Dimplex Detroit Deluxe Optiflame Review: a decent fake fire that nails the cosy look

I’ve had the Dimplex Detroit Deluxe Optiflame in my living room for a while now, mainly because I missed having a fireplace and didn’t want to mess around with chimneys or gas. I wanted something that gives that cosy "fireplace" vibe without building work, and that I could just plug in and forget about. So this one ticked a lot of boxes on paper: freestanding, no recess needed, LED flame effect, remote, and a 2kW heater if I wanted extra warmth.

In day-to-day use, it’s pretty straightforward: you plonk it against a flat wall, plug it in, choose the coal or pebble bed, and you’re basically done. There’s no assembly drama, no screws, no tools. First evening I used it, I honestly just sat staring at the flame effect with the heater off, and that’s still how I use it 90% of the time. For me it’s more about atmosphere than actually heating the room.

It’s not perfect though. Some bits feel a bit more plastic than I expected for the price, and once you know how the flame effect works, you can kind of see the loop and the “fake” side of it. Also, like a few people mention, there can be some motor noise over time, especially if you’re picky about background sounds. It’s not terrible, but it’s there.

Overall, my first impression was: looks good, does what I bought it for, but not magic. If you want a realistic-looking electric fire with a decent heater built in, it’s a pretty solid option. If you’re super sensitive to motor noises or obsessed with ultra-realistic flames, you might end up picking at its flaws like I did after a few evenings.

On the value for money side, I’d put the Detroit Deluxe in the "pretty solid" category. It’s not the cheapest electric fire out there, but it’s also not top-of-the-range pricing. You’re paying partly for the Dimplex name (which does have a decent track record with electric fires), and partly for the Optiflame system, the remote, and the 2kW heater with thermostat and timer. When you look at the Amazon rating (around 4.5/5 from a few hundred reviews), it lines up with what I felt using it day to day: most people will be satisfied, a few will pick at the flaws.

If you compare it to really cheap supermarket or no-name electric fires, the flame effect is better, the unit feels more stable, and the features (like multiple flame modes, thermostat, timer, safety shut-off) are more complete. Those cheaper ones often either look fake, sound like a tractor, or don’t last long. So in that sense, paying a bit more for this feels justified. On the other hand, if all you want is pure heat and you don’t care what it looks like, a simple 2kW fan heater will be cheaper and heat just as well.

Running costs are the same as any other 1kW/2kW electric heater: if you run it on full heat for hours, your electric bill will notice. The good news is the flame effect itself uses very little power (around 10W), so you can have the "fire" on for hours for pennies if you keep the heater off. That’s actually how I use it most of the time – flames on in the evening, heater only when the room really needs a boost.

Overall, I’d say: good value if you care about both looks and warmth, average value if you only need a heater, and decent long-term if you’re going to use the flame effect almost every day. If you can catch it on offer (like some reviewers who paid less than in big DIY stores), it starts to look like a very sensible buy. At full price, it’s still fair, just not a crazy bargain.

Visually, the Detroit Deluxe is going for that modern, slightly shiny fireplace look. You get a polished chrome-effect trim and fret, with a black frame around the flame area. From a couple of metres away, it looks pretty smart – especially in a living room where you’ve got a TV above it or a simple wall. Up close, you can tell it’s a mix of alloy steel and plastic, so don’t expect it to feel like a cast-iron stove or a heavy traditional surround. It’s more "decent furniture appliance" than luxury piece.

The footprint is quite wide and fairly tall for an electric fire, which I actually liked. It fills the wall better than the smaller, older electric fire I had before, and it makes the flame window feel more like a proper fireplace rather than a small box. The flat back is a big plus – no awkward gaps, no need to carve out a recess. You literally push it back to the wall and it sits flush, which looks clean and intentional, not like you’ve just dumped a random heater in the corner.

The controls are tucked away enough not to ruin the look, and once you’ve set your preferred flame brightness and colour, you mostly just use the remote anyway. The digital temperature display is simple and functional, not pretty, but you don’t stare at it much. The chrome effect will show fingerprints if you’re fussy, so a quick wipe now and then helps. The fake coal and pebble options both look decent once they’re in place, with the coal giving more of a traditional look and the white pebbles making it feel more modern.

If I’m blunt, the design is good from normal viewing distance, average up close. It looks good in a normal room, especially with the lights dimmed and the flame on. But if you walk right up and start touching everything, you can tell where they’ve saved money with plastic parts and simple construction. For the price, that’s kind of expected. It’s not a showpiece for a luxury home, but in a regular living room or bedroom it looks pretty solid and does the cosy job well enough.

The Detroit Deluxe is mainly made from alloy steel and plastic, with a chrome-effect finish on the front. When you first look at it from a couple of metres away, it passes the eye test – it looks like a proper fire with a metal front. When you actually touch it, you quickly realise some parts are quite light and plasticky. The chrome is a finish, not real chrome metal, so don’t expect that heavy, cold-to-the-touch feel. That said, it doesn’t feel flimsy to the point where you worry it’ll fall apart if you move it.

The unit’s weight is about 11 kg, which is fairly light for its size but still stable. You can slide it along the floor without drama (careful on wooden floors), and it doesn’t wobble when you brush past it or change settings. The coal and pebble pieces are standard fake fuel-bed parts – plastic but shaped and painted well enough that, once the flames and lights are on, you don’t really think about them. In full daylight, yes, you can tell they’re fake, but that’s normal at this price point.

Inside, the mechanism for the flame is pretty typical: a small motor turning a rod with reflective foils, and LED lights shining onto it. That’s where some of the noise and long-term durability questions come from. A few users mention adding a bit of grease to the bearings to stop squeaks, which tells you the parts aren’t exactly top-tier engineering. I haven’t had to open mine yet, but I’m realistic: this is not built like a tank inside. It’s built like a mid-range electric heater with some visual extras.

In terms of safety and general feel, it has a safety shut-off and doesn’t get dangerously hot on the outer surfaces, which I appreciate. The vents and casing feel solid enough for regular home use, and nothing feels like it’s about to snap off. So in short: materials are decent but not premium. You’re paying mainly for the brand, the Optiflame effect, and the functionality, not for luxury metals or heavy-duty parts. For a normal living room or bedroom with average use, it’s fine. If you want something that feels ultra-solid and metal-heavy, you’ll probably need to spend more or go for a different style.

Performance-wise, you’ve basically got two things to judge: the flame effect and the heater. I’ll start with the flames, because that’s clearly what most people (including me) cared about. The Optiflame system here is LED-based with a moving foil “rotisserie” inside. You can tweak the flame brightness from low to high, pick between more standard yellow/orange and a blue-ish flame option, and switch on a pulsating effect that mainly affects the light on the coals. From a distance, especially with the room lights dimmed, it looks cosy and fairly realistic. It’s not a perfect copy of a real fire, but it definitely changes the feel of the room.

Now, once you sit closer and know how it works, you can see the pattern repeat. The movement isn’t totally random, and if you watch it for a while you start spotting the same shapes looping every few seconds. The yellow flame in particular can look a bit "on repeat". The blue flame effect weirdly looks more natural and random, so I ended up preferring that most evenings. The coal bed lighting with the pulsating mode does give a decent glow, but I agree with other users: it would be better if the main flame also pulsed slightly instead of staying full bright in that mode.

On the heating side, it’s a 2kW fan heater with two power settings: 1kW and 2kW. For top-up heat in a normal-sized living room or bedroom, it works fine. You feel the warm air quite quickly in front of it, and over 15–20 minutes it takes the chill off the room. The built-in thermostat is handy: you set your target temperature, and it cycles the heater on and off to maintain it. It’s not going to heat a big, cold open-plan space on its own, but as an extra heater or for a medium room, it’s decent. They quote roughly 46 square feet coverage, which is conservative; in reality it helps more than that, but don’t expect central-heating-level performance.

Noise-wise, with just the flame effect on, mine started quiet and then developed a bit of hum and the odd squeak over time, like some other reviewers mention. With the heater on, you obviously get fan noise as well, similar to a portable fan heater. It’s not silent, but it’s not ridiculously loud either. If you watch TV at normal volume, it’s fine. If you’re very sensitive to noise or sit in silence a lot, you’ll notice it. Overall, as a heater-plus-ambience combo, it does the job well, but the flame loop and potential motor noise stop it from being anything more than that.

Out of the box, the Detroit Deluxe is basically a plug-and-play unit. In the package I got: the main fire, a bag of coal pieces, a bag of white pebbles, and the small remote with a CR2032 battery already included. No screw packs, no fiddly panels, nothing to build. You literally drop it where you want it, stick on your choice of fuel bed (coal or pebbles), plug it in, and that’s it. For anyone who hates flat-pack-style assembly, this is a relief.

The unit is about 67 cm high, nearly 62 cm wide and just under 23 cm deep, so it’s not tiny. It’s actually bigger than the older Dimplex fire I used before. It sits flat against the wall with a flat back, so you don’t need a recess or a fake chimney breast. That’s handy if you’re renting or you just don’t want to start modifying walls. Weight-wise, around 11 kg – light enough to move around yourself, but heavy enough that it doesn’t feel like a toy.

Control-wise, you’ve got manual buttons on the unit (for power, flame, heat settings, thermostat, timer etc.) and then the remote that basically mirrors the main functions. One thing that caught me out at the start: the fire has to be switched on manually first before the remote will actually do anything. After that, the remote is fine – not super fancy, but it does the job from the sofa. The on-screen temperature display is clear enough, and setting the thermostat isn’t complicated.

In practice, the "presentation" side is simple: it’s a freestanding box that pretends to be a fireplace. No fake mantel, no surround, nothing built-in. If you want the full fireplace look, you’ll need to add your own surround or TV unit around it. If you just want a neat electric fire against a wall, this is basically ready to go in five minutes. Not impressive in a luxury way, but very practical in a normal home way.

In terms of actually doing its job, I’d say the Detroit Deluxe scores pretty well overall, with a few caveats. For atmosphere, it works. First week I had it, I barely used the heater and just ran the flame effect most evenings. Even with no heat, the room felt cosier. That’s obviously psychological, but that’s kind of the point of buying a fake fire. The adjustable flame brightness helps too: low for late-night background, high for when you want it to stand out a bit more. The option to switch between coal and white pebbles also lets you change the vibe from traditional to more modern.

On the heating side, the 1kW/2kW fan heater is good for quick top-up warmth. In my medium-sized living room, 2kW makes a clear difference in under 20 minutes, especially if I’ve turned the central heating down. It’s not going to heat the whole house, but if you’re sitting nearby watching TV or working in a home office, it does the trick. The thermostat is fairly accurate too: once it reaches the target temperature, it cuts the heater and just uses the fan as needed. You hear it cycle on and off, but it means you’re not roasting or constantly getting up to fiddle with it.

Where it’s slightly less effective is if you’re expecting totally silent operation or ultra-realistic flames. The flame effect is good at a glance, but if you stare at it, you see the repeating pattern and the slightly mechanical movement. Also, as mentioned earlier, some units develop a hum or squeak from the flame motor after a while, which can bug you if you like silence. The pulsating coal light is a nice touch, but I still think they missed a trick by not making the main flame itself pulse more naturally.

So, in simple terms: yes, it works. It makes a room feel nicer to be in, it adds useful heat, and it’s easy to control with the remote and thermostat. It’s not magic and it’s not perfect, but as a combination of visual effect plus practical heater, it does exactly what most people will expect from it. If your expectations are realistic, you’ll probably be happy. If you’re chasing total realism or absolute silence, you’ll see the limits pretty quickly.