Wood burning stoves>

redlady_1

Arrgh. I wrote a long reply and was timed out!

Anyway Pink, I only have a baby stove, 5KW. I have a curtain up at my main door and one inbetween the kitchen and living room so if I want to sweat I drop the curtain!

The things I would say are only from my experience. Im no expert. Buy the best stove you can afford. I walked into the most expensive show room around here (they are well known for it but very knowledgeable) and picked their brains. I asked loads of questions then started asking other fitters. Dont just go with one.

Things you need to be aware of...dont expect gas central heating standard of heat. One day you will sweat, the next the weather changes and you are warm. Get your loft well insulated, it makes a difference. Get lots of quotes and people round, ask their opinions - they want your money so will help. I can now keep my stove in from about 10.30 at night until 6am but thats just with low coals. It can be chilly when you first get in from work, getting the fire going is my first job. Brace yourself for the frustrations of learning about your particular stove too...give them patience and time and they will work for you.

I love my little stove and wouldnt swap it for all the gas central heating in the world! Its a real work horse.

A._Badger

Lots of common sense in that post, redlady_1!

My own experience (several stoves in several properties) suggests much the same - you can't ask too many opinions, nor have too many quotes. It really pays to shop around.

But once you've got decent stove and learned how to use it, it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to go back, unless they got too frail to maintain the work required.

redlady_1

Crikey, I've never been called sensible before!

The question you need to ask yourself is WHY do you want a stove. If its to look pretty and use as a back up then I'm sure the cheap ones will be fine. If its to do as it says on the tin then do lots of research. I was permanently on the net checking reviews when I found the one I liked. Then the bloke who fitted it tried to get me to buy a Franco Belge (sp?) and I wavered, slept on it, and went with the one I wanted even though it cost me more. There is alot of romance surrounding stoves and romantic they are not. Cheap - no they are not that either. Remember to factor in logs, coal, sweep and the work they take.


But give it love and attention and it will serve you well. I've been turned by the stove!!!

By the way AB...have you ever managed to keep your stoves in for a long period of time (say 10 hours +) and if so what fuel did you use please? Or am I hoping for miracles??

pinkmami

Thanks Redlady! The house is crying out for a stove !! After yrs & yrs of hiding behind plasterboard the nook is in need of love & heat! If its there it ought to be used! The main hub of the house will be the living/dining room (have 3 kids & lots of family!) & its fab at the moment cos I'm a SAHM so I'll be able to get the fire up & running before all come home from school & work. At least I'll have central heating throughout the house as back-up but this will be the heating for the large lounge. I'm between stoves ATM. Hunter Herald 14 & Charnwood country 12. can't decide!

crphillips

Pinkmami.........12kW seems well overkill for your room size. When you work it out it comes back at around 4.5kW.

An 8kW stove would be more than enough. Unless your ceilings are 6m high! Your always better off with a properly sized stove and running it up the top end of it's range than having a large stove and running it down the bottom end of it's range.

The way you reduce the heat from a stove is by closing the air supplies to the stove....this starves the fire of oxygen and the fire burns mucky. This soots your glass and flue and no matter how dry your wood you'll not keep the glass clean.

A smaller stove with plenty of air to it will burn nice and clean and be a lot better to use.

redlady_1

Take two pieces of paper and do for and against. At the end of it you will have your stove!

Have you got a recommended fitter? Log supplier? Coal merchant? Is that the correct size for your room?

You will love it. I have absolutely no regrets about having mine. The cat is pretty happy with it too!!

A._Badger

pinkmami wrote: »

Thanks Redlady! The house is crying out for a stove !! After yrs & yrs of hiding behind plasterboard the nook is in need of love & heat! If its there it ought to be used! The main hub of the house will be the living/dining room (have 3 kids & lots of family!) & its fab at the moment cos I'm a SAHM so I'll be able to get the fire up & running before all come home from school & work. At least I'll have central heating throughout the house as back-up but this will be the heating for the large lounge. I'm between stoves ATM. Hunter Herald 14 & Charnwood country 12. can't decide!

I bought a Herald 14 this Autumn - FWIW, here are some reflections.

What I call 'cast iron snobs' don't like them because they are made of steel. That doesn't bother me in the least - indeed, I suspect a well-made steel stove will prove inherently stronger, because it can't crack.

The Hunter lights quickly, has a pretty good airwash on the latest version and kicks out a tremendous amount of heat. It's fairly easy to get used to and pretty controllable (though I suspect some other stoves may have an edge in this respect)

The only downside I have found so far is that the ash collection tray is really too small when you are burning smokeless fuel. In fact if you are sensibly careful about avoiding a build-up of ash beneath the firebars (letting them rest on, or in, hot ash will soon ruin them) then you need to empty it every few hours - and that isn't easy when the beast is kicking out around 14kw!

Obviously, this isn't an issue when you are burning wood, which burns better on a bed of its own ash.

Over all, I'm extremely impressed with the Hunter and consider it excellent value for money. On balance, I suspect the Charnwood may be better built, but (so far - touch wood) the 'experts' in a couple of local stove specialists who told me Hunters were rubbish (one even claimed they were made in Bulgaria!), have been proved what I suspected all along - shifty shopkeepers, lying about a cheaper product, in the hope of selling one that made them more profit!

Incidentally, my sweep is a fully-fledged installer too and highly experienced in a part of the country where stoves are very common. It was his recommendation that tipped the balance for the Hunter. As he put it 'they're a bit workmanlike, but they really get the job done'.

After a hard winter's use, I'd have to agree with him.

Hope that's some help.

crphillips

I'm glad you like your Hunter but i've got to say that I started refusing to install them and told my mother in-law to stop selling them around 4 years ago. the only time and every time we had grief with a stove was when it was a hunter. Same complaint everytime too:

"the stove isn't controllable, we can't get it to keep in overnight and the flames won't die down"

Everytime i revisited the customers house they were entirely right and the stoves do leak air like a sieve and cannot be turned down. The other brands we sell respond like gas in seconds....they're a world apart.

I don't want to upset anyone but thats my experience with installing Hunters and they've caused me more trouble than any other brand. We ended up having to install draught stabilizers to them. If a customer has bought one elsewhere and wants us to install it we'll install it but we'll not sell them one as they just don't perform well enough.

We never have a problem with our other sellers such as Charnwood, Dunsley, Esse, Franco Belge, Nordpeis, Lotus.....etc. The Charnwood and Lotus stoves are the best i've ever seen.....very nicely built, keep the glass lovely and clean and i've never had a problem with one yet!

pinkmami

See the Charnwood is the one I prefer to look at IYKWIM!!! I have an installer as he's the one who knocked out the nook last week & his sons are laying the concrete foundations & slate tiles. The beam & stone were sandblasted on Tuesday & look amazing!!!! Hopefully all will be done by the 1st of March!!

I'll try to get pics on cos if you're like me, you like a proper nosey!

PennyForThem_2

I agree with Red_Lady that a stove won't replace your CH but it will mean that you don't have to run it full on. You can turn radiators off. Also the stove will heat the chimney so that will spread warmth to the chinney-linked rooms.


As to steel v cast iron - I have no experience of steel, but I have a Morso (expensive, designer named - for some on this board) stove. I go to bed really early - like 9-10 oclock and therefore I let it die back about 8 and wouldn't put a new log on.

When I come down in the morning there are still embers glowing and the cast iron is warm to the touch. This is about 6-7 am. i could easily re-light.

I have even got glowing embers in the wood ash around 3 pm which have re-lit the paper for re-starting.

I find it a doodle to light.

Controlling it is also easy because there are 2 air inlets - a primary and a secondary.

What a stove does is give a background heat that dissipiates throughout but will definetely warm the room it is in. I would certainly get advice from a professional as to what kw output you need for the space. I have a 4kw in my TV room (not the main living room) and it is more than enought to heat that room. luckily the chinmey goes up the middle of the house and so it warms the hall, landing and a bedroom as well.

Anything more and it would be too much.