looks proportional in a living room or bedroom; in a very small room it might feel a bit big but still manageable. Weight-wise, at around 33 pounds, it feels solid but still movable for an adult. You’re not going to want to drag it up and down stairs every day, but shifting it from living room to office is doable.

The top vent design is one of the main changes compared to older models where the heat blew out the bottom. In practice, the top vent makes sense: you’re not cooking your carpet or floor, and the heat spreads out into the room better. The downside is you can’t use the top as a shelf or cat bed anymore, because it gets pretty warm when the heat is on. If you have pets that like to lie right in front of heaters, they’ll probably just sit a little in front of it instead of on it.

Overall, in terms of looks and layout, I’d call it pretty solid for the price. It doesn’t scream luxury, but it doesn’t scream cheap either. The only mildly annoying thing is the back intake: you need to plan placement so it has airflow and doesn’t just sit flush against a wall. Once you accept that, the design is practical enough for daily use and looks decent in most rooms.

Comfort here is more than just temperature. It’s also about how the thing looks and sounds while you’re trying to relax. The nice part is that you can fully adjust the flame brightness and speed, plus the color of both the flames and the logs. There are 4 colors for each and 5 brightness levels, so you can go from a low, warm glow to a more bright, fake-fireplace look. At night, I usually set it to a warmer color and lower brightness; that gives a decent background glow without lighting up the whole room.

The option to run the flames without heat is genuinely useful. On days when it’s not that cold but you want a bit of atmosphere, you can just leave the flame effect on. It sounds cheesy, but it actually does make the room feel cozier, especially if you’re reading or watching TV. The curved screen helps the flames look more 3D than older models I’ve seen, but obviously, it’s still a fake flame. From across the room it looks fine; if you stare at it up close, you can tell it’s an LED effect.

The fan, like I mentioned, isn’t silent. If you’re the type who needs total quiet to sleep or work, it might bother you at higher speeds. On the lowest fan speed, it’s more of a soft background noise that I got used to after a couple of days. The remote adds to comfort a lot more than I expected: not having to get up to tweak the temperature or turn the heat off but keep the flames on is surprisingly handy. For older people or anyone with limited mobility, this is a real plus.

From a day-to-day standpoint, I found it comfortable to live with. It doesn’t make the air feel too dry or stuffy like some heaters do, and it spreads the heat decently instead of just blasting one spot. As long as you can tolerate a bit of fan noise and you play with the brightness so it’s not too bright at night, it fits well into a living room or bedroom without being annoying.

The body of the stove is mostly metal (cast iron style), which gives it a sturdier feel than the typical plastic heaters. When you tap on it, it doesn’t sound hollow and cheap. The front and side panels are glass, and they stay clear without fogging up even after running the heat for a while. That metal construction also helps it feel more stable; it doesn’t wobble around when you bump it lightly, and with the safety shutoff, it’s not the end of the world if someone does tip it.

The legs are the one part that feel a bit more basic. They’re fine once installed, but you can tell they’re not super high-end metal. Still, they hold the weight without any issue, and once the stove is in place you don’t really think about them. The paint/finish is a brushed black. It’s not fancy, but it hides dust and fingerprints reasonably well. After moving it around a few times and brushing against it, I didn’t see any immediate chipping or obvious scratches.

Inside, the fake logs and flame screen are plastic and LED-based, obviously. You’re not going to touch those anyway, but visually they don’t look cheap when the flames are on. With the flames off and the glass lit by room light, you can tell it’s all fake, but that’s true for basically every electric fireplace at this price. The curved LED panel is a nice touch because it fills the window better and makes the flame effect feel less flat than older straight-panel designs.

From a day-to-day use perspective, the materials feel solid enough for regular winter use: running it several hours a day, moving it a few times a season, cleaning dust from the vents. I wouldn’t abuse it or drag it across rough floors, but treated like normal furniture, it should hold up fine. For the price range, I’d rate the materials as good but not premium: better than cheap plastic heaters, not as heavy-duty as some higher-end cast-iron-style stoves that cost more.

Performance is where you really see what this thing can and can’t do. It’s rated at 1500W and 5100 BTU, which is standard for a full-power space heater. In my experience, in a roughly 12x15 ft room with average insulation, running it on high (1500W) for about 30 minutes raises the temperature from slightly chilly to comfortable. It doesn’t turn the room into a sauna, but you can definitely feel the difference, especially if the central heat is already doing something in the background.

In a more challenging room (older house, drafty windows), it still helps, but you need to let it run longer and maybe keep doors closed. That Amazon review about the intake being on the back is spot-on: if you shove it right against the wall, you’re choking the airflow and cutting its efficiency. When I pulled it away from the wall and put it where air could circulate behind it, the room warmed up faster and more evenly. So placement matters a lot with this heater.

Noise-wise, I’d call the fan moderate. It’s not silent, and if you’re sensitive to fan noise, you’ll notice it. It’s more like a steady whoosh than an annoying whine, though. For TV watching, I could hear it, but it didn’t drown out dialogue. For sleeping, on the lowest fan setting and with the brightness turned way down, it’s tolerable, but light sleepers might still notice it. The cool-down fan that keeps running after you shut off the heat is also audible, but it only lasts a short while.

The thermostat and timer features actually work pretty well. You can set a target temperature, and the heater will cycle the heat on and off to maintain it. It’s not as precise as a wall thermostat, but it’s good enough to avoid cooking the room. The timer is handy if you want it to shut off after a few hours automatically. Overall, in terms of raw performance, it’s decent and consistent for a 1500W unit as long as you set it up correctly and don’t expect miracles in a huge, freezing space.

Out of the box, the Electactic 24" stove is basically a metal box with fake logs, a curved LED screen inside, four short legs you have to attach, and a remote. No batteries needed for the heater itself since it just plugs into a standard outlet, but you’ll need a battery for the remote. Assembly is minimal: it’s mainly just screwing on the legs, which took me about 10–15 minutes with the included hardware. Nothing complicated, but the unit is around 33 pounds, so it’s a bit bulky to flip around alone if you’re not used to lifting stuff.

The controls are simple: there’s a touch panel on the front with lights so you can see what you’re pressing, and the remote lets you do everything from the couch or bed. You can adjust flame color, log color, flame speed, brightness, heat level (500W or 1500W), set the thermostat temperature, and set a timer. In practice, I mostly used: power, temp, heat on/off, and sometimes brightness. The rest are nice to have but not essential.

One thing to know right away: you cannot push this all the way against the wall. The air intake is on the back and the hot air blows from the top, so you need some space around it. If you block the back, the heater becomes much less effective and might run hotter than it should. I kept it at least 6–8 inches from the wall, and that seemed to work fine. Also, when you turn the heat off, the fan keeps running for a little while to cool down the unit. That’s normal and not a defect.

In terms of promise versus reality, the listing talks about heating 1,000 square feet in 10 minutes. In practice, no 1500W space heater is doing that unless the room is already fairly warm and well insulated. Think more like: one medium room gets noticeably warmer after 20–40 minutes on high, depending on how cold it is and how drafty your place is. If you go in with that mindset, you’ll be happier with it.

In practice, I’d say this stove is about 60% functional heater, 40% decorative piece. If your main goal is to feel warmer in a specific room, it gets the job done, especially if you’re sitting within a few meters of it. When I used it in a home office, placed near the entrance with space behind it, it took the chill off the whole upstairs after a couple of hours. I still needed the main furnace running, but this helped close the gap in that one colder room.

In a living room, with the central heat set at around 68–70°F, turning this on high bumped the room up a few degrees and, more importantly, made the area near the stove feel noticeably cozier. Sitting on the couch 6–8 feet away, you can feel the warm air drifting out from the top. It’s not like sitting in front of a real wood stove, but it’s a lot better than nothing, especially on damp or slightly chilly days when you don’t want to crank the whole house heat.

The 1,000 sq ft in 10 minutes claim is, frankly, optimistic marketing. In a real-world old house or average home, this is a solid supplemental heater, not a main heat source. If you expect it to replace your furnace, you’ll be disappointed. If you expect it to make one room more comfortable and cut the need to bump your thermostat up several degrees, then it works well enough. The automatic shutoff if it tips over is a nice safety feature and makes me more comfortable running it while I’m in another room, though I still wouldn’t leave any space heater running unattended for long periods.

So in terms of effectiveness: for what it is (a 1500W electric heater with a nice flame effect), it performs well. It’s not magic, but it does help keep a room warmer and makes spending time there more pleasant. Just be realistic about the size of the space you’re trying to heat and how drafty your place is.