One of the ideal places you can put an electric fireplace in your home is on the carpet, as having it closer to where you’re sitting can increase the feeling of the warmth from the heater.
However, carpet isn’t typically a flat or fire resistant surface, and so can you put an electric fireplace on carpet?
It can be safe to place the majority of electric fireplaces on low pile carpet, but the carpet must not block either the inlet or the outlet to the heater.
Many manufacturers of electric fireplaces will state whether their electric fireplaces are suitable for use on carpet within the owner’s manual.
We’ve explained below which types of carpet will be more suitable for you to put an electric fireplace on, and discussed whether we put our own electric fireplace on our carpet or not.
Can You Put An Electric Fireplace On Carpet?
Although electric fireplaces don’t have real flames, it can be sensible to question whether these types of fireplaces can be placed on materials that may not be fire resistant, such as carpet.
Understanding how an electric fireplace works and where the heater is located will help you to decide whether your particular fireplace is suitable to be used on carpet.
We have an electric fireplace stove and it’s designed to look like a real wood burning stove, with a metal body, large glass front door and legs.
There’s no real fire in an electric fireplace and so electric fireplaces can already be considered a safer form of fireplace compared to other types such as open wood burning or gas.
Electric fireplaces work by imitating the look of flames while providing supplementary heat through an additional integrated heater that works much like a conventional space heater.
The flame effects in an electric fireplace are typically generated through the use of rotating mirrors that reflect light onto the back of a screen in a particular pattern that produces the look of flickering flames.
The heat from an electric fireplace is typically delivered through a fan forced heater, but may be from an infrared or ceramic heater depending on the model of fireplace and the heating technology used.
For more information we have a complete guide to how electric fireplaces work here.
Our electric fireplaces uses the conventional fan forced heating with a blower and a heating element.
The heater on our electric fireplace is located at the base of the unit.
This means that if our electric fireplace stove were to be placed on the carpet without the legs attached the heater would be located directly on the carpet, and it would be unsafe to use the electric fireplace heater in this way.
We needed to install the legs on our electric fireplace when it arrived, and can be the case for many electric fireplace stoves to save on packaging space.
The legs on our electric fireplace help to lift the heater off the floor and make the unit much safer for use on carpet.
Therefore, be sure that you’ve setup and you’re using your electric fireplace correctly and that the heater is located off any carpet.
You can also check the instruction manual for your model of electric fireplace.
The guide for our electric fireplace stove recommends that it’s not suitable for use on long pile carpets.
Therefore, check with the manufacturers guidelines on how to safely use your electric fireplace on carpet.
Putting An Electric Fireplace On Carpet
If you’re putting an electric fireplace on carpet then you should ensure that:
- The carpet doesn’t obstruct the inlet to the heater on the electric fireplace, which could prevent cooler air from being sucked into the heater.
- The carpet doesn’t block the outlet to the heater, which could stop the heated air from leaving the fireplace.
Electric fireplaces with fan forced heaters will need to suck in air from the back of the unit in order to blow the cooler air over a heating element and force warmer air out into the room.
It’s important that if an electric fireplace is placed on carpet that the carpet doesn’t restrict the air flowing into the heater. The heater may overheat and turn off as a result of insufficient ventilation.
The cooler air that is sucked into a conventional fan heater in an electric fireplace comes out as warmer air through the front.
It’s therefore also important that any carpet doesn’t block the outlet to an electric fireplace heater, as this may also cause the fireplace to overheat and shut off.
Our electric fireplace stove has a warning message near the outlet to the heater explaining that it shouldn’t be blocked, and may also be found on other models of electric fireplace to help ensure that they aren’t being used incorrectly.
When it comes to deciding whether it’s safe to put your electric fireplace on carpet you should take into account:
- What the manual specifies for your particular model of fireplace regarding whether you can use it on carpet, or even what type of carpet.
- The location of the heater on your electric fireplace. Heaters located towards the top of the unit will be further away from carpet than those with the heater located underneath.
- The length of your carpet. High pile carpet is more likely to obstruct the heater on an electric fireplace compared to low pile carpet.
Conclusion
Most electric fireplaces can be used on carpet as long as the carpet doesn’t block either the inlet or outlet to the heater.
Ultimately, electric fireplaces can be very safe appliances that have many safety features to help reduce the risks of using them to a minimum, but they should always be used as instructed as per the manufacturers guidelines to ensure safe operation.
For more information see our complete buying guides to all the different types of electric fireplaces including the best ones to buy in each category right here.
Further Reading
Is An Electric Fireplace A Space Heater?
Do Electric Fireplaces Have Bulbs?