During this summer just gone Mr H and I had a new central heating system fitted. During the installation we decided to have the horrible old gas fire removed and the hole in the wall bricked up. Unfortunately this left us with no focal point for our nice wooden fire surround so the hunt was on for something to fill the void.

Nothing can beat the appeal of a roaring fire in the winter; it is the best place to curl up in front of with a mug of hot chocolate, a blanket and a good book.

Sadly due to expense and excessive work needing to be done to the existing chimney we could not have the wood burning stove we so desired so we decided to look for an electric substitute.

Our hunt for something affordable, which looked nice and would fit in the space, led us to B&Q. As we were electric fire hunting in the middle of the so called summer the choice of fires was some what eclipsed by the massive choice of fans that strangely enough nobody was buying.

After a short while we decided on the Small Traditional Electric Stove, currently available in B&Q for the very reasonable price of £71.

The stove comes in black cast iron effect and measures 545mm x 345mm x 235mm (HxWxD). As the Stove is electric no chimney is required, just close proximity to an electrical outlet. The heat output is rated at 0.9kW minimum and 1.8kW maximum. B&Q recommend that the fire is fitted by a qualified electrician but in all honesty we just took it out of the box, concealed the wire behind the fireplace, placed it on the hearth and plugged it in.

The controls of the fire are very simple to use and are hidden by the glass door on the front. The first button is the power on/off, the second is the flame effect on/off and the third is the heater on/off. You can have the flame effect on with out the heater or you can have the heater on without the flame effect or you can have flame effect and the heater on, it is up to you.

The flame effect is quite nice; the effect is caused by two low wattage bulbs. The light under the fake coals make the coals appear to glow and the second light creates the flickering flame effect behind the glowing coals.

When the heater is turned on the heat is instant, a bit like being blasted by a hair dryer. As the heater is a blow heater it is quite loud.

We usually only have the flame effect on the stove in the evenings as it casts a warm glow and makes the lounge feel very welcoming and cosy and we very rarely use the heater.

Being black the Stove is a bit of a dust magnet, dust manages to make its way into the decorative vents on the door but they are easy to clean as they are accessible when the Stove door is open. The glass in the door is also easy to keep clean.

I can't think of any downsides to the Stove, apart from the noise of the blow heater, but as we don't use the heater very often it is not an issue. The gentle glow given by the flame effect is very nice and gives a warm welcome feel to the lounge.

The bulbs in the Stove are easy to replace, the back panel just needs removing and then bulb can be swapped with another low wattage bayonet bulb. The stove is quite heavy and is not something I would want to lift and carry about, this is definitely a static heater.

In conclusion I think this is a great little electric stove and is a great substitute for the real thing, it is simple to fit and maintain and gives instant heat and adds the much needed focal point to our fire surround.

Thank you for reading.