Fireplace Gas Logs - Useful Suggestions

By Author: Paul Zayer
Total Articles: 63
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I used to think that fireplace gas logs were pretty tacky. You see, I am a big believer in form following function. It's fine if you are having a fire in the fireplace. Fireplace logs look the way they do because that is what they are. If you're going to use a gas burning fireplace, why make it look like it is filled with real logs? It doesn't make sense. Using a fireplace gas log is just a form of nostalgia, you see. If you want a real wood burning fire, have one. Otherwise don't.

Nevertheless, I was really impressed with the realism when I was over at my cousins house - a cousin who has fireplace gas logs. The fireplace gas logs looked very close to the original. I had been burning fires in my fireplace for years. In the middle of the room where I grew up, there was free standing fireplace. Although my parents had installed internal heating, we still had the old wood burning stove that we could use to heat the house. It looked great and cozy and was very practical. It really offered a cheap way to heat the entire house

The fireplace gas logs looked so realistic. The fireplace'style was almost exactly the same ...
... as the one we had when I was young, and each fireplace gas log seems like it had been hand split and thrown on a pile of wood. for someone who grown up burning real fire place logs I had to admit that it provided a tempting imitation. I wondered what would happen if you grew up in a house that burns fireplace gas logs? Would a real fireplace burning real wood look like an attempt to simulate the cozy fire that you had grown up with? Would you never become attached to fire in the same way that people who grew up burning wood were? It really is hard to know!

Although I like my cousin's direct vent fireplace, I still like having a real wood burning fireplace a little bit better. The fireplace gas logs are great. They are much better than I would have thought. But if you ask me, nothing beats the real thing. If you can't see the wood spark, can't stir the fire with a poker, and can't smell the smell of burning timber, it is not a real fireplace no matter how good it looks. Maybe it is better than nothing, but it is still not quite genuine. It is my opinion for now of course. Either way a fireplace is nice to have. Just be careful and enjoy it.