When you want to purchase a new fireplace, you always tend to enter a dilemma because you simply don’t know what type of fireplace you should opt for, a gas based or a wood based one. Before you choose either one of these two fireplace types, you should try and find which one of them suits your needs best, based on different criteria.

Usage Difficulty

Difficulty of use needs to be one of the first aspect to look into when you are selecting a new fireplace. The gas based fireplaces are very easy to use, you just have to flip a switch and that’s it, you have heat instantly. When it comes to wood fireplaces, you will have to get the wood, then arrange it in a certain way and once that is done, you will have to take care of it constantly by adding more and more wood into the mix. As you can see, a wood fireplace is much harder to use than a gas based one.

Fuel Costs

This is where the wood based fireplaces shine. You can find wood just about anywhere, from hardware stores to the middle of the woods. Wood is an inexpensive fuel for the fireplace, and while it might be harder to transport sometimes, it’s well worth it. On the other hand, you can’t create natural gas on your own, so you are at the mercy of local providers. And, while natural gas isn’t that expensive, it is a little more expensive than wood, so if you want lower fuel costs, wood is the fuel you need to opt for.

Maintenance

Cleaning your fireplace is a chore you do need to perform as often as possible in order to keep it safe for use. And, while a gas based fireplace is very easy to maintain and operate, getting rid of the whole ash, logs and soot that remain after burning wood requires quite a lot of work. If you don’t remove everything properly, then you might have to face some safety problems and you want to avoid such a thing at all costs. So when it comes to maintenance, a gas based fireplace is the safe bet.

The Experience They Provide

Sitting in front of the fireplace is an experience on its own, one that should be enjoyed to its fullest. Let’s face it, hearing the logs crackle as they heat us and seeing the fire in front of you is very rewarding, so by far the best experience here comes in the form of a wood based fireplace.

In conclusion, both fireplaces offer different types of experiences, and depending on the requirements you have you can easily choose the one that suits your needs. If you want low maintenance and very easy to use, choose the one based on natural gas, but if you want the best fireplace experience as well as the lowest costs you might want to opt for the wood based one instead.