Hi, here is my situation. I have one of those electric heaters with a fireplace look. I do not have a socket close to it and the closest one, I had to use a power bar. Now you know how this unit is connected. For over a year, this unit was working great. Now it's not, and of course it's well past it's warrant. What it does is actually 2 things that I have seen it do. It will heat for about 5 minutes then the power bar shuts off. I would have to reset it and put the heater back on and it will repeat itself. If I put just the lights on without heat, I have no problem. The other thing I saw it do is the minute I put the heater on, the elements would turn bright red for a few seconds then cold air comes out off it and no more heat.
Is there anything I could look for and change instead off replacing the insert heater.
Thanks
Mario

 

I do NOT advise you to run this fireplace on the power bar.. These must be pluged into an outlet, or a heavy duty extension cord! A fire waiting to happen.

Seems like your heater may be shorting out or the fan is not coming on fast enough that the internal breaker/fuse is cutting out from the over heated (Glow red) coil.