Dimplex: Revillusion Neutral Brick 42

A convincing wood fire in a room that can’t have one.

Quick Facts

• Heating Capacity: 0–450 sq ft
• Viewing Area: 42″ wide fire
• Fuel: Electric.
• Controls: Built-in touch controls, plus a remote that adjusts flame color and light intensity.
• Fan: Included

Who It’s For

Some rooms can’t take a gas line or a chimney, and most electric flames give themselves away the moment you look at them. You need an electric fire that reads as real from across the room. If you want firelight in the den, the bedroom, or the basement without the flue that usually comes with it, this is your category—and the one to look at first is the Revillusion 42 in Neutral Brick. Pick a typical electric box and you’ll live with a flame you stop noticing; pick this one and the fire is the reason the room works.

What Makes It Special

Start with the logs. Dimplex handcrafts them from real wood and lights them from inside, so they pulse with the low glow of a fire that’s been burning a while. The flames rise through a partially frosted panel, so the fire appears to come from within the logs—you see flames, not your lamp reflected in glass, and you can see clear through them to the brick behind, the way you can with a real fire.

It heats, too. Dimplex rates the fan-forced heater to warm up to 1,000 square feet; in most rooms, expect up to 450 sq ft, depending on climate and layout. Or switch to flame-only and run the fire on a July evening without the heat. The remote adjusts the flame color and the light level inside the firebox, so the fire matches the mood of the room instead of fighting it.

The Neutral Brick interior wraps the back and both sides of the firebox, so from any seat in the room the fire sits in what looks like a full masonry surround, not a shallow metal box.

Possible Downsides

• It runs entirely on electricity, so there is no flame and no heat during a power outage.
• Full heat output requires direct wiring by an electrician; on a standard plug it delivers roughly half the heat it’s capable of.

If you want a fire people mistake for the real thing in a room that can’t have one, the Revillusion 42 in Neutral Brick is the right decision. The room it’s in becomes the room the house lives in.

The Revillusion 42 comes in four interior finishes—Neutral Brick, Black, Herringbone, and Weathered Concrete—so the fire can sit against the backdrop that fits your room.