Which do you prefer - gas or wood fireplace?

[KristenR]

Pros, cons? I'm leaning more towards gas myself but my hubby swears only a wood one will do. Thoughts?

p.s. We are in Florida so it's not really going to be used often.

[MomtoCandJ]

Wood so that incase your electricity goes out you have heat and if desperate a place to heat up some food :)

[KungFuPanda]

I'd go with wood, but I live where it snows and I could heat my house and cook with the wood stove in a power outage. For Florida, I'd just use gas thinking I might push the button for ambiance and to break the chill if it got below 50 degrees a few times a year.

[Aelwydd]

Wood. The cost of gas is a drawback, wood puts out a lot of heat, and I enjoy the smell and "feel" of a wood fire.

[RoughCollie]

I'd choose wood if someone else is going to clean up afterward, and retrieve it from outside the house beforehand. I've seen snakes, bugs, and rodents in wood piles. Gas, if not.

[Lara in Colo]

I have had both, and I have to say being able to flip a switch and have a nice warm fire without any clean up is really nice.

But.... if the ELECTRICITY goes out, you are SOL (depending on the type, you may be able to get it started with a match)

 

I have a wood fireplace now and I guess I prefer it. If I have to I can cook on it, I can heat the main room with it, I can roast chestnuts and burn documents (instead of shredding) but...... you have to have storage for the wood, track in a lot of dirt, (purchase the wood) and clean up the mess, plus I really hate to go to bed with live coals, so I end up staying awake later to make sure they are mainly gone. I was going to get rid of mine a few years ago because it just didn't make much heat--- we bought this fantastic grate and now it is soooo easy to start (a fire) and maintain (the logs need almost no tending) and it cranks out the heat now!!

 

 

Gas

 

easy, fast fires

very little cleanup

can be pricey

can need costly repairs

can be cut off from usage in need

 

Wood:

 

more work

more mess

more reliability

more uses

 

more potential danger to house (although is a sort of scary too)

[HappyLady]

I'd choose wood if someone else is going to clean up afterward, and retrieve it from outside the house beforehand. I've seen snakes, bugs, and rodents in wood piles. Gas, if not.

 

 

This. We had a choice when we bought our house and though I love the smell of a wood fireplace, I knew I'd never use it if I had to do "work" to get it started. Since I planned on being home with the kids, we went with gas so that I'd actually use it. I love that I just flip a switch, or even use our remote, to turn it on. And when our power goes out, our fireplace, minus the blower, still works.

 

I have family that live in Florida and they all have one of those fake, portable gas fireplaces. :)

[Parrothead]

Wood. For all of the above reasons

[skeeterbug]

If I was in FL I'd go with gas. You aren't using it to actually heat your whole house, just to take the edge off the cold (is that right?). Gas is much easier. We've had both, I prefer gas because of its ease of use. DH prefers wood because it heats so much better and smells so nice. Have either of you had one before? I found we didn't use the wood one nearly as often. Also, we had no-burn days where we lived so there were days we couldn't use it (even in the winter).

[GailV]

Wood so we can toast marshmallows.

 

One year SIL and her family stayed at our house for Thanksgiving over at Aunt V's house, and on Wednesday night we cooked hotdogs over the fire. It was a blast.

 

 

Yeah, it's more work, but the kids are old enough to do a lot of it.

 

But if I lived in Florida, I'd probably go with gas because you can just run it for an hour and then flip it back off -- it's about as easy as turning a television on and off.

[Jeannie in NJ]

a friend of ours said if he could have exactly what he wanted he would have a gas fireplace in one room and a wood stove in another. Since he could not have both, he went with a wood stove and he loves it.

[Jennay]

I'm not sure what would be best for Florida.

But we have a wood stove insert for our fireplace. One of the best purchases we have made. When we used the fireplace before the insert it warmed the room it was in, but sucked the warm air from the rest of the house. Now we can heat basically the whole house with the wood stove and not use the electricity at all.

[Ali in OR]

A wood fire definitely has more charm and ambience. I love them---in someone else's house. For my own house, I prefer the ease of gas. Natural gas is cheap here and ours does work when the electricity is out.

[Ewe Mama]

As someone who suffers from smoke allergies, I would opt for gas. Wood smoke is also a huge asthma trigger for our son Theodore, so we can no longer use our wood fireplaces at all.

 

 

[Guest inoubliable]

Wood. For all the reasons already said. We have a wood fireplace in this rental that we can't use because the landlord didn't do something to it after there was a fire here years ago. We didn't find out until 6 months after we moved in that we wouldn't be allowed to use it. I'm still bitter over this.

[DianeW88]

We love our gas fireplace!! It still turns on, even if the electricity is out. And we have a lot of "bad air' days here in the winter in Utah, when all wood burning is banned. Those are always the coldest days of the year because of the inversion we get here in the valley. So gas is my number one choice!!

[Ruby Rose]

When I had wood I wanted gas. Now that I have gas, I wish it was wood. I can't enjoy the gas because all I see are $$$ going up in smoke. Plus our old wood fire place put out more heat.

[Dandelion]

I love my wood stove. It's amazing how much it heats up the house, and there's just nothing better than having a nice fire going on a cold winter night. We lose power several times each winter, so it's great to still be able to heat when the power goes out (probably not a problem you'll have in Florida). ;-)

[Matryoshka]

a friend of ours said if he could have exactly what he wanted he would have a gas fireplace in one room and a wood stove in another. Since he could not have both, he went with a wood stove and he loves it.

 

LOL- this is what we have - both. :)

[Melissa in Australia]

wood

The heat from a wood fire feels nicer

puts out a lot of heat.

the fire slowly dies down continuing to give off heat whereas when using a gas heater the room starts to feel cold the second it is turned off

more chance of getting exercise ( by splitting wood).

 

the downside is you need to have a source of wood.

 

gas smells. Gas sets off my DH's MCS

[TravelingChris]

Gas, definitely. Easier to use and doesn't cause any breathing difficulties for either me (in the house) or others (through particulate pollution)>

[DaffodilDreams]

I've had both and most definitely prefer wood for many of the reasons already listed.

[Laura Corin]

We love our wood stove - it's easy to light and it I really like the look and feel of it.

 

Laura

[Clarkd]

For a completely different choice, we have a pellet stove and love it.

[Kim in Appalachia]

I prefer gas, and in FL I would definitely go with gas. In FL the wood will be hard to get and expensive.

[KristenR]

Thank you all so much. I'm printing off all these answers and will show them to my husband. I can easily go either way now that I hear the pros and cons to both.

[KungFuPanda]

Don't forget that with wood, you're locked into hours of heat. You might not want to leave it burning if you go out or go to bed. Wood fires take time to burn out, so you have to plan your evening accordingly.

[SKL]

Depends on who's going outside to get the wood in the winter time. (We have a long winter here.)

 

I've had both. It is fun but very time-consuming to work with a wood fire on a regular basis. You also have to keep on hand wood which is in the right condition to be lit/burned.

 

We now have gas. It is easy to light and does not use electricity. That said, we almost never use it. We just don't spend much time sitting around at home.

[Tammyla]

:iagree: We have a gas fire place (not the kind with a blower and electric switch) and while we can turn it on if the electric goes out it lets in a ton of cold air because the chimney isn't closed. The electric switch or remote ones can be dangerous if the power if off due to venting issues. I think if given the choice, I'd go for a wood burning one and just deal with the mess.

 

I have had both, and I have to say being able to flip a switch and have a nice warm fire without any clean up is really nice.

But.... if the ELECTRICITY goes out, you are SOL (depending on the type, you may be able to get it started with a match)

 

I have a wood fireplace now and I guess I prefer it. If I have to I can cook on it, I can heat the main room with it, I can roast chestnuts and burn documents (instead of shredding) but...... you have to have storage for the wood, track in a lot of dirt, (purchase the wood) and clean up the mess, plus I really hate to go to bed with live coals, so I end up staying awake later to make sure they are mainly gone. I was going to get rid of mine a few years ago because it just didn't make much heat--- we bought this fantastic grate and now it is soooo easy to start (a fire) and maintain (the logs need almost no tending) and it cranks out the heat now!!

 

 

Gas

 

easy, fast fires

very little cleanup

can be pricey

can need costly repairs

can be cut off from usage in need

 

Wood:

 

more work

more mess

more reliability

more uses

 

more potential danger to house (although is a sort of scary too)

 

[magnificent_baby]

I love a wood fireplace, but would not want to deal with the mess. We have gas and enjoy it.

 

My parents have both options in their fireplace but choose wood most of the time. Maybe getting one with both would solve your problem. :001_smile:

[Amethyst]

Wood. Hands down. Whats the point of a gas fireplace, really? We've had both. Loved the wood fireplace.

[Matryoshka]

Since I have both, I'll elaborate on why I like each and how I use them.

 

The wood stove is in the family room, which is in a wing open on three sides, also open to the kitchen and a stairwell, and not all that well insulated. It's also near the back door, so it's easy to bring in wood. A gas fireplace there would not give off the heat necessary to make that large area comfortable. It sits in a fireplace with a real chimney, so obviously it vents up there.

 

The gas stove is in the living room, where we go less often but is larger and better for when we have guests (more seating, no TV). But before we got the gas stove, everyone would huddle in the narrow family room around the wood stove. :glare: There is no fireplace or chimney in that room, so gas was easiest (direct vent). It's also farther from a door, and I didn't want to haul wood through the house. Also, since we use that room less frequently, it's nice just to go in, turn on the switch, and then turn it off when we leave the room. It honestly gives off more heat than you'd think. I always thought they were more for show, till my parents put in a gas fireplace insert that really does warm the place up quite nicely. You have to make sure you get one that is actually made to heat, not just to look at.

 

In Florida, I might go with gas. A wood stove heats a lot. This is great in New England where I live, but I think you could easily overheat yourself in Florida. The gas stoves are also easier to control the flame on so you can get just the amount of heat you want at the moment. Wood is also not cheap.

 

I love, love, love my wood stove. But I have also considered that when we have to replace it someday (hopefully not for a while yet), I might think of converting it to gas, as by then we'll be older and might not want to deal with the labor that wood involves.

 

I'm actually trying to convice db and SIL to convert their wood fireplace to gas in the house they just bought. I'm always cold when I go in there, and no one ever bothers to make a fire. If they had gas, I could just flip the switch. :)

 

It really depends on your needs (heat or ambience, constant use or occasional) and how much labor you're willing to put in.

[PrairieSong]

We have a wood stove in the basement family room and are replacing the living room wood fireplace, which is inefficient and probably sucks more heat up the flue than it puts out into the room, with a gas fireplace. The wood stove keeps the basement very warm, but I didn't want a stove in the living room.

 

 

[gardenmom5]

we prefer wood - but we use it for heat (when the power goes out.) as much as ambiance. we also prefer the snap of burning doug fir. (or the heat of burning madrona/other hardwood).

 

we had looked into gas - and our fireplace does have a T in the gas line so we could install gas if we wanted. we'd just rather have wood.

[Laura Corin]

Don't forget that with wood, you're locked into hours of heat. You might not want to leave it burning if you go out or go to bed. Wood fires take time to burn out, so you have to plan your evening accordingly.

 

 

It depends if it's an open fire or a stove - our stove is safe to leave with shut down vents: it goes out slowly.

 

Laura

[BrookValley.]

I like wood. That said, we have a wood fireplace (not a wood stove; an actual open brick fireplace) and it is useless. It's fun to light a fire every now and then, but it does nothing to help heat the house (have to vent it so much we lose heat and there's nothing to blow the heat outward). We actually live where it gets cold, so I wish the folks that built this house had done it a little differently--a wood stove on one end of the house would have been better. I still prefer wood, just wish my set up was different.

 

Now, we have a super heavy duty wood-fired furnace for whole house heating and that is awesome! But of course not applicable to this conversation.

[Reya]

Wood with a good screen and a gas start.

[kewb]

In Florida I would probably opt for the convenience of gas. Here in the Northeast, I love my wood burning fireplace. I suppose what would really be nice is a gas started wood burning fireplace.

[Renthead Mommy]

I'd choose wood if someone else is going to clean up afterward, and retrieve it from outside the house beforehand. I've seen snakes, bugs, and rodents in wood piles. Gas, if not.

 

 

I loved our wood fireplace.

 

As to the snakes in the wood pile....

 

Turns out when my husband was aroudn 7 or 8 he had a rubber snake. They also had a wood fireplace. He got the brillant idea to coil it up and place it under a log near the top of the wood IN THE HOUSE. My mil found it. Ran screaming from the room. Which of couse makes 8yo boys so overjoyed they want to do it again. He pulled that same stunt about four times before she could keep it together long enough to grab the snake and throw it out.

[justamouse]

Wood. It's all about the smell. Yes, I know it's carcinogenic, I don't care.

[curlylocks]

We have both...we like both for all the reasons already mentioned. (And, propane is NOT expensive -- at least not here. It's probably the cheapest way to heat right now.)

 

One thought on the wood option: do you already have a chimney? If so, has it been inspected and deemed safe to use? Is your homeowner's insurance OK with a wood stove? (some are -- some aren't....)

[Onceuponatime]

I'm not sure what would be best for Florida.

But we have a wood stove insert for our fireplace. One of the best purchases we have made. When we used the fireplace before the insert it warmed the room it was in, but sucked the warm air from the rest of the house. Now we can heat basically the whole house with the wood stove and not use the electricity at all.

 

 

This. We put in a wood stove insert last year and I am sooooo happy. Yes it is more work and mess, but I don't care. I love going out to get wood and tending the fire. We pay next to nothing for wood and have cut our heating bill by 2/3. A Gas fire just isn't the same to me.

 

We don't live in Florida.

[nukeswife]

Is it something you'd really use? I'm only asking because I've had both and honestly don't like either. In my current house my big screen tv sits in front of the gas fireplace because after living here for 2 years and never using it, I got sick of giving up the space in the corner for the tv just so it wasn't in front of the stupid fireplace.

 

When I was growing up we had a wood fireplace in the living room. I hated it, it was always super hot in there but the bedrooms would be freezing cold. I think I actually saw something on Mythbusters that if you only have 1 fireplace (not one in each room) and use it to "heat your house" you actually make other rooms colder, something about how the fire draws the oxygen from other areas or something like that. Not sure how true that is, but I can say it was always colder in the bedrooms on days my parents would light a fire in the living room than on days they wouldn't and they never changed the thermostat.

[Liz CA]

Wood. It's all about the smell. Yes, I know it's carcinogenic, I don't care.

 

Actually, aren't the new catalytic converters supposed to take care of that? And if it is really highly carcinogenic, more people would have had cancer 100 years ago than now. I thought the figures were reversed.

 

I am also for wood - smell is one aspect of it but there is just nothing like the radiant heat of a wood stove.

 

For OP, I'd ask myself this:

 

1. Do I lose power often and do I have propane gas or does gas come from the same place as power? We used to lose power regularly in winter and I have cooked on woodstoves and been warm when others were freezing because they had no power. Remember that for many gas appliances you need power to switch it on.

2. Price fluctuations - can be significant with either propane or natural gas

3. Do I have either access to wood or can I get a cord of wood for less than it would cost me to heat with gas?

This takes some figuring and of course depends on the efficiency of your wood stove. Newer models should be more efficient.

4. Do I mind the wood chopping and stacking or am I looking for some outdoor activity for my kids? :)

5. Do I want independence from either propane companies or power companies?

[gardenmom5]

Remember that for many gas appliances you need power to switch it on.

the blower for a gas fireplace won't work because it requires electricity. a gas stove with electronic ignition works just fine if the power is out if you use a lighter.

 

we've lost our power a few times for as much as a week. (the property whose trees have at least three times taken out power lines on our street - and BLOCKED it until gas chain saws were available - has been sold to a developer and most of the trees cut down. most of the street is celebrating those trees being gone.) we got a gas water heater so we'd still have hot water, and a gas cook top so we could cook.

 

our wood fireplace puts out more heat than any gas fireplace we've ever seen - except one, but that one required an electric powered blower that would not work in a no power situation.

 

dh *really* wants a NG powered generator and has been looking into them.

 

eta: heating with wood ALSO depends upon the type of wood used. rotten woods puts out almost NO BTU's. (just an example, but a campground in CA only sold rotten wood. total rip off.) i.e. cottonwood is pretty worthless for heat. madrona/cherry/hardwood put out lots of BTU's and they burn long. we have several types of wood, and we sort them by type. we only burn the really high BTU wood if we want the heat.

[AKshanmar]

In our last house we had a wood fireplace, with a gas starter! Kind of a nice combo.

 

In Florida, I'd go with the gas option.

 

Well, I guess in Alaska, I'd go with the gas option too, as we have 4 gas stoves in our B&B! We also have one wood stove, but it is really a lot of work!

[AndrewsDK]

If we are talking wood STOVE vs. wood FIREPLACE vs. gas FIREPLACE, they really are very different things.

 

i would choose a wood STOVE for emergency heat, emergency cooking, heating large areas.

Wood/Gas FIREPLACES are good only for mostly ambiance and heating one room, but gas is much much more convenient.

 

If you are mainly going for ambiance, I would chose gas every time.

[Lizzie in Ma]

Wood is my personal preference, nothing like it.

[Researcher]

Gas is my preference, always. Wood creates mess and triggers allergies in 3 people in my home. As for not having power, we've always had the kind that worked even without power. Easy peasy to light and then we have heat and some light if the power goes out.

[ksr5377]

Don't forget that with wood, you're locked into hours of heat. You might not want to leave it burning if you go out or go to bed. Wood fires take time to burn out, so you have to plan your evening accordingly.

 

This is actually one of the main reasons we hardly ever use our fireplace. By the time we sit down together after the kids are in bed and think it would be nice to have a fire, it's not worth the effort to get one going for an hour. We're in the NE, so I appreciate the wood fireplace for the two times we have been without heat. However, on a day to day basis, if it were gas it would get used SO much more!

ETA: Also, another time DH and I are always thinking it would be nice to have a fire is when we have company. However, my mother and several others we know would have asthma and allergy attacks if we did it.