Touchstone Fireplaces

Who Makes Touchstone Electric Fireplaces

Touchstone Home Products, Inc. has been selling into American homes since 2005, and builds TV lift cabinets and lift mechanisms alongside its fireplaces. Modern Blaze is an authorized Touchstone dealer. What the brand is known for is current technology at an affordable price: app and voice control come standard on most models rather than as a premium upgrade, alongside multicolor flames and a profile slim enough to recess into a framed wall. Every model on this page is electric, so there is no gas line, no flue and no chimney. All of them plug into a standard household outlet, and most can also be hardwired by an electrician for a cleaner finish.

Types of Touchstone Electric Fireplaces

The shape of the firebox is the real split in the line, and it decides most of the choice. The Sideline is a long, low glass-fronted panel that reads as one dark band on the wall, which is why it suits a media wall with a TV over it. The Forte is the compact size, 40 inches wide and about 26 tall, which is close to the proportions of a traditional fireplace opening and suits a wall a linear unit would overwhelm. Three-sided models such as the Chesmont, the Sideline Infinity PRO and the Forte Infinity Pro show the flame from the front and both ends, which works on a peninsula wall or a room divider. The Fireplug Pro is an insert, built to drop into an existing masonry opening rather than into new framing.

Sideline, Sideline Elite, or Sideline Elite Pro

These are the same idea three times over, and the difference is the frame, not the fire. The standard Sideline puts a wide black glass border around the firebox. The Sideline Elite trims that border back, so at the same outside width you see a noticeably larger flame. The Sideline Elite Pro widens the viewing area again, uses a deeper firebox for more visual depth, and adds built-in crackling sound. It is also the only one of the three that can partially recess into a 2x4 wall, using an optional spacer kit.

Most Recess Into a 2x6 Wall. One Fits a 2x4.

A 2x4 stud wall gives you 3.5 inches of cavity depth and a 2x6 gives you 5.5. Most Touchstone models are 5 to 5 3/4 inches deep, which is why a 2x6 wall, or a framed enclosure built out for it, is the standard install. The Fury is the exception: at 4 1/2 inches deep it is the slim one in the range, and Touchstone lists it for 2x4 walls. The three-sided models are deeper again at 9 1/4 inches and need the wall built out for them. If none of that suits your wall, every model here also surface mounts on a bracket, which needs no framing at all and is the reason these end up in rentals and finished basements.

The Heater Is Supplemental, and It Switches Off

These run 1,500 watts on high with a lower setting beneath it, and Touchstone rates them for roughly 400 square feet, or about 5,000 BTU. Treat that as taking the chill off a living room or bedroom on a cool evening rather than as the room's heat source through a real winter. The flame runs on its own with the heater off, which is what makes these worth having in July. Every model ships with both a driftwood log set and crystal embers so you can change the look of the fire bed, plus a remote, and all of them carry a one-year manufacturer warranty.

The Outdoor Models Have No Heater, on Purpose

Touchstone's outdoor-rated fireplaces ship with the flame and nothing else, and that is the honest design. Outdoors, warmed air drifts away before it reaches anyone sitting down, so an outdoor electric fireplace is bought for the fire, not for warmth. If you want people to stay comfortable on the patio after dark, that is a job for an infrared patio heater, which heats people and surfaces directly and keeps working in a breeze. The two pair well: the fireplace as the thing you look at, heaters overhead for the seating group.

Most of These Are Smart, and a Few Are Not

Most Touchstone models here connect over WiFi to the Touchstone Fireplace app and work with Alexa and Google Home, so the flame and the heat can be set without hunting for the remote. A few of the simpler models, including the mesh-screen Steel versions, are remote-control only. The product page states which, so check it there before you plan a smart-home routine around one.

Where to Look Next

Within the brand, Touchstone Sideline Electric Fireplaces covers the linear models, Touchstone Forte Electric Fireplaces covers the compact size, Touchstone 3-Sided Electric Fireplaces covers the models open on three faces, and Touchstone Recessed Electric Fireplaces gathers everything that frames into a wall. Beyond the brand, 3-Sided Electric Fireplaces and Electric Fireplace Inserts put these models next to the alternatives, Fireplaces for a TV Above is the page to start on if a television is going over it, and Fireplace Mantels carries the surrounds. Our expert review of Touchstone electric fireplaces goes further into how the series compare. The full category is Electric Fireplaces.