LegendFlame 23" W Free Standing Electric Fireplace Log Set (EF290), Fireplace Insert, Heater 750W/1500W, Crackling Sound, Remote Control

The media could not be loaded. Legend Flame 25” Electric log setI don’t often write reviews. This electric burring fireplace log set, Legend Flame 25”, is worth my effort to write a review. I purchased the 25” log set in Feb. 2024 and it is now April 2025. Over the 13 months we have used this unit for 7 months. During that time, we have enjoyed the unit about 4 hours almost every night. The unit is still working like new. To find the best electric log set, I spent about 6 hours searched on line. I went to two different cities to look at fireplace gas inserts and electric log sets. I ordered three electric log sets. I had all 3 sets together so I could try each one in my fireplace in one night to see which was best. The $600 one was the worst. The other two I ordered from Amazon. The one I didn’t choose had more realistic looking logs but less brightness. It cost more but had a cheap soft remote. I Spent $269.00 for the Legend Flame 25”. The fire is not real looking but it is close and it is awesome. By the way, it has a great quality remote. We love our electric log set. We turn it on almost every night. We leave the flame setting on high. The crackling sound is great. I have to turn it down while watching TV for my hearing aids pick up too much of the crackling sound. Reading other review, some do not like the sound. My advice: turn the crackling volume down and stop critical listing especially for the repeating track. After about a week or so, you may find yourself really liking the crackling. We have never used the heater for we have glass doors on our fireplace. Even though there are airways at the bottom of the door frame, the doors would trap too much of the heat and running the heater would be an energy waster. By the way, the heaters in these log sets are all about the same size as any space heater that you buy at any Walmart store. Electric codes and log design do not allow large heaters to be plugged into any standard outlet. In the evening while we are watching TV, it is better to just turn up the thermostat one degree and grab a blanket.Reading some of the other reviews they suggested taking a black permanent marker and mark the thin edge of the plexiglass to help make it blend into the background of the fire box and prevent the glow reflection coming from the edge. The inside of my fire box is black from fire smoke and soot. I used the black ink marker to go over the edge two times to cover well. This made a big difference. During the day I can see the plexiglass a little and I don’t like seeing it. My fireplace is dark inside and over time I have gotten used to the plexiglass. I tried the unit out without the plastic but the plastic does a better job making the flames show more. In some of the videos and reviews the owners chose not to use the plexiglass. You do have to adjust your log set forward or back to see which position is best for the flames to show well.Setting My Log Set UpDue to the glass doors cutting off the bottom view of the lighted coals, I cut 2” cinder blocks to line the bottom of the fireplace. This raised the log set up which made the viewing of the lighted log set much better. I ordered two sets of flickering Halloween lights and black volcanic rock or something like that. I used a flat black paint and sprayed the left-over block pieces. I had an outlet-cube with a remote so I can turn the flickering Halloween lights on and off remotely.“ Important” It doesn’t look good to place these lights all over the bottom of your fireplace. I grouped one set to the right and ran the end of the first set behind the log set. I plugged the second set into this end. I grouped the second set on the left. I used the painted black block pieces and some burned wood to hold the wires down and hide some of the lights. I then used about three gallons of the black lava rock to finish hiding all the wires and the lights. You need to view your lights at night. I had to redo the lights 3 times. Two of the times I had to remove most of the black lava rock. If you don’t have patience don’t add these lights. If they are done right, they look fantastic. (See my video and decide)Even though I have the fireplace damper closed, I covered the chimney liner block opening with a 3” deep metal pan that I had made up at the tin shop. I used caulking to glue it in place. This keeps the cold air and rain out. This will prevent moisture from damaging the electric log set. I have enclosed two videos. I hope you can view them. I had a hell of a time uploading them on my computer and to open them. I would buy this unit again. In the video you will be able to see the Halloween lights hidden in the coals when I click them on and off. I like the added lights which help light up the fire box and glowing embers.

I was nervous about this purchase. Would it look cheap and tacky? It way exceeded my expectations. I love it. Looks realistic and I don't think it sounds bad as some reviews say. You can use it without sound or heat but I use both.

OMG! I love this fireset! Just bought a house with a fireplace that I couldn't use as it was not up to code, so I bought this fireplace. I couldn't be happier! Has the glow, crackle, flames and heat of a real fire with the press of a button. My son and daughter in law saw it one time and loved it too.

This has been a great addition to my Florida beach cottage. Heat not needed much of the time but on occasion it brings additional warmth to the room. Great atmosphere enhancer. Good purchase.

The media could not be loaded. I got this to convert my alcohol gel fuel fireplace to electric fire.When I purchased the fireplace, the gel fuel was $25 for 12 cans. Burning 3 cans of fuel at once gave you a real fire with about 8000 BTUs of heat without the smoke and hassle of dealing with ash. I can’t have a gas fireplace, so this was the compromise.Over the years, the cost of the gel fuel has risen from $25/12 cans to $96/12 cans. Where it once cost $3.50 for a fire that lasted 3 hours, it now costs $24 for those same 3 hrs of burn time. The heat from that fire costs more than that from the central heating.Also the EPA decided that a chemical scent needed to be added to the gel fuel like propane and natural gas, so that consumers would know that a flammable fuel was in use. Now, every time I burn the gel fuel, my entire house reeks from the added scent chemicals. (The gel fuel manufacturers still advertise the fuel as Oder free, but that’s a lie.)That’s when I started to seriously look at electric fireplaces. Back in 1995, when I bought the gel fuel fireplace, electric fireplaces looked laughably fake. Everything was made of hollow plastic with an incandescent flicker bulb creating the “fire” effect. The fireplace, itself, was usually made of lightweight fiberglass with a simulated stone façade. (My fireplace mantle is made of real cherrywood.)Electric fires today have come a long way in realism. There are still cheap electric hearths that look like the plastic they’re made of, but they’ve all been updated to flickering LEDs.After looking at every option, from TV screens with plastic logs attached to their fronts and electric hearths with spinning reflectors, I settled on two choices.The Dimplex 20-in Revillusion® Plug-in Electric Fireplace Log Set and the LegendFlame 23" W Free Standing Electric Fireplace Log Set.I got this one, LegendFlame 23" W Free Standing Electric Fireplace Log Set. It was half the cost of the Dimplex, but used nearly identical synthetic fire technology.The LegendFlame 23" is the same size as the metal grates and ceramic logs that I had in the gel fuel fireplace and it fit perfectly after a few small modifications.The “fire” is projected onto a frosted plexiglass screen to give the realistic flame height of a real fire. I my case, the plexiglass screen attached to the back of the hearth was too tall for my firebox. The LegendFlame 23" needs almost 20” of firebox height, mine was only 17.5” at the back wall. It was designed to reflect as much light and heat from the original burning gel fuel.I had planned to drill new mounting holes into the plexiglass, but that would cause the screen to partially cover the vents on the back of the unit. Fortunately, there was an easy fix for me. Since my firebox was made of powder coated steel, I simply attached the plexiglass screen to the back wall of the firebox with 3M Command adhesive strips.A lot of people commented that the screen is very visible during the day. For me, that was less of a problem because the lower height of my back wall was designed to hide the cans of burning gel fuel.However, I later removed the plexiglass and lined the back wall of my firebox with frosted window film. The screen was still noticeable if you sat on the floor, so I had to find a solution to that problem. Otherwise, I’d focus on the screen and not the fire.I’m fortunate that the back of my firebox has a smooth black surface that is ideal to mount frosted window film to use as a projection screen for the flame effect.If you’ve got real stone or brick masonry, this won’t work, so I would suggest, instead, to buy a sheet of frosted plexiglass or acrylic and cut it to completely cover the back of your firebox from edge to edge.So on to the actual review of the LegendFlame 23" W Free Standing Electric Fireplace Log Set.I grew up in a house with a real wood burning fireplace that got used every winter. The flame effect is very realistic compared to a real fire. These fake electric fires have come a long way.I did deduct one star for the “crackling fire” sound effect. Like others have said, it sounds like the fire is burning in a metal bucket. (In all fairness, the burning gel fuel sounded the same because it was burning in 8oz. Paint cans)Edit: I’ve since replaced the built in speaker with the $14 Dayton Audio PC68-4 2-1/2" Full-Range Poly Cone Driver that was suggested by another reviewer. The sound quality is much better than before. Thanks to the reviewer who suggested it.It’s easy to replace the original speaker. Removing 7 screws that attach the silver cover under the base gives you direct access to the speaker. Just remove the two screws that attach the speaker to the housing. The new speaker just clips in place of the original speaker and mounts perfectly inside and behind the speaker grill.One big want for the sound is better volume control. You should be able to adjust the sound level linearly like on a TV remote. Not in steps of three fixed levels. To my ear, the lowest level is still unnaturally loud. In my case, that could be attributed to the fact that the firebox was designed to project the sound of burning gel fuel into the room.( I covered the speaker with foam, but most of the sound is resonating in the heater box.The heat output is just OK. It won’t heat a room with only 4-5000 BTUs. The fan is relatively quiet for a space heater, but in this case I wish it was silent.What’s the verdict? I really like this electric fire. It really does look like a real fire burning in my fireplace. Burn some sandalwood incense for the scent and smoke effect and people will probably mistake it for the real thing. (Provided they don’t look too closely)Four stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

My wife gets migraines from the smell of burning wood. This works great. It has the ambience of a real fire and even has the crackling sounds. The loudest sound is not realistic but the others are. I like the fact the fire can be used with or without the heater. Highly recommended.

This thing is great. We didn’t use the clear plastic. Highly recommend buy this fire.