NETTA Electric Fireplace Stove Heater Review: cheap, cosy heat that looks like a real fire (from a distance)

I picked up this NETTA electric fireplace stove heater because I wanted that "log fire" look in the living room without actually messing around with real wood, smoke, or paying someone to service a gas fire. I’ve been using it most evenings for a couple of weeks now, mainly in a medium-sized living room, and sometimes just for the flame effect without heat. I’m not a fireplace geek, just someone who wanted something cheap, easy, and not hideous to look at.

Right away: this is clearly a budget heater. It’s mostly plastic, it’s fairly light at around 5.5kg, and you can tell it’s not some high-end cast iron thing. But once it’s in place and switched on, it actually looks decent. The fake log and flame effect are better than I expected for the price, and from a few steps back it passes as a cosy little electric stove.

In daily use, I’ve mainly used the lower heat setting (1750W) to boost the central heating in the evenings. It warms the room quickly, but you do hear the fan – this isn’t a silent product. Some people will be fine with the noise; if you’re sensitive to background hum, it might annoy you after a while. The smell when first using it was noticeable but faded after a couple of uses.

Overall, first impression after proper use: it’s not perfect, it feels cheap if you touch it, and the cable is too short, but for the money it does what I wanted – it makes the room feel warmer and look less bland. If you’re expecting a premium piece of furniture, you’ll be disappointed. If you just want an inexpensive heater that looks like a fake log fire, it’s pretty solid.

For what it costs, I’d say the NETTA electric fireplace stove heater offers good value for money, with a few caveats. You’re paying for three things: heat output, the fake fireplace look, and basic safety features. On all three, it delivers reasonably well. It warms a room quickly, the flame effect looks decent, and it has a thermal cut-off plus a one-year warranty. Considering you could easily pay more for a heater that looks worse or for a nicer-looking unit that doesn’t heat as strongly, this lands in a fairly sweet spot.

Where the value drops a bit is in the details. The power cable is only about 1.5m and you’re not supposed to use extensions with heaters, which limits where you can place it. The plastic casing can arrive with light scratches. The fan is on the noisy side. None of these are deal-breakers, but they are the kind of small annoyances you notice once you’ve lived with it for a bit. If NETTA had spent a tiny bit more on a quieter fan and a longer cable, it would feel like a more complete product.

Compared to a standard cheap fan heater, you are definitely paying extra for the look. If you don’t care about aesthetics at all and only want raw heat, you can get something cheaper that blasts warm air just as well. But if you want something that looks like part of the room and not just a plastic box in the corner, this makes more sense. It sits nicely in a fireplace or against a wall and doesn’t scream “temporary heater”.

So overall, I’d rate the value as solid. Not mind-blowing, not terrible. It’s a fair deal for what you get. If your expectations match the price – plastic body, some noise, but good heat and a cosy look – you’ll probably feel you got your money’s worth. If you’re expecting premium build quality at this price, you’ll be let down.

The design is clearly aiming for that traditional cast-iron stove look, but using lightweight plastic instead. From a distance – say you’re sitting on the sofa two or three metres away – it actually looks pretty good. The arch design on the front and the fake window with the logs do give it a proper “stove” vibe. Once the flame effect is on, your eye is drawn to that, and you’re not really staring at the plastic body anymore.

Up close though, you can tell it’s not metal. The plastic has that slightly shiny look in certain light, and if you tap it, it doesn’t feel solid like a real stove. Mine arrived with a couple of light marks on the casing, nothing dramatic but still visible if you look closely. It lines up with some of the reviews mentioning minor scratches. For a heater that just sits in a fireplace or against a wall, I can live with that, but if you’re picky about finish, it might annoy you.

The fake log and flame effect are honestly the best part of the design. The logs and embers look decent, and the flame effect is fairly convincing for this price range. It’s not going to fool anyone standing right next to it, but in normal use it gives a nice glow and movement that makes the room feel less flat. The flame brightness isn’t adjustable, which would have been nice, but the default level is okay – not blinding, not too dim.

Size-wise, it’s compact enough to fit into smaller fireplaces or just sit against a wall without dominating the room. It’s easy to move around because it’s so light, which is handy if you want to use it in different rooms, but that also reminds you it’s not a heavy-duty piece of kit. Overall, in terms of design, I’d say it looks good enough for the price, especially once it’s on, but don’t expect it to pass as a real cast-iron stove if someone gets close and starts poking at it.

Material-wise, this is where you’re reminded you bought a cheap heater. The body is made from plastic with a “cast iron effect” finish. That basically means it’s shaped and coloured to look like metal, but when you touch it or move it, it’s obvious it’s not. The good side of that is weight: at about 5.5kg, it’s easy to carry from room to room without feeling like you’re hauling a solid stove. The downside is that it just doesn’t feel premium at all.

The plastic doesn’t feel fragile, but I wouldn’t call it tough either. It’s fine for normal use – standing in one place, being moved occasionally – but I wouldn’t want to drop it or bang it into door frames too often. Little scratches seem to appear quite easily; mine had a couple out of the box, and I can imagine more appearing over time if you’re not careful. For the price, I’m not shocked, but if you want something that will still look pristine in five years, this might not be it.

The front door and window area are also plastic, and you can feel a bit of flex if you push on it. That said, once it’s in place and you’re not messing with it, it’s fine. The important parts – the heating element and the safety cut-off – are inside and you don’t really interact with them. I didn’t notice any worrying rattles or loose bits when moving it around, which is good. It feels “cheap but stable” rather than “cheap and flimsy”.

Overall, the materials are exactly what you’d expect at this price: lots of plastic, decent enough assembly, but nothing that screams long-term durability. If you treat it as a seasonal heater that you use in autumn and winter and don’t abuse it, it should be fine. If you want a heavy, metal-bodied unit that feels like furniture, you’ll need to spend more or look at real cast-iron electric stoves instead.

I haven’t had this heater for years obviously, so I can’t pretend to give a long-term durability verdict, but after a couple of weeks of daily use, here’s what I’ve noticed. Structurally, nothing has loosened, rattled, or started making new noises. The fan still sounds the same, the switches still click properly, and the flame effect hasn’t glitched or flickered oddly. So short-term, it feels stable enough.

The main concern for durability is the plastic casing. Because it’s not metal, it’s more prone to scratches and scuffs. I’ve already noticed a couple of minor marks, and I’m not exactly rough with it. If you plan to move it around a lot, or if you have kids or pets that might bump into it, expect the outside to pick up some cosmetic damage over time. That said, those marks don’t affect how it works, they just make it look a bit more “used”.

On the safety side, it does have a built-in thermal cut-off, which is important for something that can get this hot. I did one unscientific test by letting it run on high for a while in a fairly warm room, and it cycled off as expected. The casing gets warm but not so hot you can’t touch it, which is reassuring. You still need to follow the usual heater rules: don’t cover it, don’t push it right up against things, and don’t use an extension lead.

Realistically, I see this as a few-winter product rather than a 10-year investment. The 365-day warranty is decent for the price, so if it’s going to fail early, you’re at least covered for the first year. If you want something built like a tank, this isn’t it. If you just need a seasonal heater that looks nicer than a plain fan heater and you’re okay with the idea that it might not last a decade, it’s acceptable.

In terms of raw performance, this little heater does its job. On the lower setting (around 1750W), it warmed up my medium-sized living room in about 10–15 minutes from a slightly chilly starting point. On the higher setting (up to 1950W), it kicks out a strong blast of heat that you really feel if you’re sitting nearby. For quick warmth when you don’t want to crank up the whole central heating system, it’s genuinely useful.

The thermostat is basic but works. You set the dial, and once the room hits that level, it cycles the heat on and off. It’s not super precise – you’re not setting exact degrees – but it does stop the room from turning into a sauna and saves a bit of electricity compared to running it full blast constantly. I mostly left it on the lower setting with the thermostat roughly in the middle, and that was enough to keep the room comfortable on cold evenings.

The downside is the noise. This is a fan heater, so there’s a constant whoosh/whirr when the heat is on. Some people in the Amazon reviews said the noise was barely noticeable; in my case, I’d say it’s clearly audible but not unbearable. If you’re watching TV, you’ll hear it in quieter scenes, but you can still follow what’s going on. If you want silent heating, this is not the product for you. For background heat while you’re doing stuff, it’s fine; for a silent reading nook, it might get on your nerves.

One small plus: you can run the flame effect without the heater, and in that mode it’s much quieter. You still hear a faint hum from the mechanism, but it’s way softer than when the heater is blasting. So from a performance point of view: good heat output, decent thermostat, realistic enough flames, but the noise level is something you need to accept with this kind of design.

On paper, the NETTA electric fireplace stove heater is pretty straightforward: 1750-1950W power, two heat settings, an adjustable thermostat, and a flame effect that you can use with or without heat. The size is 37.5cm wide, 23cm deep, and 51cm high, and it weighs about 5.5kg. It also has a built-in thermal cut-off for safety and comes with a 365-day warranty, which is reassuring for a cheap heater that you’ll probably run quite a lot in winter.

When it arrived, the packaging was basic but fine. Nothing fancy: just a cardboard box, some protective bits, and the heater itself already assembled. You basically just pull it out, remove some plastic, plug it in, and that’s it. No tools, no complicated setup. The instructions are simple – a few pages explaining the two heat settings, the thermostat, and some safety warnings (don’t cover it, don’t use an extension lead, keep it away from curtains, that kind of thing).

In terms of controls, it’s all manual, no remote, no smart features. On the front, hidden under the door area, you’ve got switches for the flame effect and the two heat settings, plus a little dial for the thermostat. It’s very old-school but honestly that’s fine. You just flick the flame on if you want the look, then add heat level 1 or 2 if you actually want warmth. No learning curve, no app, no pairing, nothing.

So in practice, what you’re buying is a simple plug-in heater that looks like a small stove. No extras, no fancy tricks. For the price point, that’s fair. If you’re expecting digital displays, timers, a remote, or Wi-Fi control, this isn’t it. But if you just want to plug it in, flip a couple of switches, and have instant flames and heat, it gets the job done without any fuss.

Using this heater day-to-day, I mostly cared about two things: does it actually make the room feel warmer, and does it make the room feel cosier? On both points, it does the job. On colder evenings, I’d turn on the flame effect first just for the look, then add the lower heat setting if the room felt a bit cold. Within about 10 minutes, you can feel the difference, especially if you’re sitting within a couple of metres. For a medium living room, it’s enough as a secondary heat source.

Visually, the fake log and flame effect add a lot to the vibe of the room. Compared to just having a boring radiator or a boxy fan heater, this feels more like part of the room rather than just a tool. I found myself using just the flame effect quite a bit in the evening, even when the heating was already on, just because it made the space feel less empty. It’s not realistic enough to fool anyone, but it’s pleasant to look at, and the orange glow reflects nicely off nearby walls and furniture.

One thing I noticed: the first few times I used it with heat, there was a slightly plasticky or “new heater” smell. That seems to be normal with a lot of heaters, and in my case it faded after a couple of sessions. If you’re sensitive to smells, I’d suggest running it on high for a while in a well-ventilated room the first time, just to burn off whatever coating or dust is on the elements.

In practice, this heater is most effective as a boost heater in one main room. I wouldn’t rely on it as the sole heat source for a big house, but for a living room, bedroom, or home office it’s fine. It’s also handy that it’s light enough to move if you want to use it in a different room. So in terms of everyday effectiveness: it warms the space quickly, it makes the room look less dull, and aside from the fan noise and initial smell, it behaves as expected.