suggestions electric "stove-style" heaters i.e dimplex

[jives11]

Hi,

My Mums old Dimplex log effect bar fire (30 years old) finally died last year and she replaced it with a "stove style" electric heater she got through Clifford James via a Radio Times special offer. It's looks like metal stove (in fact it's black MDF) with a flame effect and fan heater.

It's not a dimplex, though they sell similar looking models . Thing is it's a nightmare. You have to remove 20+ screws and pretty much disassemble the entire thing to change the bulbs and also remove a sheet of glass which has no edge protection.

It's 13 months old and the motor which generates the flame effect by rotating some vanes has started to make a rumbling sound (bearing ?). I'm going to argue the toss with them, but in terms of replacement I wonder if anyone has any good experiences of free standing flame effect electric heaters ? i.e build and ease of replacing the bulbs ?

The old Dimplex has a couple of bulbs and cunningly used passive spinners which turned through updraft from the red bulbs underneath

Amazon and Argos list a couple of similar stove effect models, but my concern is that these are just the same stuff OEM'd

[meow2222]

Updraught operated fire effect wheels are very unreliable, so yours is better in that respect.

Can you add an access port for easy bulb changes? And add a series capacitor to drop the bulb voltage slightly to get 20x the life out of it.

Little motors of various sorts arent too hard to find.

NT

[Owain]

I expect the Dimplex ones are a bit better built.

I'd suggest going to the glen-dimplex website and filling in the brochure request form; they'll send you a nice colourful brochure.

Dimplex still do a couple of the "log effect" radiant bar fires, as well as wall-mounting "Studio" radiant bar fires, if that's what's wanted.

If it's not needed for heat, an LCD telly and a "real fire" DVD might fill the gap cheaper than some of the more expensive decorative fires :-)

Owain