Do Bioethanol Fireplaces Smoke or Smell?

No. A bioethanol fireplace produces no smoke, no soot and no ash, and gives off no noticeable smell while it burns. That is the whole reason it can stand in a living room with no chimney.

There is one nuance worth knowing, because it surprises people on the first evening: a brief alcohol note when you light it, and again when you put it out. That is normal. Anything beyond it is not, and it almost always points to the same cause.

Why there is no smoke

Smoke is unburnt material carried away in hot gas. A wood fire smokes because wood is a complex solid that never burns completely — it leaves particles, tar and ash behind.

Bioethanol is a simple alcohol. When it burns with enough oxygen, it converts almost entirely into carbon dioxide and water vapour. There is nothing solid left over to become smoke or soot, and nothing to settle on your walls or ceiling.

This is also why there is no chimney: there is nothing to take away.

The smell that is normal

You will notice a faint alcohol smell in two moments, each lasting a few seconds:

• When lighting. Fuel vapour has gathered above the burner and burns off as the flame establishes.
• When extinguishing. The burner is hot, the flame is gone, and the last of the fuel evaporates without burning.

Both are brief and dissipate in a normally ventilated room. Between those two moments — which is to say for the three to five hours the fireplace actually burns — you should smell nothing at all.

The smell that is not normal

If you notice a persistent or sharp smell while the fireplace is burning, something is wrong. In order of likelihood:

The fuel is the wrong one. This is the cause in most cases. Fuel below 96% purity contains water and impurities that do not burn cleanly. Methylated spirits, surgical spirit and generic "alcohol" all contain denaturing agents that smell unpleasant when burnt — they are made to be undrinkable, not to be burnt indoors. Use only bioethanol sold for fireplaces, ideally meeting the EN 16800 standard.

The room is under-ventilated. A flame short of oxygen burns incompletely, which produces both odour and, in the worst case, carbon monoxide. A normally ventilated room solves this; a sealed one does not.

Fuel has been spilled. A few drops on the outside of the burner or on the surface below will evaporate slowly and smell for far longer than the flame ever does. Wipe up any spill before lighting — which is a safety rule as much as a comfort one.

The burner needs cleaning. Residue from poor-quality fuel accumulates and smells when reheated.

What about the smell on the furniture?

There is none. This is the practical difference people notice most when they move from a wood fire or candles.

A wood fire leaves its smell in fabrics, curtains and hair, and deposits soot that eventually greys the wall above the hearth. Paraffin candles leave a fine soot of their own on nearby surfaces over time.

A bioethanol fireplace leaves neither. Nothing to wash out of a throw, nothing to repaint, no chimney to sweep.

Does it affect the air in the room?

It consumes oxygen and releases carbon dioxide and water vapour, in the way several candles or a person in the room would. In a normally ventilated space this is unremarkable.

The water vapour is worth a mention: burning a litre of bioethanol releases close to a litre of water into the air. In a well-ventilated room this passes unnoticed; in a small, closed, already-damp room, running one for hours every evening is not a good idea.

Ventilate normally, keep the burner clean, and never run it in a sealed room. Our safety guide covers this in full.

In short

No smoke, no soot, no ash, no smell on your furniture. A few seconds of alcohol at lighting and at snuffing, and silence in between.

If you smell more than that, look at the bottle before you look at the fireplace — fuel quality accounts for nearly every complaint on this subject, and good bioethanol costs little more than bad. Our guide to running costs covers where to buy it sensibly.

You can see how the range is built, in glass and matte steel, in our bioethanol fireplaces collection — including the APEX, whose tempered glass keeps the flame contained and visible from every side.