Many prospective buyers of a fireplace sooner or later come to the point where they must decide between a regular wood-burning fireplace and a gas-burning model, whose popularity has increased significantly in recent years. While many customers are initially put off by the supposedly “fake” nature of a gas fireplace, it is a fact that the improvements in technology for gas fireplaces have made it almost impossible to distinguish between wood and gas fireplaces without closer inspection. Let us explore the reasons for this in detail.
The appearance of the flame and especially its color used to be a main point of contention. A gas flame tends to be bluer than a flame created by burning wood, leading to a distinctively different appearance. While this used to be true a long time ago, this obstacle has been completely removed today through improvements in burner technology, which permit a gas/air ratio which will approximate the color of a normal flame without creating too much soot.
The look of the imitation logs used in a gas fireplace is another important topic. Again, the quality of the simulated logs in gas fireplace inserts has increased drastically in recent years, making it almost impossible to tell the difference to wood even at close range. The way that these logs are now positioned relative to the gas burner make it look almost as if the flames originate from the logs themselves.
OF course, the one thing that still makes it easy to distinguish a gas fireplace from a wood-burning one is the clear absence of any wood fire smells. This fact, which is due to the odorless products of burning gas, even allows for the possibility of a ventless gas fireplace, something which would be impossible for an indoor wood fireplace. This in fact remains the major difference between the two types of fireplaces and is often seen as a distinctive advantage of gas fireplaces.