Slim 50

A fireplace for the wall that was never built for one. Quick Facts • Heating Capacity: 0–500 sq ft approx. 400–500 sq ft—one room • Fuel: Electric. Who It’s For The wall where a fire belongs has no chimney behind it and no gas line anywhere near it, so every fireplace conversation ends at “we’d have to open the wall and run gas.” You need a fire that builds into an ordinary framed wall and asks for nothing but electricity . If you want a wide, modern flame in a living room, bedroom, or condo where gas and wood were never on the table, the Dimplex Slim 50 is the one. On a wall like this, the realistic alternative isn’t a different fireplace— it’s no fireplace at all . What Makes It Special The Slim 50 earns its name: the whole unit is shallow enough to build into a plain framed wall —no chimney, no gas line, and in most places no permit. Your installer frames the opening, wires it, and finishes the surface, and a stretch of drywall more than four feet wide becomes the focal point of the room. Like any built-in, the job ends with finish work—tile, stone, or drywall up to the edge—so plan the project around that one sentence, not around venting. Because the flame is electric, it runs on pennies a night with the heat off. The fire is on in July as often as January —and in the cold months it takes the chill off the room you’re sitting in while the furnace holds the rest of the house at a baseline. Possible Downsides • It warms one room, not a house —electric is comfort heat for the space it’s in; if you need a primary heater, look at a gas or wood unit. • No power, no fire —in an outage it gives you nothing, where a gas unit keeps making heat when the grid doesn’t. • Plugging into a standard outlet takes the optional plug kit —otherwise it’s wired in by your installer. If you want a fire on a wall that gas and wood could never reach, the Slim 50 is the right decision. The room it’s in becomes the room the house lives in. The look is yours to set: dress the fire bed with tumbled glass, river rocks, or clear acrylic crystals, add the beach driftwood log set for a more traditional fire, and add the plug kit if you’d rather plug in than hardwire.