Upgrade Your Outdoor Kitchen’s Wood Stove to a Gas Fireplace
You have an outdoor fireplace to enjoy when the weather is cool or you want to cook outside. You love your classic wood burner, but you wonder if a gas fireplace replacement is best for your outdoor entertainment needs.
For starters, wood burners give off an excessive amount of heat (depending on the type and quality of wood you burn), which makes it hard to control temperatures when a fire is lit. Secondly, wood burners leave a lot of soot and ash behind, which can make sitting around an outdoor fire undesirable.
The following are five reasons to consider upgrading your classic wood burner to a gas fireplace.
- Gas Fireplaces Are Clean
When you install a gas fireplace in your outdoor kitchen, you don’t have to worry about creosote buildup, soot, or ashes. In fact, gas fireplaces require much less maintenance than wood-burning fireplaces do.
Since gas fireplaces burn more cleanly than wood-burning appliances do, they are less likely to aggravate family members’ asthma or allergies.
- Gas Fireplaces Are Attractive
Gas fireplaces offer the same quality flame and comforting appeal as wood fireplaces and stoves do, without the flickering ash and smoke. If you prefer a streamlined approach to outdoor heating, then gas is a wise alternative to classic wood burners: Gas fireplaces can be custom-designed with glass inserts, ornate metal detailing, and appealing grates for beautiful fire enjoyment outdoors.
- Gas Fireplaces Are Cheaper to Operate
Most homes are outfitted with a gas fireplace over a wood alternative for a reason: Gas fireplaces are much cheaper to operate. On average, a gas fireplace costs around $60 to run and maintain, while a wood fireplace is three times as costly to operate throughout the year.
- Gas Fireplaces Are Easier to Use
You have to manually replenish the fuel to a wood burning unit in order to keep a fire lit. The type of wood you use, as well as the age of the wood (seasoned wood burns better than young wood), determines the heat — and smoke output — you get from a wood fire.
Gas fireplaces are far easier to operate. All you need to do to turn your gas fireplace on and heat your outdoor entertainment space efficiently and evenly is push a button. Some gas fireplace inserts even have a timer on them so you don’t have to remember to turn off your fire — something you cannot do with a wood burner.
- Gas Fireplaces Are Safer
Perhaps the biggest attraction gas fireplaces hold for homeowners is their safety. Since gas fireplaces use natural gas or propane to heat, once the gas has been turned off, the flames you’ve been enjoying go out. Not so with a wood burner — with a wood stove or fireplace, you have to wait until all the ashes are cold before the fire is really out.
You can also control the flame of a gas fireplace, unlike with a wood burner. If you don’t want to leave a fire unattended, you can shut a gas fireplace down immediately to reduce the chance of fire in your home.
A gas fireplace is a huge benefit in your home’s outdoor kitchen area, especially if you are currently using a wood-burning stove or fireplace. A professional fireplace technician will make the upgrade for you so you can enjoy efficient heat whenever you wish.
You have many styles of gas fireplaces to consider, so speak with your fireplace remodeling and installation expert about how you can best convert your current fireplace into a more modern design. Our experts at Alpine Fireplaces will help you transform your fireplace — call us today.
