Yeominster Radiant Bar Fire, Black Traditionally Styled Freestanding Electric Fireplace with Glowing Log Ember Fuel Bed and 1.2kW Heater With 600/1200 Watt Heat Settings

This is the best 2 bar fire you can buy not to experience to run gives out good heat light to move around good quality

We got this to replace our old Berry Magicoal which has given over 40 years trusty service. Sadly the elements for the Berry are now pretty hard to find and quite pricey, you can get much cheaper replacement elements for the Yeominster, although it remains to be seen how long they'll last. At first sight the Yeominster looks pretty solid + well made, although made in China (aren't they all...). Like others we were concerned with the flickering light, it comes on as soon as you switch the mains plug on, whether you turn on the heater elements or not. The flicker is caused by a rotating disk of thin aluminium that spins around at speed and is certainly annoying, whatever idiot dreamt that one up goodness alone knows. But it's easy to fix, just take off the plastic logs (held on with 2 screws) and you can slide the disk out, bye-bye flicker. We discovered too that if you remove the back you can lever off the golden curvy plastic thing that looks like a garish Xmas decoration, and also the flicker disk holder (a small aluminium frame attached to the back of the fire). You're left with a few small holes in the back but we think this aesthetically preferable to the garish nonsense supplied. We also changed the flicker bulb (a normal-sized 60W red light bulb!!) for a 25W red one. Now you just see a quiet red glow behind the logs - ahhhh, now we can relax... The elements themselves can each be put on separately or both at the same time and like all radiant heaters throw out the heat nicely. All in all a bit pricey but hoping it'll gives years of good service.

Okay, it's a tad old fashioned but after a nightmare fortnight with a nice modern looking but horrendous new fan heater posing as a fire, it felt like the best purchase I have ever made in my life. The fan heater had left my skin cold to the touch and me feeling cold to the bone, noisily blowing cold air on to me in an extremely annoying fashion (unless standing right in front, right in the centre, within 2 foot distance). I find fan heaters only serve to make the air warm and unpleasantly dry and thick to breath. The fan heater left my throat parched, cracked and my chest sore. The fan heater also only provided expensive heat that disappeared within two minutes of switching it off and if I opened the door, within seconds it was like it had not been on at all day. The Yeominster fire, on the other hand, warmed me and I could breath comfortably once more. The level of heat this two bar electric radiant fire kicks out even on one bar is astounding, my old radiant bar electric fire was never this effective despite being a (now defunct) Dimplex model also. The two radiant bars the Yeominster possesses each have their independent switches, so no faffing around with thermostats, in fact it does not have a thermostat at all, which I personally prefer as my old radiant bar fires all broke down when the thermostat went, leaving me with only one bar in the depths of winter. The log effect part and gold motif (this is bolted on and I think it may be possible to remove it and paint it with a bit of hammerite or similar to change the colour although I haven't tried it) are a bit plasticky but are ok. There is a red fireglow bulb that provides a flickering effect but I could take that or leave it be honest, not my favourite feature and you cannot switch it off unless you turn the whole thing off at the plug. The black metalwork is a nice matt slightly textured finish and seems very durable. I've found dusting this fire with a paint brush makes it easy to clean. The reflector behind the bars is very shiny and well positioned and is very effective at throwing the heat forward. It's compact without being too small. I also found the Yeominster uses fewer units per day of electricity to keep my living room warm in comparison with the the fan heater fire which was practically gobbling units. I would caution anyone with children to get a fire guard with this as small fingers could get between the protective wire guard already on it but that's true for all good fires. The black metal part does get quite warm around the sides but the log effect area and decorative back panel stays cool and there is virtually no heat that leaks below nor behind the unit. Overall, I found this product well worth the money. I am very happy with it.

After having a couple of freestanding blow type heaters, I decided to try a heater that reminded me of wintery school mornings of getting ready by the fire. The ones I had previously, I was happy with but quickly learned that not only are they not long lasting, but that the heat soon disappeared once they were turned off and didn't give that all round warmth, just direct heat. They looked good but that was about it really, they wasn't even very cost effective to run. None of the above applies to this wonderful fire. This is generously sized and heats a whole room within a couple of hours which lasts once it's turned off also far cheaper to run. For me, and this is just my opinion, there are a few things I don't like about this fire. Firstly, the gold embellishment on the back plate is far too gaudy for my liking - think the bright gold lucky cat you often see in Chinese take-aways - not for me. I plan to cover it in a more muted gold leaf, or upcycle it in some other way. Secondly, I'm not a fan of the flame effect but as someone has already said, this is easily removed which I also plan to do. And thirdly, I would have preferred the switches to be hidden on the side or something and not directly on top. But that's just me. Having said all that, I am delighted with this fire and worth every penny spent. It's also silent, no noise at all which I appreciate. If you want a fire that's not recommended to be used only occasionally and does what it's supposed to then this is it. Of course I recommend!

I've had two of these heaters in the past when they were originally made by Glen Prilect, and I was extremely pleased with the appearance, durability and performance. So, now that my current heater is over twenty years old I thought it was time to replace it with the Dimplex version as it seems almost identical. Being summer, I haven't used it yet so can't comment on the performance, but sadly the quality is very inferior compared to the original Glen Prilect. The Dimplex Yeominster not only looks cheap and tacky, but is also very flimsily made - the fuel bed on this new version is log rather than coal effect and is only half the height of the original so definitely does not give the same cheery glow, in fact it hardly gives any glow at all. In fairness, the price hasn't gone up that much in the past twenty years so I suppose they had to cut corners to achieve this, Personally, I would've preferred to pay a bit more for the original quality. Hopefully the heating will be adequate to see me through this winter, but unless the product improves I doubt that I would purchase it again. Update December 2019 - Today this heater burst into flames!!!! Luckily I was sitting nearby when it happened so was able to put out the fire without the house going up in flames as well. As I live in Greece this heater is only used for a couple of months each year (total usage approx. 12 months over four years) so I expected it to last much longer. Definitely no comparison with the old Glen-Prilect model, which was far superior and lasted twenty years.