The Klaus is Bob Vila's overall pick for the category and Popular Mechanics' best traditional insert, and both awards come down to the front face: double glass doors, a mesh curtain, and a three-sided brick liner behind a resin log on a grate. It is a conversion product, meant to drop into a hearth or a framed cutout, and the flat bottom means it can sit straight on the floor of an opening with no hearth built under it. Popular Mechanics puts the output above 5,000 BTU for rooms up to 400 square feet. The reservations are consistent across both publications: the crackling audio does not convince, the control panel sits where you can see it, and there is no hardwire option.
Full review
Double glass doors and a mesh curtain, not a flat pane
The thing that separates the Klaus from every wall-mounted unit in this lineup is that the front of the firebox is built rather than printed. There are two hinged glass doors and a mesh curtain behind them, the same arrangement a real wood-burning insert uses to stop embers, and the effect at a distance is that the room contains a fireplace rather than a screen. Bob Vila made this its overall pick on exactly that basis, writing that the Klaus "adds a classic look to any home" and "features logs that glow, flames that dance, and a fire that snaps."
Popular Mechanics reached the same conclusion from a more technical angle, naming it best traditional insert and calling out "double glass doors and a mesh curtain, plus a well-designed, inconspicuous grille covering the heat vent." That grille is easy to overlook and hard to get right: the vent has to move air without announcing itself, and on cheaper inserts it is a slot cut across the front where your eye lands first.
Flat bottom drops it onto a hearthless floor
PuraFlame designed the base flat, and Bob Vila flags why that matters: "the flat bottom of the electric fireplace allows for installation directly on the floor for hearthless fireplaces." Plenty of inserts assume they are being lowered onto a raised masonry hearth and have feet, brackets or a recessed underside that need packing out when the opening has a flat floor. The Klaus does not, which removes a carpentry step from a conversion job.
The insert measures 35.04 inches wide by 22.44 inches high by 8.78 inches deep and PuraFlame builds the Klaus in three sizes, so a hearth that will not take the 33-inch unit may still take a narrower one. Popular Mechanics lists it as usable freestanding or wall-mounted as well, though the closed-door styling is designed to be seen inside an opening rather than hung on a flat wall.
Three-sided brick behind a resin log
Inside the doors there is a brick-pattern liner on three walls rather than the mirrored black cavity most electric inserts use, and Bob Vila lists the "contemporary design with 3-sided interior brick wall" among the three things it likes most. The liner does the same job real firebrick does in a wood insert, which is to give the flame something textured to fall on so the light does not simply vanish into black.
Sitting on the grate is a 7.5-inch resin log lit from above and below by an LED array, with an ember bed underneath. Three flame settings vary the intensity and brightness, and the whole effect can be run with the heater switched off. It is the same basic engine PuraFlame uses in its open-hearth Western insert; the difference is that here you are looking at it through glass.
Six crackling tracks Bob Vila found unconvincing
The Klaus includes six crackling audio tracks selectable from the remote, and this is the feature both publications are least impressed by. Bob Vila's entire con list for its overall pick is one line: "Crackling sound effect not very realistic." It is a fair criticism of recorded fire audio generally — a short sample looping in a small speaker cavity tends to read as a rhythm rather than as randomness — and it is worth knowing before you buy that the sound is a novelty you will probably switch off.
It is still more than the wall units here offer. Neither Touchstone Sideline model has audio at all, and the Duraflame 3D Infrared Electric Fireplace Stove (DFI-5010) does not either; Family Handyman's tester specifically wished it did. If crackling matters to you, the Klaus and the PuraFlame Western 33-inch Electric Fireplace Insert are the only two options in this lineup that have it.
Over five thousand BTU on a two-stage heater
The heater runs at either 750 or 1,500 watts, and Popular Mechanics puts the output at "more than 5,000 BTUs to heat rooms up to 400 square feet" with 5,100 BTU in its specification block. There is an adjustable thermostat with a no-heat option, so the flame can run through the summer, and the remote handles the flame settings, the crackling tracks and the heat together.
In practice that is the same class of output as the two Touchstone wall units and slightly less than the Duraflame stove's infrared element. The advantage an insert has is placement: sitting inside a masonry opening, the surrounding brick absorbs and re-radiates some of the heat, which makes the room feel warmer for longer after the unit cycles off than a wall-mounted panel does.
The 750-watt setting is more useful than it looks on a specification sheet. Running an electric fireplace at full output in a small room overshoots quickly and then leaves the heater cycling hard, which is when fan noise becomes noticeable. Dropping to the low stage lets the thermostat hold a temperature with the blower running more gently, and it roughly halves the running cost for the long evenings when the fireplace is on mostly for the light.
The control panel and the cord are the caveats
Popular Mechanics lists two cons and both are about installation rather than performance. The first is that the control panel sits on the front of the unit and is "a bit conspicuous" — an unavoidable irritation on a product whose whole argument is that it looks like a real firebox. The second is that the Klaus "can't be hardwired" and has to be plugged into an outlet, so a conversion in a room with no outlet inside or beside the fireplace opening means running a cord or paying an electrician to add one.
This Old House adds the practical limitation of any insert: it "takes longer to install with its inserted design" and "can't be moved from room to room." Once the Klaus is in the hearth it is effectively part of the house, which is fine if you own it and a poor idea if you do not.
Against the Western insert in the same catalogue
PuraFlame sells two 33-inch inserts and it is worth being clear about the difference before ordering. The Klaus is the closed one: glass doors, mesh curtain, 22.44 inches tall. The PuraFlame Western 33-inch Electric Fireplace Insert is the open one, roughly four inches taller at the same width, with glass front trim rather than doors and a more exposed hearth. Bob Vila gave overall honours to the Klaus and its most-realistic award to the Western, which is a reasonable summary of the split.
Choose the Klaus if the opening you are filling looks like a stove alcove or if you want something between the fire and a curious pet. Choose the Western if the opening is a traditional masonry firebox and you want the fire to look open. The heaters and the flame engines are close enough that the decision is genuinely about the face.
Right for an existing firebox, not for bare drywall
The Klaus makes sense when you already have the hole. A disused wood-burning firebox, a decorative surround with nothing in it, or a framed alcove built for the purpose are all ideal, and the flat base and three-size range mean most of them will take it without modification. If your goal is to make a dead fireplace usable again without a chimney survey or a gas line, this is the most-recommended way to do it in current editorial coverage.
It is the wrong product if you are starting from a flat wall. Cutting a 9-inch-deep opening into framing to accept an insert is far more work than recessing the Touchstone Sideline 50-inch (80004), which is under six inches deep and designed for exactly that job. It is also the wrong product for renters, and for anyone who wants voice control — the Klaus has a remote and nothing else.
Strengths
- +Double glass doors and a mesh curtain in front of the fire, so the front face reads as a real firebox rather than a lit panel
- +Flat bottom lets it sit directly on the floor of a hearthless opening with no plinth to build
- +Three-sided brick liner behind a resin log on a grate, which is what Bob Vila built its overall pick around
- +Popular Mechanics credits a well-designed, inconspicuous grille that hides the heat vent
- +Six crackling audio tracks and a heat-off flame mode, both switchable from the remote
Watch-outs
- −Bob Vila's single con is that the crackling sound effect is not very realistic
- −Popular Mechanics calls the front-mounted control panel conspicuous on an insert designed to look traditional
- −Cannot be hardwired, so the cord has to be planned for or hidden
- −Once installed it is fixed in place, and This Old House notes the inserted design takes longer to fit than a wall unit
How it compares
Shares its width with the PuraFlame Western 33-inch Electric Fireplace Insert but is about four inches shorter and closes the fire behind glass doors and a mesh screen instead of leaving the hearth open. Unlike the Touchstone Sideline 50-inch (80004) it needs an existing opening rather than a stud wall, and it has none of the app or voice control the Touchstone Sideline Elite 50-inch (80036) offers.
Rating sources
“The Klaus electric fireplace insert from PuraFlame adds a classic look to any home. It features logs that glow, flames that dance, and a fire that snaps.”
“This traditional model offers more than 5,000 BTUs to heat rooms up to 400 square feet, featuring double glass doors and a mesh curtain, plus a well-designed, inconspicuous grille covering the heat vent.”
“Takes longer to install with its inserted design”
Our 4.5 score is the average of these published ratings. Ratings marked * were derived from the reviewer’s written analysis or video transcript — the publisher didn’t print an explicit numeric score, so we inferred one from their own words. Click through to verify. More about methodology.
