woodburner advice anyone?

littleD

I am looking to install a woodburner which can run my central heating and heat water, I need one that is ok to use in a smokeless zone - does anyone have any experience of such things please and if so can you suggest a make/model? Thanks.

A._Badger

I only wish I could help!

I've spent a lot of time this summer trying to find a replacement for a worn-out woodburner.

Never before have I encountered such a world of confusion and deceit as I've encountered from the people who sell these things. It makes buying a secondhand car seem like a stroll in the park.

What is more, stove manufacturers, almost to a man, try to force consumers to buy from appointed dealers - warning that they won't honour warranties if you buy off the Internet, predicting dire consequences if you don't go to one of their retailers (most of whom sell only at full list price), in short, doing everything they can to enforce a uniform retail price.

This might be fine if their appointed retailers actually offered service, or seemed to know what they were talking about. So often, in my experience, however, they even rubbish the very makes they are appointed to sell (sometimes telling downright lies) in an attempt to get to you to buy something else.

This week alone, about one particular brand of stove I have been eyeing, I have been told both 'We've been selling these for nearly 30 years and never had a complaint' and 'We stopped selling them because they were so unreliable.'

So whom do you believe?

After many weeks hard slog, I don't feel a lot closer to being able to make an informed decision than I did when I began and the reason is the stove business itself - from manufacturers to retailers to installers.

Sorry about the rant. I know it's not what you wanted to hear, but it may stand you in good stead once you start trying to deal with some of these people.

Igol

HETAS is good start for you but you'll struggle to find a plumber who'll install one for you. Mine only does the heating, though its capable of doing DHW as well, I had 2 plumbers bother to turn up to quote me, one never returned and the other came back with an insane price for running a few pipes around and not providing what I wanted. I did the work myself and inspite of the 'you cant do that, it wont work' I did and it does.