Help with buying a wood burning stove!

crphillips

There's nothing going on between me an Hethmar....the first time we spoke was on here. I'm just trying to educate people in another direction rather than cheap and that'll do. The thing that makes a good stove isn't it's welds.....it's it's design.........i could make a well designed stove and mig it together with no gas and it would work a treat........i could have a poorly designed stove and tig weld it beautifully and it would still be a crap stove. A a lot of other so called 'British made' stoves........ and i know of a definite 5 manufacturers that are made in China and badly made at that. British made stoves that are 100% British are Dunsley, Charnwood, Clearview, Woodwarm......any others aren't really worth talking about. I think some of those manufacturers might source their ceramic glass from Germany but thats only because it's far better quality than the British or stuff.

The reason manufacturers won't bother getting our IP addresses is because i can prove that what i've said is true.......i know the guy who has the foundry that was asked to price the doors for a certain supposedly British Made stove........they went to China because it was cheaper. British made...hmm....yeah...right. People can't sue you if your speaking the truth.

Badger also said " (a favourite line, that one - and said to me about both some British and Scandinavian 'luxury' stoves - the latter in the context of recycled cast iron). "

You do realise that cast iron can be recycled over, and over, and over again with no loss of quality......Welda should know this being his profession. Chesney stoves are top notch and made from recylced cast.

Going back to the Good Old British made.........i love England and i'm very patriotic.....i actually have my own brand of stove coming out next year which will wipe the floor with most of the stoves out there....it Is 99% British Made (except for the ceramic glass at 1%).,....not only is it British made....everything is sourced, machined, cut, fabricated, cast and assembled in Yorkshire! The stove will never leave Yorkshire until it is sold. There are some quality British made stoves and we promote them massively......in all honesty though.......what do we make nowadays that is good?

Look at what we manufactured in the past and what we make now:

TVR....gone
Rover.....went massively downhill and gone
Jaguar....went massively downhill and gone
Landrover....gone
Sheffield steel for high quality knives and such.......gone
Triumph.........nowhere near as good as Honda

The main issue is i feel i'm possibly preaching to the wrong people as this forum is titled "Money Saving"........money saving and quality top notch installation don't really go together. Although having said that there must be a lot of people that come on here that understand and agree with what i say and simply don't join in the tit for tat as we get stacks of work from posting on this forum......so it's worth the odd argument with you guys as people can see who are the pros with experience of using thousands of stoves and who simply has the experience of one or two.

crphillips

Morso are brilliant by the way....you'll not regret it......we don't even sell Morso and i'm telling you they're great! I'll send you a cheque for the value of the stove if your not happy with it, even though we've not sold you it (providing the installation is done correctly of course).

bigblackdog

yawn .........
i bought an aga wood /coal burning stove , as i couldnt afford an aga stove for the kitchen the woodburner / coalburner seemed very good value , the authorised seller of agas wanted about a grand for it , my local stove shop gave me it for about 450 i think , it gets hot enough on top so that i can boil a coffee pot , i broke the glass and got a replacement off ebay , useful , nice looking (to me) , ideal for my purposes ,
one thing i would say is that the prices i was quoted to install it , line chimney ect were extortionate , and i did it myself , got a local scaffolding firm to erect a platform up round the chimney pot , then it was pretty easy to be honest , bit of diy knowledge is all thats needed , and some internet surfing
i would say it is worth the hassle in the end , we put it off for a couple of years but when its done you cant believe how much fun it is to fire the stove up and burn some stuff
by the way you say you want to heat x amount of space , you do realise that someone has to keep loading it up with fuel , good luck

1jim

I have been toying with getting a wood burning stove, can anyone tell me a ball park figure for how much a midpriced stove would cost, installed and having the chimeny lined. Im just after a rougth idea really, dont want to waste my time going around shops and getting surveys done if its not going to be within reach

hethmar

Welda:

I have actually worked on roofs and assisted in fitting stoves welda, so once again you make the wrong assumption (I find it unusual that you are unable to discuss without the jibes). Im no longer fit enough to run up and down ladders and clamber over roofs.

Thanks for the good wishes re our work bookings but we have always had more work than we can cope with, even when we had 3 teams on the road. We were always being told to hire more people to meet the seasonal demand, but OH liked to keep in control of the quality of the workmanship. He used to train and trouble shoot all over the UK and parts of northern europe and had seen horrors due to poor workmanship. We are winding down now heading towards retirement but get bookings from specifiers and domestics that are repeats from decades ago. If you do a good job you get the custom

How can Mr B "know his stoves" when, like you, he has experienced but one and from what I can remember - had a chimney fire in that one: (it was a Villager or Hunter I think )- due to poor control/fuel/installation or what? Unless he has done a few more jobs since I put him on ignore

Oh, and you really think the stove manufacturers would be able to sue over telling the facts as they are - give over. How petty of you even to suggest it - and you a mature professional trainer??

Only just read your daft suggestion about collusion/commission sharing - pmsl - with CRP. I have already said we do NOT sell stoves. We fit any stoves a customer has bought but we do point out that the performance may be poor if they choose some of the lesser quality ones. Makes no difference to us, the cost of installing is the same for a good stove or a carp one. We even tell people on a tight budget to look out for decent second hand ones.

Im giving up with you, god help any students IF you really do train as my god, closed mind or what. I get the feeling from your postings that you are concerned about your own decision re the stove you have installed. If, as you say, you are happy with it, then so be it.

Apologies to all MSE'rs just looking for advice - too much time and space wasted on this nit picking - which I now retire from and get back to what the site is meant for.

hethmar

1jim wrote: »

I have been toying with getting a wood burning stove, can anyone tell me a ball park figure for how much a midpriced stove would cost, installed and having the chimeny lined. Im just after a rougth idea really, dont want to waste my time going around shops and getting surveys done if its not going to be within reach

Jim, ring a few suppliers/fitters in your area and ask for a ball park figure. If you are worried about commitment, this time of the year people in this business should be so busy that they really wont want to make a site visit unless you really are keen after they give you an telephone estimate. They will be happy to give you a rough idea.

1jim

thanks, will give some a call, just didnt want to waste anyones time if prices are out of reach

hethmar

Jim, they would rather you rung and asked for a ball park figure than ask them out for a survey at this time of the year. You can always check local free ads for a decent second hand stove - and if you are capable, you could even do the lining work with the help of a couple of mates and the go ahead/signing off by the local Buildings control inspector.

dollydolittle_2

Hi Jim

I've been looking into this for a while, and the thing is that it all depends! There are four factors that affect cost:

Cost of stove - which is pretty much up to you.
Cost of lining and installation - which depends on height of chimney etc, but assuming yours needs lining then you should be able to estimate the height and ring some installers to find out what they charge. No one has quoted me much less than 1k for lining two stories in existing chimney plus stove installation. I've had detailed quotes and a lot of it is made up of materials, so I think the only way to get it much cheaper would be to skimp on quality of lining etc or as Hethmar says, do it yourself. However, while hubby and I are happy to botch our way through decorating, we know our limits so won't be doing it ourselves.
Price of building work - you might not need much, if anything, doing to your existing set up to make it suitable. We need a huge monstrosity of a fireplace taking out and some cosmetic work around it to fill in some not so tasteful little alcove things, then we were originally going to have the chimney breast knocked out and the stove sat in there like you see on most pics - we were quoted 1k for all that, which seems really steep and I think this is where the room for saving is and where you probably need to get a lot of quotes.
Price of hearth and any mantlepiece type thing - again, pretty much up to you. One builder just told me to go and buy floor tiles. Another showed me a brochure for hearths that were eyewateringly expensive.
Then there's a woodstore which you can spend a lot more on if you like (but we took Hethmar's advice and looked into how we would rig something up with pallets and that is doable pretty cheaply) then there's the fire irons and log basket (it all adds up) before you even get to the wood itself.
So, just from the point of view of someone who's had several quotes, I reckon between 1.5k and 3k is likely, depending on the factors above.
Hope that helps.

crphillips

Some general ball park figures are:

Budget stove you can work on about £50 per kW output
Mid range stove around £100 per kW output
Top end stove £150-£180 per kW output

I'd avoid budget, mid range are pretty good performers from reputable manufacturers and the top end brands are brilliant stoves but are a bit pricey although i truly believe that if you have the money the top end stoves are well worth it.

Installation will generally be around £350ish to hook it up to a suitable, sound clay/concrete lined flue or around £950ish if it needs lining.

To knock out the fireplace and prep ready for a stove would be around £300-£400 plus materials for hearths, surrounds, beams....etc.

To get a reasonable quality stove with a liner all installed with fireplace aterations and a slate, granite or limestone hearth hearth you'd expect to be around the £2200ish. Prices will vary up and down the country and also on how good/busy the firm is.