I noticed how much earlier it got dark yesterday and I've already started thinking about the autumn and winter months.
At the moment we have a gas fire and I'd love to have it taken out and have a real fire.
I absolutely love the idea of a real fire but my OH thinks I'm mad as it's more work and mess. Just wondering which you all prefer?
Real fire or gas fire???

A real fire every time! Yes, it makes a mess and needs sorting every day, but it looks so much nicer and smells so much nicer and makes a cosy reassuring comfortable noise .... really, there's no contest!

Real fire every time!!!!!!!! :-D :-D

You can always bring home sticks from a walk to help keep the fire going ;-)

The heat you get from a real fire is so much nicer than the gas. I just love looking into mine and sort of getting hypnotised by the flames :-)

The only real downside is the chimney fires when you forget to clean the chimney ;-) I've had one or two of those........ :-)

I'd love to have it taken out and have a real fire.

I've been thinking the same thing - I have one of those lovely gas fires that looks very real (though a real fire would be even better :)) but unfortunately it is very expensive to run these days and actually doesn't throw out loads of heats - you still need the central heating on elsewhere. :(

We had a real fire taken out and replaced with gas.  :(
The thinking was it would be so much cleaner etc............
I really regretted it, you still have dust, the only difference is the ashes, cleaning them out on a daily basis.
There is nothing so satisfying as a real one and I may yet have it reversed again.
Karen

Definately a real fire, we've got a real fire in the living room and a log burner in the kitchen (quite a small house). There's nothing like coming home to a roaring fire - luckily for me the OH has a real pyromaniac (sp) streak, so the fire is his responsibility, including the cleaning. When both fire and log burner are going we don't need the heating on in any of the other rooms in the house, they make it really toasty.

I really miss my real fire and plan to go back to one when I get around to it but I think I will go for a multifuel burner this time rather than an open one to help reduce the dirt.

I prefer real fires as long as they are in other peoples' houses!  :) The mess and work you get from a real fire IMO is just not worth it when the modern gas fires look just the same minus the mess!  You have to have a place to store the coal or wood (and open fires will burn wood at a rate of knots!!)............so no thanks!!  :)

We have a multi-fuel burner.  It throws out lots of heat with less escaping up the chimney than an open fire, and the mess is easily contained and disposed of.  And you still get the lovely smell you get with a real fire.

You do still get the dirt Isabel, although I suppose not quite so much. Multifuel stoves certainly chuck out a lot of heat and are much more efficient than an open fire.

But, I'd go with a real fire rather than gas every time, they are just so much more atmospheric.

Oh no contest...a real fire every time.

its so much more work but a real fire is sooooooo worth it. we had a woodburning stove, looks, smells and feels far far nicer. there is also a nice sense to starting your own fire rather than just clicking a button. 

MIL has a lovely gas STOVE, it looks absolutely beautiful and the heat it gives out is amazing!  It's never been put on higher than low, even in the middle of winter as it's so efficient :-D   Downside is no lovely smell tho that you get with a woodburner or multifuel :(  

Bro has a multifuel and it keeps the place really warm and looks great - as it burns all sorts there's no worries with what fuel to buy ;)

Thank you for all your replies. I'm even more sure I want to get rid of our gas fire now. Only problem is how to convince my OH. We only had the fire put in a few years ago. Now every winter when our neighbours light their fire and I see smoke coming out the chimney I regret reluctantly agreeing to the gas fire. I'll have to work on him :-)

A real fire for me too :)

What if you live in a smokeless zone ? :(

I've never heard of smokeless zones. How do you know if you live in a smokeless zone?

Found this

http://www.uksmokecontrolareas.co.uk/

You can buy smoke free coal for those areas!! We sell it!:-)

:-D :-D    We have had our old gas fire disconnected ready for a new 'real' looking deep bed gas fire - but I can easily be persuaded to go the real fire route LOL Every one around here had a coal fire with a back boiler to heat the water....until we went smokeless many years ago !!

Well I'm going to join oldilocks on the side of the gas fire. I lived with real fires for a few years and was I glad to have gas in this house. It sounds romantic but I use the fire a lot in winter as we don't heat the house much, just the rooms we use. Cleaning ash every day is a pain. Waiting for ages to get some warmth from your real fire is a cold pain. I'm with your OH.

*sticks fingers in ears*

Laaa laaaa laaaa......I'm not listening!

Just kidding Lori ;-)
My other half will be glad to have a bit of support :-D

> *sticks fingers in ears*

Stick them in now while they're clean because they'll be all dusty from ash when you put a real fire in. :-D LOL

I'm with you Lori - gas fires every time. Coal fires you roast to death next to them and freeze to death when you move 6 feet away :-) my gran had one for years - her only form of heating, and when we stayed with her we had to stay in bed till she got the fire going. It took ages, smelled horrible and gave you Tinkers tartan when you sat too close :-D which you had to, so as not to freeze - it crackled and sparked and was not at all romantic!

Gas, gas, gas - its the only way to go :-D

>  It took ages, smelled horrible and gave you Tinkers tartan when you sat too close :-D

ha ha, that made me laugh - tinkers tartan, haven't heard that before.

> Tinkers tartan

Is that like corned beef legs? :-D

In my last house in New Zealand I had a lovely big log burner, the only form of heating for the whole house as most houses out there have no central heating at all. 

They are lined with fire bricks which heat up really fast and they reflect the heat out as well as the flames.  You still get a bit of ash but the unit is very easy to wipe down with a damp cloth. Much warmer and cleaner than an open fire and because the bricks hold the heat so well they continue radiating heat long after the last log so you wake up to a warm room in the morning.

The only thing I would say against them is that you have to be careful what type of top you have on your flue and which direction it is in because if you don't sheild it from your prevailing wind you could get a smoke backdraft which brings tears to the eye.

Is that like corned beef legs?

thats the one :-D

> Stick them in now while they're clean because they'll be all dusty from ash when you put a real fire in. :-D LOL

You New World types have no sense of history :-)

> You New World types have no sense of history

Hmpff, royalty - never willing to move on! ROFL