Nimo Electrical fire

...months ago I purchased a Nimo Electrical Fire from B & Q. It came flat packed and came complete with electrical fire, hearth, mantle piece and fire surround. Very good value for £249.00.

The range of fires from B & Q is really quite large and you get various options. You can buy the whole lot together like I did or alternatively you can purchase it all separately. I looked into this and the cost had almost doubled by the time I had ...
...However the B & Q web site (ww.d-i-y.co.uk) has a brilliant feature in which you can view all the fireplace options and put together your perfect fireplace. It comes complete with pictures so if you are not sure of a colour or a style you can see it all put together so don't have to imagine how it would look. Alternatively the in-store fire place catalogue has all the parts shown separately so you can mix and match that way. As I said I did try that ... more

Well this was only the second review I ever wrote on Ciao and after re-reading it thought it could do with editing and improving so here we go!!! Three months ago I purchased a Nimo Electrical Fire from B & Q. It came flat packed and came complete with electrical fire, hearth, mantle piece and fire surround. Very good value for £249.00.

The range of fires from B & Q is really quite large and you get various options. You can buy the whole lot together like I did or alternatively you can purchase it all separately. I looked into this and the cost had almost doubled by the time I had finished hand picking the mantle etc that I wanted. However the B & Q web site (ww.d-i-y.co.uk) has a brilliant feature in which you can view all the fireplace options and put together your perfect fireplace. It comes complete with pictures so if you are not sure of a colour or a style you can see it all put together so don't have to imagine how it would look. Alternatively the in-store fire place catalogue has all the parts shown separately so you can mix and match that way. As I said I did try that but its amazing how the cost rocketed - after all you need to but the Hearth, the Mantle, the actual fire and the surround. I was quite happy with the one I purchased and the range is priced from £149.00 to over £600.00. Its worth pointing out that mine was cheaper as its electric. Most of the styles are available as electric or gas but the gas fireplaces are more expensive. I suppose there is more to it than a fan wirring round so thats only to be expected.

The fire comes complete with coals and although it looks electric nobody believes me and they actually think it looks like Gas - it really is realistsic, and easy to do after all you just plug it in so no need to pay a registered fitter. You can apparently swap the coals for pebbles but as I have bought a 'traditional' fireplace this is not something that I am interested in.

Now the box it arrived in is huge (it wouldn't fit in the back of my car and I had to borrow a van to get it home.) After the huge box i daftly expected it to be partly pre assembled but the entire fire and surround comes flat packed. When I say flat packed it makes ikea and its flat packed furniture look like a doodle. Assembling this was then the difficult bit, although i am quite good and DIY etc I found this very hard to assemble. It actually took me and a friend 5 hours to put together and by that point I was nearly at the stage of putting it back in the box and taking back to B & Q. However my friend with the van had gone home so i continued. It was however well worth the time and effort.

The instructions that came with it although resembling the fireplace I had bought is basically for several different models. If you have purchased fire A you don't need to do this part and skip to part 8 or if you have purchased fire B skip to part 19 etc. You get the picture, confusing, confusing, confusing. The instructions were difficult to follow and seem to contradict themselves. For example in one part I was told to assemble the mantle and leave it aside for later. Further on it told me to again assemble the mantle. Slightly confusing as I had already done that. I read all the instructions and actually thought I was mad as I was doing what it told me and still the parts didn't seem to fit. Eventually my friend and I had some dinner, threw away the instructions and did it ourselves. Not that I would recommend following that particular route but it honestly seemed easier. I read the instructions after I had assembled it and they still didn't make sense. Now I'm an intelligent well educated women but seemingly not intelligent enough to follow these instructions.

The fire surround and hearth surround comes in a laminate material that is double backed - you can have it a beige marble effect or a black marble effect - you literally just turn it over so you can change the effect of the fire in an instant. You are supposed to nail the laminate to the back of the fire place to keep it in place. I haven't however as I thought it would be hard to pull the nails out and change the colour of the laminate if I wanted to. I have had this fireplace 3 months and I still haven't attached the laminate to the back and to be honest i don't think I will bother. The fireplace is against the wall so the laminate can't go anywhere and it makes it easy to change it if I want. The wood mantle piece and surround is all untreated wood but i waxed it and it looks great - alternatively you could varnish it. This is another chore to add to the list as its all untreated pine but I suppose by leaving it untreated you can keep the costs down and you could even paint it with a dark wood effect if you wanted.

The fire has various settings with the fan at the top. Initially I thought the floor would get hot and not a lot else as the fan is pointing downwards but this hasn't proved to be a problem. The fan is well hidden and you can't see it. It has a flame effect when its basically orange stripps being blown up my the fan to create a flame effect. This sounds appauling fake but it actually looks realistic and many believe its gas.

You can have the flame effect with no heat (as my nan would say the flame effect gives off warmth my dear!!!!) and there is a fan section. The fan can blow hot or cold air at two settings - so quite handy for the summer. However you can't have the hot or cold fan running without the heat and flame effect so although it sounds handy for the summer as it blows out cold air you will have to endure cold air being blown out and the flame effect. Probably not what you want to look at in the height of summer!!!!!!

The literature informs me that the lower setting for the fire costs 2 pence an hour to run and the higher setting cost 11 pence per hour (obviously dependent on your electricity supplier.) I know 11 pence seems quite expensive but the heat it gives off is amazing and after half an hour I find I have to turn the heat off as it has warmed the downstairs up nicely. I have had this fireplace 3 months and have yet to receive an electricity bill. My electric bill is normally quite high as I don't have any Gas plumbed into the house its all electric so when the bill comes in I will have more of an idea of what this has actually cost me and will post those findings.

This fireplace looks good and it has made a lovely feature of my room and well worth the money. However unless you want to become severely stressed and have a near coronary I would suggest getting either get someone else to build this for you or do it at the weekend. Its also worth noting that you will have to take a trip to the dump afterwards to put the masses amount of cardboard in the cardboard recycling bin. I have no idea why this comes in such a massive box, it could literally be half the size so all that will need to be cut up and recycled but if you get cold down the dump at least you can come home and warm up in front of your new fire.

Have a look at my picture of it all assembled in my house (apologies that the pic is the wrong way round I still haven't got used to my camera!!!!!)

 

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