Ventless fireplace gel fuel is sometimes referred to as a Sterno-type material, and the description is not far off. Sterno, like ventless fireplace fuel, is also a gel. Both are comprised chiefly of alcohol, which causes the substance to burn, and both also contain water. However, fireplace fuel also has sea salts and other organic thickeners in its proprietary recipe. Though both products yield flames, the Sterno flames are blue, while fireplace gel flames are reddish-orange in color.

Naturally, the color of the flames is one of the attractions of fireplace gel fuels. Fireplace gel fuel is used in ventless fireplaces because of its clean-burning nature. Unlike wood, coal, and some gases, alcohol-based fireplace gel does not yield waste products such as smoke or other noxious emissions when it burns. Something must be yielded, however; in this case, it is water vapor.

More about Ventless Fireplace Gel Fuel

This is the true accomplishment of fireplace fuel engineers: that they have succeeded in creating a fuel with no harmful impact on air quality, or on the environment as a whole. Today more than ever, we are trying to find ways to reduce carbon emissions, or "greenhouse gases" responsible for global warming. Wood burning fireplace fires, while certainly not the main threat to the planet's air quality, yield a very potent carbon smoke.

Ventless fireplaces demonstrate through their very existence the cleanliness of gel fireplace fuel, for they require no additional ventilation system. The fuel is clean enough to burn in an enclosed room inside the home with absolutely no ill effects: no carbon dioxide or monoxide, no smoke, no soot, and no chemical gases. This environmentally friendly quality of fireplace fuel makes ventless fireplaces an option for everybody.