Do you like the idea of having a fireplace without the risk and the hassles involved with having a real fire? Thankfully there are many alternatives on the market that you can use, but the product we’re going to focus on in this article is the Duraflame DFI021ARU heater.
This model comes highly rated with several retailers, both online stores and in cornerstone stores, and we’ll take a look at the different features that make the Duraflame popular with customers everywhere.
What Is A Duraflame Heater?
Photo by Achudh Krishna via Unsplash
While there are many different models to look at that use the Duraflame brand name, the DFI021ARU remains the focus simply because we like the features that it presents for half of the cost of most electric fireplaces.
Just like other electric fireplaces, the Duraflame heater will provide an attractive flickering effect that recreates the look that fire offers as well as cheat to the room that you choose to put it in. You liked about this electric fireplace model is the fact that you can easily set it inside a pre-existing fireplace space and control it through remote control.
- 4,600 BTU heater provides supplemental zone heating for up to 400 square feet to help save you money
- Give up the mess of firewood when you place this log set heater in your existing fireplace
- Realistic log set and ember bed projects rolling flames onto the back of an existing fireplace
This unit is a convenient way to not only save on the cost of gas or the maintenance required on a chimney every time you use your fireplace, but the Duraflame heater also looks elegant and provides a safe alternative that’s capable of keeping the room you’re staying in nice and warm.
What Are The Features Provided With A Duraflame Heater?
Depending on the model of the electric heater that you choose to purchase, you will get presented with several features that make the Duraflame electric log heater set desirable to have in your home. You’ll have a choice between purchasing an electronic heater set or an infrared heater set, both sandwich serving different purposes depending on your needs.
Neither of these would all models need to be hooked up or installed, and you won’t have to worry about any special ventilation required to operate this unit. Instead, you’ll only need to plug it in and set the thermostat; however high you want it to be before kicking your feet up and enjoying the beautiful flame aesthetic and the feeling of warmth.
Electric
The electric portion of this heater can heat an area of 400 square feet thanks to the 4600 BTU heater that comes provided with this model. The unit itself features a six-foot cord so you can comfortably place your heater within any fireplace without concern that you won’t have an outlet nearby.
The hater also features an overheat protection safety shut-off that comes featured within the build of the unit. If your Duraflame electric heater gets knocked over or it starts to overheat, the automatic shut-off will kick into place and override the current settings.
Even if you have small children, you won’t have to worry about them touching it or playing around the Duraflame electric heater. The stove surface is cool to the touch, even while it’s in operation, and so your young children and even small pets will be able to brush up against the device without risk of being burned or seriously hurt.
These safety features are the best to consider when you’re looking for electric heaters in general only because it doesn’t take a lot to spark a fire in your home and young children and animals have a hard time understanding that these devices get extremely hot.
Being able to have a device that manages this will give you the peace of mind that you need to consider one of these products confidently.
Infrared
The infrared models of the Duraflame DFI heater have a heating capacity for up to a thousand square feet as well as 5200 BTUs that it can dish out. The increased amount of BTUs put out is perfect for individuals who are looking for more heat and have a larger space that they need to keep warm, especially during the winter.
The heating element comes made out of infrared quartz which not only provides a warm and comfortable heat to the area in which you are using this heater for, that it also helps to maintain the natural humidity that’s already present in the room.
Doing this does two things to provide comfort for individuals who are in the room at the time:
- A comfortable heat.
- It won’t dry out your skin.
Unlike most heaters, especially space heaters, that utilize infrared quartz well frequently destroy or diminish the natural humidity that resides within a living space. As a result, the air becomes dry, and individuals who use the area often will experience a sense of discomfort from that dryness whether it shows up as dry skin or other troubles.
Just like with the standard electric, the infrared Duraflame heater also features a six-foot cord that allows you to plan and place your infrared fireplace in a designated spot where it can help keep you warm while still looking great in the process. Infrared heating gets also known for its ability to reduce static in the immediate area that it’s heating, unlike traditional heaters.
Remote Access
The remote that comes with the Duraflame electric heater ( or infrared heater) is capable of doing everything that you could do with the manual control functions found on the side of the fireplace unit.
With the remote, you’ll be able to turn on your unit as well as turn it off when you get done with it, and you can control the heat in terms of temperature as well as the speed in which it comes out.
Along with the heat settings that come with your Duraflame heater, you will have the capability to control the flame feature as well as the different display settings that go with it. With the remote, you’ll be able to change the frequency of the pulse effect as well as be able to set fire to a steady result instead in the plastic log bed.
The remote controls the projected flames as well, giving you the option to select between five
different brightness levels as well as The overall intensity of the fire effects. Several buyers did find the remote usage problematic primarily when they didn’t accurately aim the remote receiver precisely towards through the lower right-hand side of the heater.
Also, if you are using this product in a larger room, you may be forced to get up and get closer to the heater itself for your remote to work as it has a severely limited range when it comes to the operation of your electrical heating unit.
While this is an inconvenient feature, and many customers were frustrated by these facts, the remote does perform well in the functions that it was built to do.
If you’d rather just have it set instead of utilizing the remote in order to operate your Duraflame heater, there is a panel to the lower right-hand side of your unit that allows you to adjust everything concerning the thermostat, the blower, as well as all of the flame effects both in the logs and on the projection.
Doing it will guarantee that the settings you want to have are the ones that you get versus wondering if your remote is functioning at the range that you were attempting to use it in.
Flame Feature
Despite whether you choose to utilize the heat feature or you enjoy the look of the fire that the unit shows, you’ll be able to enjoy the flame effects. The flame effect can be utilized all year round to make your fireplace Nook look attractive and provide a warm, homestyle feel.
While it’s pronounced that these flame effects don’t hold a candle to a proper fire, doing this is an excellent way of adding aesthetic to your home without the need of building a real fire and dealing with those costs.
The flame future creates a rolling and pulsating effect that makes your fireplace heater look like real flames while a projector displays flickering flames on the back of your horse to give the illusion that your logs are burning.
The lights themselves come made out of LEDs which means that not only are they saving you money while in operation, they’re guaranteed to last longer than any other bulb on the market. Both the infrared and the electric Duraflame heater come with these LEDs so despite what you choose to warm up your home, you’ll get to take advantage of the savings either way.
Portability
The Duraflame DFI heater only weighs about 13.5 pounds Which is light enough to pick up and carry around as you may need it. Accordingly, you can use it in your main living space or you can choose to move it from room to room as long as a plug-in is available at the links that the cord permits.
On top of its weight, the Duraflame heater gets reasonably sized at 25 inches wide by eight and a half inches deep and 12 inches tall, it’s the smallest of its class and it will fit in most fireplaces to provide the Heat and aesthetic that you want for your room.
Does Using The Duraflame Heater Save You Money?
Zone heating is a practice that allows a homeowner to or a specific room in the house where it is most populated during cold seasons while leaving the heat off in other parts of the house to reduce the amount of money that they use on an energy bill. This idea is also the concept that Duraflame electric heaters use to convince you that they are saving you money.
In all honesty, the costs associated with operating these electric heaters all relatively sit at the same level. Including the Duraflame heater, you will be paying no more or less than just about any other brand you pick up to heat your home.
As mentioned above, the Flames themselves are lit up through LED’s, and as a result, their cost of operation will be relatively low. It got estimated that the flames by themselves cost about $0.02 per hour and that roughly equates to $2 per month to operate if you use the flame effects mode four hours a day.
The heating is a different story altogether. If you operate the heat and the flames at the same time while the heating blower is on a high, you’re looking at about $0.15 per hour to work the device.
If you ran this device for four hours every day for an entire month utilizing the maximum 1400 watts that’s rated for this heater; then you’re looking to add about $18 on average to your electric bill every month. Of course, the majority of what you’ll experience on your actual electricity bill will get determined by several different factors.
These factors include:
- The cost of electricity in your home state.
- The modes that you choose to operate the device in.
- How long you run the actual unit.
It’s not difficult to figure out the average price for energy in your state; you can find a guide here that will go through every state and how much it costs a consumer on average for electricity. Secondly, you can also utilize and an online calculator to determine what your average cost is going to be using the data that comes provided on your energy bill.
Our Verdict
via Giphy
For the price that you’re paying for all of the features and functions that the Duraflame DFI heater produces, this is an excellent product to bring home and enjoy. We like the fact that you can change the brightness of your projected flames and the rolling effects that you can improve or operate through the remote control that gets provided with your purchase.
The remote may not be the best when it comes to trying to operate the machine. However, it still works for a majority of people, and it always does the job that it was designed to do. One major drawback that a lot of people commented on was the fact that when the blower starts pushing heat out into the room that you’re sitting in, it can be a bit loud and disruptive.
Unfortunately, most heaters of this type will experience a louder sound similar to this and if that fact is a deal breaker for you, you’ll have to look into higher priced models in order to get a device that doesn’t make a lot of noise when it’s in the middle of pushing heat into your living space.
Featured Image via Amazon