Disclosure: I was kindly sent the Bredon Fire, Ceramic Logs, Small Flue and a pack of biofuel in exchange for an honest review – all opinions, video content and photographs are my own.
Growing up in the Cotswolds, in a small village, with gorgeous little cottages with cosy open fires, I had the idea that when I grew up I’d have one, one day.
Fast forward a good few years, and I haven’t got one yet – practicality took over. A new build was perfect for starting and growing our family – very little maintenance, and a blank canvas to make our own.
The thing that most new builds don’t have though is character – meaning you are left with a lot of long plain walls, which whilst perfect for filling with photos aren’t overly cosy.
We tried to bring some cosy in a few years ago by buying a free standing fake fire surround, with an electric woodburning stove, and it was fine, but because it was free standing, it collected dust, and the electric fire was noisy and worried me that it was costing a small fortune on our electric bill.
Fast forward to this year, and lockdown happened, and like a lot of people, so commenced the house projects. I’ve never loved the living room – we tried the dark blue wall, but it made all my Christmas decorations look a strange colour (first world problems), and showed up a lot of marks.
On a pinterest mission, I found myself pinning false chimney breasts – Ell was not initially keen, but like all my crazy ideas, once I convinced him he could build it – he never knows what he’s capable of until I make him try!! – we cracked on with our little project. I will write a separate post as to how we went about it – read *made it up as we went along* – but looking at the before and after photos below, I’m sure you’ll agree it looks so much cosier and like it has always been there.
Before 
After
The next thing was to decide what was going into the space in the false chimney breast. I started looking at better quality electric fires than what we had previously, but found the ones that looked more realistic to be very expensive, and still came along with complaints about running cost and noise. I spoke about it on my Instagram stories and a lobby follower pointed me in the direction of Imagin Fires. I had never heard of a biofuel fire before, and after a quick browse of their website, I was so excited I rang my husband, and my Mum and Dad at work to tell them about it – they had not heard of them either, but I was so excited my dream of having a ‘real fire’ was going to become reality.
Imagin fires very kindly sent us the Bredon Fire, the large ceramic log set, 12 bottles of Vanilla Biofuel and the small flue to review after I spoke to them via their social media.
Looking on the Imagin Fires website, they have such a huge range of choices – from more traditonal style wood burner stoves, to wall mounted ones and everything in between. We loved the style of the Bredon and knew immediately it would suit the size and style of our room. The fire arrived well packaged, and it was super easy to set up – literally just a case of attaching the silver hardware with the provided allen key, putting it in place, and then attaching the magnetic flue to the fire on one end, and screwing it to the wall on the other. There is a choice of a large or small flue and it is adjustable to get the perfect from the fire to the wall.
You can choose from different styles of ceramic logs or pebbles to dress the fire and we were so pleased with how the ceramic log set looked once we had arranged it inside – you arrange it around the edge of the fuel box to allow the flame to burn.
The only thing left to do was to fill it with fuel – which comes in an easy to pour bottles, in a pack of 12 – which gives approximately 50 hours of burning time. The fuel comes with a choice of low odour, or either vanilla or forest (pine) scented. The vanilla is not too strong, and scents the room without being overpowering. I think the Forest scent also sounds amazing – and am definitely going to purchase some for Christmas!
The trick with filling the fuel box is to make sure you use a whole bottle, and to make sure you clean up any spillages – you can see how to this in my video ‘how to’ below:
Once the fuel box is filled, just light it with a long lighter or match – the first time it made me jump but as long as you use a long lighter it is safe. The fire also comes with a glove and a tool to open and close the fuel box. To change the height/intensity of the flame you can close the fuel box slightly. All the heat comes out of the vents at the top of the fire, and it has 6mm stay clear safety glass, so you can always see the flame. The fire also come with a 12 month warranty – and the people at Imagin Fires are lovely!
When its time to extinguish the flame, you use the long tool (and the glove), and pull the fuel box closed. Also remember not to refuel it until it has cooled down which takes about 30 minutes.
Benefits of a Biofuel Fire:
*Freestanding – can be easily relocated
*Heat output is equivalent to an electric heater on medium
*No chimney or flue required
*Over £1500 cheaper than installing a traditional woodburning stove
*Flame control to adjust flame height and intensity
*Environmentally friendly fuel
Obviously with it being July, we haven’t had a huge amount of opportunity to try it out – it gives off a lovely amount of heat though, and although it wouldn’t be enough to heat a room by itself, it definitely warms the room plenty. I am so excited to use it more during Autumn and Winter – escpecially as we are often prone to power cuts here, so its nice to know we have a backup heat source.
The top and door of the fire does get very warm, so if you have little ones it might be worth investing in a fire guard, although we would normally use it in the evenings when the kids are in bed so this shouldn’t be an issue.
The things I love most about the Bredon Bioethanol fire, is the look of it – especially when lit – its a perfect real flame and so so cosy, and also that the fuel is environmentally friendly. It has totally finished off the look of our living room, and I’m so pleased with it.
Thankyou so much to Imagin Fires for kindly sending it for us to review.
If you would like to know more or have any questions, feel free to pop over and follow me on Instagram – you’ll find more living room photos over there too!