Chesney's Woodburning Stoves

michaeldowney

Hi,
I am now thinking of buying a Chesney wood burner to save money. Has anyone got any opinions on their wood burning and multi fuel stoves?

jonewer

Save money? I guess you could but it seems like install costs are £2-3k

crphillips

Hehe......nice stoves though, top notch. Very high quality castings.

suki1964

All depends on if you can source a lot of wood cheaply or not.

Here wood is expensive (more so then coal) so for us a multi fuel was required. Here I get a good bed of coals glowing to get the stove really working and then keep it going with the logs throughout the evening.

michaeldowney

Hi All,
Thanks for the replies, I have a wood so fuel is no problem and much of the infrastructure is already in place so installation should be reasonably inexpensive. I was thinking of the Chesney 8 series but it is down as multi fuel and I have heard that multi-fuel is not as efficient when burning just wood.

Any comments?

Swipe

michaeldowney wrote: »

Hi All,
Thanks for the replies, I have a wood so fuel is no problem and much of the infrastructure is already in place so installation should be reasonably inexpensive. I was thinking of the Chesney 8 series but it is down as multi fuel and I have heard that multi-fuel is not as efficient when burning just wood.

Any comments?

It does depend on the stove, but in many multifuels you just remove the grate/basket to burn just wood. They may be slightly less efficient but there wouldn't be that much in it.

angelahorn

Hiya. I'm no expert, but cost-saving feasibility may depend on whether you need to have your chimney flue lined or not. In our case, this would have added over £1,300 to the cost, and frankly we would need to save a lot on heating bills to make it worthwhile. The wood-burning stove manufacturers invariably say you will need to line the flue because their stoves perform better with it, but while it's clearly ideal, in some circumstances you may be able to get away without doing it. After extensive reading up on it, my understanding is that the main reason is to get a sufficient draw on the stove rather than for safety per se. Reasons cited are:

1. Ease of cleaning chimney - the sweep's brush can't fit into all the corners of an unlined flue. But this isn't a deal-breaker as, clearly, chimney sweeps have been dealing with unlined flues for some time and


2. Risk of carbon monoxide leaks. Scarey, but our chimney sweep always does a smoke test after sweeping and on the basis of that appears able to give us a clean bill of health. My understanding is that the main risk is from a stove that is incorrectly fitted,or a blocked chimney, rather than from an unlined flue. We have a CO alarm anyway.

3. To make the fire burn efficiently. An open fire has loads of heat going up the chimney and that hot air rising 'draws' the fire. The point of an efficient stove is that very little heat is lost up your chimney, so you need a strong draw to get it going and to make it burn efficiently. I have a Clearview and it's lovely - but specifies that to be clean-burning it has to be burning at 200C or more. A lined, insulated flue will heat up quickly and this provides the good draw you need. BUT... we were advised by the maverick, independent guy who fitted our stove that we wouldn't need to line our flue because our chimney was in good nick and so tall (45ft I think) that it would draw well enough without lining. We've had it for a year now and he was right - it easily reaches its efficient operating temperature, and the manufacturers told me that if you can get the stove burning at that temp, it's got a good enough draw. The risk is that if you don't have a good enough draw, your expensive wood-burning stove will not be functioning to maximum efficiency and you might as well have bought a cheaper one.

4. Decorative reasons. Over the years lots of tarry residues build up in the chimney and may have soaked into the bricks/mortar of the flue. The heat from your stove exhaust gases may drive these residues further through the brickwork and they may emerge as dark stains on your chimney breast throughout the house, which are very difficult to get rid of. But, again, in my case I would need to do an awful lot of redecorating to justify the £1,300 + extra cost of lining a very tall flue.

I hope some of that helps - I'm afraid I don't have sources to hand, but we're thinking of installing a second stove in another part of the house. It's been lovely - ours is an 8Kw stove and it really throws the heat out, while the large viewing window gives us many of the advantages of an open fire but the whole thing is much more efficient. It's been great fun and the whole family are delighted we did it!

crphillips

angelahorn wrote: »

Hiya. I'm no expert, but cost-saving feasibility may depend on whether you need to have your chimney flue lined or not. In our case, this would have added over £1,300 to the cost, and frankly we would need to save a lot on heating bills to make it worthwhile. The wood-burning stove manufacturers invariably say you will need to line the flue because their stoves perform better with it, but while it's clearly ideal, in some circumstances you may be able to get away without doing it. After extensive reading up on it, my understanding is that the main reason is to get a sufficient draw on the stove rather than for safety per se. Reasons cited are:

I wouldn't say the main reason is to get sufficient draw although this is important. The main reason is to enable easy, efficient sweeping that doesn't cover the hearth, stove and recess in soot. And also to combat the issue with tar and soot soaking through the chimney breast.

1. Ease of cleaning chimney - the sweep's brush can't fit into all the corners of an unlined flue. But this isn't a deal-breaker as, clearly, chimney sweeps have been dealing with unlined flues for some time and

They have been dealing with unlined flues but they weren't trying to fit a 14" brush through a 6" access door in a closure plate. Also a lot of people want the look of a proper fire but without the mess of a proper fire. This is really only possible through lining the flue. This way you can have a limestone hearth and paint the recess white and it will stay like this for years and years.


2. Risk of carbon monoxide leaks. Scarey, but our chimney sweep always does a smoke test after sweeping and on the basis of that appears able to give us a clean bill of health. My understanding is that the main risk is from a stove that is incorrectly fitted,or a blocked chimney, rather than from an unlined flue. We have a CO alarm anyway.

CO alarms are a great idea. I doubt the sweep does a proper smoke test so it wouldn't tell whether the flue leaks or not. If he didn't get on the roof then it ain't a proper smoke test.

3. To make the fire burn efficiently. An open fire has loads of heat going up the chimney and that hot air rising 'draws' the fire. The point of an efficient stove is that very little heat is lost up your chimney, so you need a strong draw to get it going and to make it burn efficiently. I have a Clearview and it's lovely - but specifies that to be clean-burning it has to be burning at 200C or more. A lined, insulated flue will heat up quickly and this provides the good draw you need. BUT... we were advised by the maverick, independent guy who fitted our stove that we wouldn't need to line our flue because our chimney was in good nick and so tall (45ft I think) that it would draw well enough without lining. We've had it for a year now and he was right - it easily reaches its efficient operating temperature, and the manufacturers told me that if you can get the stove burning at that temp, it's got a good enough draw. The risk is that if you don't have a good enough draw, your expensive wood-burning stove will not be functioning to maximum efficiency and you might as well have bought a cheaper one.

4. Decorative reasons. Over the years lots of tarry residues build up in the chimney and may have soaked into the bricks/mortar of the flue. The heat from your stove exhaust gases may drive these residues further through the brickwork and they may emerge as dark stains on your chimney breast throughout the house, which are very difficult to get rid of. But, again, in my case I would need to do an awful lot of redecorating to justify the £1,300 + extra cost of lining a very tall flue.

It's more than re-decorating....the brickwork of the chimney breast needs jack hammering out and replacing with fresh material. Can cost thousands and make a right mess of your house. Also all of the time your bedrooms will stink of tar.

I hope some of that helps - I'm afraid I don't have sources to hand, but we're thinking of installing a second stove in another part of the house. It's been lovely - ours is an 8Kw stove and it really throws the heat out, while the large viewing window gives us many of the advantages of an open fire but the whole thing is much more efficient. It's been great fun and the whole family are delighted we did it!

I'd agree with some of the info and disagree with some.

owned_by_2_Siamese

Please think carefully about lining your chimney. I have a new house - 3 years old. We had a 5kw Morso stove professionally installed and were told our concrete 10 inch chimney on the exposed north facing side of the house would not need lining.....

After 12 months, of burning seasoned wood, mindful of all the advice to burn hot and clean, we had a deluge of boiling tar pour out of the register late - onto a hot stove. You have no idea how much mess (and the smell) and of course the danger this caused (Boiling mobile foul flammable tar bubbling and catching light!)

A professional company (not the installer) came to our rescue. Lining a chimney isn't just about inserting a metal liner its also about inserting insulation around it - to keep the chimney hot and prevent tar depositing. The exposed nature of the wall and mass of the construction of the chimney (no different to many others!) meant it never stood a chance of getting hot especially with a clean burn efficient 5kw stove (the most common size!) I would never not have the chimney lined - believe me you only have to live through it once to realise its just not worth the risk!

After a clean up costing a lot! we paid another £1500 to install the liner and reinstall the stove. 2 years on the stove gives out the same heat and burns the same - but we have piece of mind! With a 20 year + life thats about £75 a year... a small cost compared to the possible outcome of not lining. For us being off gas, rural and exposed a wood burner was a viable option, its not a cheap alternative to mains gas!

Good luck - I'm sure there will be many different views - I can only share my expereince!

crphillips

This is exactly one of the massive reasons why we line flues..............if your flue was brick or stone the tar wouldn't have reached the bottom and would have soaked into the masonry over the years. You wouldn't know there was a problem until 5 maybe 10 years down the line and then it;s too late to just re-line it.

hethmar

We are always surprised how many lining firms do not insulate the flue liner. We do it on every job; we lose jobs because we quote for insulation material every time be it backfill or rock wool liner wraps and we get "but xxxx and xxxx says we dont need to insulate". Its a pain, storing the materials, taking them up to the roof and its time consuming but it is important to keep the lining insulated - as 2 Siamese has pointed out.