After removing my rather hideous gas fire in preparation for an updated model, I found to my joy a lovely fireplace. Because of this I've had a change of heart re gas and have decided to get a wood burning stove, however the choice seems overwhelming!
I worked out that it needs to be at least 4kw but other than this and aesthetics I'm a bit stumped. Prices seem all over the place. Obviously the pricer models are a higher quality metal but what else should I be looking for?
Any help gratefully (did you see what I did there) received.
Be careful of the kw rating, as some are up to x kw, rather than the optimal running heat.
Air wash is a bonus, but not essential. Keeps the glass clean.
Dual fuel is a really good idea.
Check your house insurance policy, as some dictate that the chimney be lined. It's sensible anyway, but expensive.
Good point re the insurance, hadn't thought of that. Does the size of the chimney dictate if you need a liner or Is it expected regardless?Originally Posted by mikiejack
clearview stoves are really very good had 2 both excellent
get one of those dinky little thermodynamic fans (work on heat) that gently waft the heat away from the stove and into the room very cheap and quite good too!
also logs- seasoned for a year minimum, or pallets- 4kw/hr per pallet!
Goat
Charnwood, Morso and Stovax all make good stoves. The Charnwood grate is perhaps the best on the market.
A pub close to me has a stove with a small fan on the top, seems to work a treat.
I've been looking here: http://www.whatstove.co.uk and Clearview seem to rate very highly.
Have you considered a multi-fuel stove? We have one and the freedom of choice between coal and/or logs is good to have.
Other than the size of stove, do consider how much control you have over the heat output. The cheaper models seem to have less control and flexibility.
One of my favourite topics . We already have a woodburner thread somewhere ( if you can find it ... )
Please buy British . So many good stovemakers in these isles there is no need to buy an imported one .
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
We have a Stovax and it really is the mutts nuts.
However depending on the plumbing within the house it might be worth having a back boiler fitted and connecting it to the hot water system as well.
Wood is about £120/ton and our uses about 1/2 a ton/ year ( weekends and holidays). if you go down this route you also need somewhere to store it. You will also start burning everything and anything wood you can find - pallets are great for kindling, but old furniture works well :wink:
Do not burn pine unless it's mixed with a well seasoned hardwood.
Andy
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
here ya go arcy viewtopic.php?f=2&t=193496&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Luckily for me our local joinery company always has loads of kiln dried hardwood kindling for free so all I'll need is the logs, also not a problem. I'm still left wondering what makes one stove double the price of another.
More research needed I feel..
More research? As if by magic :wink:
quality of materials and labour . cast irons are cheaper than welded steel.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Need to consider if you're in a smoke free zone too....If you are a defra approved stove could be required unless you want to fit a filter to a normal stove.
In reality no one will ever complain or check but as my fitter put it if you go the defra route you can just show the certificate and there isn't a problem..They will cost more and limit your choice though :evil:
I can't add to the technical elements of this discussion but the smell from my wood burning stove tells me I'm home. You just can't beat it.
Good luck.
Can recommend Clearview, a hundred times better than the open fire it replaced!
Check with your insurers. They may require installation by a HETAS approved installer.
I've a morso squirrel stove and can't recommend them highly enough.
We wanted smething a bit more contemporary so went with a firebelly stove http://www.firebellystoves.com/
one thing i would say is NEVER buy logs from a garage forecourt - they take a good month of drying to get them to burn properley
Did some measuring up as I'm worried that the chimney may be too small or that it will need lining.
The house is ~1940 and I'm the second owner. I'm sure that orginally it would have been an open fireplace which somebody has bricked up for the gas fire install.
My other concern will be the lintal or otherwise, im sure it will be fine to remove the front bricks... :lol:
This image is shot from inside the fireplace and looking to the right hand side. The brickwork to the right of the image is the bodged up front area, you can see it does not seem cemented to the brickwork/lintal above. It also seems to show that the chimney lining has been rendered.
Looking upwards
Hmm, spiders have been having fun!
I should mention that the fireplace itself measures 930mm x 480mm deep. In front of this I have a solid granite hearth.
Any experts care to opine suitability?
I fitted a Vesta V6 last year. Uk made and you buy direct from the family business who make them http://www.vestastoves.co.uk/cm/ or through ebay. They do 4Kw versions too. Recomended.
Ooh, like that! Seems very good vfm if the quality is there. Have you used yours much and how's it bearing up?
what size is the room youre heating ? if you are worried about flue lining/ want to avoid it then you can get a convector heater by esse that is designed just to slot into existing fireplace. the ex has one and is well pleased with it. relatively small heat output though and does mean pi$$ing around with small logs.
that size aperture you have will easily take a 5", maybe even a 6" flue, i once fitted a 7" flue into a similar size aperture although this isnt to be reccomended. if youre worried about the integrity of the stack due to modifications then get a monoxide detector ( not a bad idea anyway) . alternatively get 2 or 3 hetas regd fitters to come round and give their opinion, youll soon be able to tell whos talking a load a load of booloks :lol:
id knock out the front aperture to make a feature of the stove, get a flexi liner in there, block of the bottom with a nice steel plate and insulate the cavity with vermiculite or similar. well worth considering the more expensive higher grade 904 steel especially if youre going to be burning multifuel. you dont want to be relining your chimney every few years. its always worth lining a chimney, no point having a state of the art stove if you dont have an efficient flue.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
We have one of these. Great advice and support from the co too.
http://www.charnwood.com/
Another vote for a Charnwood. Had ours for a couple of winters now and really pleased with the heat output, airwash etc. Highly recommended.
There's a chap who makes them down in Devon/Cornwall, he featured on the pay your mortgage off early documentary. His stoves were made from old gas cylinders, which look terrific.
I think the company he set up, as a result of the documentary was Hot Pods, I'd like one of these, either this year or next :lol:
Someone on our road complains, one of my neighbours was knocking on everyone's door trying to find out who had called the council about his stove. It was smoke free compliant anyway, but that doesn't mean you don't see anything out the chimney.
I wanted to get one with a back burner, but the smoke free options limit them and the plumbing seems pretty complex :?
Another thumbs up for Charnwood............very good quality
Another vote for a Charnwood. Had ours for a couple of winters now and really pleased with the heat output, airwash etc. Highly recommended.
Dave's right - one of our little manufacturing strong points. I have a foreign one (a Dovre), which is brilliant, but I bought it without doing much research
And you will probably only buy once. They're not like white goods. They don't exactly break down... :D
I have a barbs which is OK but having since met a dealer of wood burners he swears by clearview, glass is crystal clear (not on mine and cleaning is a fag)
also his burns all day on 2-3 small logs really efficiently.
kind regards
Steveo
theres a few one man band stovemakers down that way if you want something a bit more eccentric. id recommend parp industrie.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Stovax has already been mentioned, but we have their Stockton 5 and it's great.
I don't know how it works, but it's a much nicer heat than you get from radiators. And surprisingly controllable.
"I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul's good to do each day two things they disliked ... it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously; for every day I have got up and I have gone to bed."
I've been using it for a year now and it's been working well - good build quality and very simple design/features. I understand that the rating at full burn is around 1+kw over the spec, so a V4 would be more like a 5kw. I have a very large open plan lounge/diner/kitchen and it get's super toasty with my 6kw -it is supposed to have a relatively large 'burn box' volume compared to others.
Ooh, like that! Seems very good vfm if the quality is there. Have you used yours much and how's it bearing up?
always worth checking when you buy a stove what size log it will take :wink:
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
I've had one for several months. V pleased with it too.
I took plenty of time researching before I got it, getting quotes and advice from different companies and fitters (who came to the house and talked through everything with me). I'd definitely recommend doing the same.
Or shopping around your log suppliers to find one who will cut to a size. Ours does and he's much cheaper than the previous supplier we used.
"I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul's good to do each day two things they disliked ... it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously; for every day I have got up and I have gone to bed."
Hope the stove search going well. It's worth mentioning on the thread that if the installation is not undertaken by a HETAS technician then I believe that there is a requirement to have the installation approved by building control. For me this sounds terribly boring, but appareantly these things if installed incorrectly, can cause carbon monoxide issues. Another option was chosed by a chap i work with; he installed his own and installed a carbon monoxide sensor.
I'm going to get a wood burner fitted in a couple of weeks. I've narroved it down to 2 units.
The fitter is offering steel one with cast iron door: JUNO 5 made by Cast Tec (I'm failing to find out where/ by whom is the stove made)
or my preference is the reputable maker cast iron AGA Little Wenlock Classic SE Smoke Exempt Multi-Fuel Stove.
What would you go for and why?
The Juno is 90mm wider and I assume that space isn't an issue (including the space required to any combustible material). One is a pure wood burner (the AGA), the other (Juno) a multi-fuel stove; is this of importance to you? If not then for me it's the Juno for the following reasons:
- It looks far better
- It has a wider frontage through which to view the flames
I fitted a stove 2 years ago in a very large living room. I'm glad I didn't go higher than 5kW as it would have overpowered the room.
I have a morso badger which is good, but mum and dad have a villager stoves in their house, one with back boiler and one without and they best the morso hands down for quality, heat output, burn time, etc etc
Will replace my morso with a villager when needed
No, space is not an issue, I will only burn wood. I thought that AGA is just a great brand,,,not much info about the JUNO 5 and Cast Tec is very hesitant to tell you where it's made. AGA gives 5 year warranty vs 1 year from Cast Tec.
Any reason why not to go for the Little Wenlock? (I'm after a quality product, which this one has great reviews)
A mate of mine is into vintage stoves and wood burners he has a hell of a collection.
My old Rayburn is from the late 40s and still going strong. Good thing too, as a new one costs about £6,000.
Fuel is free as I cut it myself from the trees on my own land, it gives a lovely cosy warm glow in the winter, and it also heats my bath water!
No reason from me other than the fact that I don't like the look of it and it has a small viewing window - you will spend hours hypnotised by the flames and it would be a shame to restrict the view.
I used the following sites when researching both stoves and installations:
http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/
http://www.stovefittersmanual.co.uk/
The other issues are changes in the rules re. ventilation etc... if you go over 5KW. If it's being installed by a registered installer (which you need to do because you might have issues with insurance etc... and when you sell the house unless you have the correct certificate for the installation) then they have to ensure it's done to all the rules like making a huge hole in the living room wall for air flow!
We've got a 5KW Morso and it's brilliant. Light it when I get home from work and then have all the doors open to get the warmth around the house.
In my case there was already an air brick in place so the choice of stove output was not limited or affected by this. Wood burning stoves DO NOT have to be installed by a registered installer; I know cos I ain't one! However, the installation does have to be signed off by Building Control. If installed by a HETAS registered installer then he/she can only sign off their own installations.
Yes that's what I meant.... anyone CAN install the stove but you will probably need a certificate when you sell the house and for insurance.
I`ve got an ESSE 125se, had it fitted 2 years ago to replace an open fire. Massive improvement, more heat, less fuel, stays warm overnight keeping the chill off in the morning.
Worth every penny, British made by a long established company.
You have land living in London?
No, Cornwall. Location field updated!
We have a Jotul F1 (rated at 7.5kw) in the front room and a small Hunter in the downstairs room that doubles as my wife's office and a spare room. Both chimneys are lined, which is safer because there's no risk of carbon monoxide leaks. When they're both on and with all the doors open, they heat the whole house with great convection and create a wonderful atmosphere. Make sure you have carbon monoxide detectors and I would advise going for a slightly higer rating than the room size suggests, as you can always open a door/window to allow heat to move through the house, as we do. Works like a charm.
Ours are both multi-fuel burners (which I recommend) and when it's really cold (which it hardly ever is!) we burn coal, which can burn all night and be restarted again quickly and easily in the morning with either wood or coal. Go for it.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
