Woodburning Stove Advice (And yes, I have been to a shop!)

Mojisola

mrs-stressed wrote: »

I have a Clearview and does what it says on the box. However, the inner glass fell out quite randomly a few weeks ago and at £50 a pop to replace - which I cant afford - I have been doing without and its more or less the same.

How long have you had the stove? Have you asked Clearview about replacing it? Unless you've done something you shouldn't with the stove, there must have been in a fault in it.

We've just had a Clearview Pioneer Oven installed and it's wonderful!

mrs-stressed

I have had it since August 2008 so I think its well past its guarantee. Which is typical!!! I didnt do anything at all - I just opened the door to bung another log on and it dropped out and smashed over the hearth. Even with the gloves they give you (big red suede cloves) the heat just seared right through and so I dropped the remaining glass but it was already smashed by then. I never thought about ringing Clearview tbh.....

Mojisola

I wouldn't expect anything to go wrong with our stove within 2 years! The sales talk at their showroom is about how reliable the stoves are, they go on for ever without needing attention, etc. Contact them and see if they'll put it right.

crphillips

Glass isn't under warranty from day one......it's easily broken by slamming it on a log or something.

mrs-stressed

Mojisola wrote: »

I wouldn't expect anything to go wrong with our stove within 2 years! The sales talk at their showroom is about how reliable the stoves are, they go on for ever without needing attention, etc. Contact them and see if they'll put it right.

I think I will!! I must admit the thought did cross my mind at the time but no-one else (and there are four other woodburners in my street) has had any problems with their glass and we all had Clearviews put in roundabout the same time!.

Ill let you know how I get on!

crphillips

monkeydog wrote: »

Really? Even at todays gas prices?

In all fairness gas isn't a very expensive way of heating your home.....everyone has just got used to cheap heating and doesn't like it when it goes up. Our gas bill is around £80 a month in the middle of winter......i don't think that's bad to heat a 400 year old farm house.

There's no way someone can get wood to their house cheaper than gas. The only thing that makes wood burners cheaper is the fact that your not wasting money by heating the whole house......if you were heating your entire house to the level that gas central heating does it'd be way more expensive.

I install stoves and myself and my customers love them but non of my customers are under the impression it's 'cheap heating'.

As to the cost of lining there's more to it than buying the parts. Here's a genuine break down of our costs:

8m 316 liner £120
Pot hanging cowl £80
Adapter £20
Register plate £20
Length of stove pipe £30
Misc parts (fire cement, rope, paint, rivets, drill bits) £10
2 men for the day £300
Fuel (including quoting for the job) £10
Van insurance £6
Office staff £50.00
Hetas Registration £3.50
Hetas certificate £3.50
Employer and liability cover £5
Advertising £10.00
Vehicle financing, servicing repairs £20.00
Premises £14.00
Waste disposal £4
Accounting fees £8.50
Carbon monoxide alarm £15.00
Data Plate £1.50
Invoice and business card £1

Total £732,00

That is before we've made a penny. So if we work back from your £1100.00 thats £936.17 less the VAT so your guy running the stove installation business is making approx £200 per job. I don't think that's out of the way really for working 14 hour days and having the stress and pressure of being self employed. Do you? There's probably other costs i've not accounted for too.

The above prices are based on us carrying out 300 installs a year and i've divided our annual costs by that.

In fact it's a long time since i've gone through all of the costs in that amount of detail and i reckon we need to put our prices up!

mrs-stressed

crphillips wrote: »

Glass isn't under warranty from day one......it's easily broken by slamming it on a log or something.

I do realise by its very nature that it could have been broken quite easily, but I havent slammed (ever!) or stuffed the fire so much with wood that there was pressure on the glass door. I dont know the answer and I have tried ringing the supplier to see what the general life of the inner glass is and there is no reply...I shall keep trying though as it would be interesting to know what they deem as the 'life' expectancy....

Lotus-eater

life expectancy is for ever, unless it is broken by accident or unknown reason.

I presume that stove glass is toughened glass, so the biggest chance of it being broken is by twisting, this could be by a tiny bit in one corner.
The fact that your glass fell out means you have a problem with the mountings. Either one has broken or worked lose.

crphillips

It's not actually glass......it's ceramic.....

I'm not saying you have abused it but your dealing with a product that reaches 400 degrees C or more.....it's not going to be the most robust material in the world. It's not under warranty because if it was everyone would want a free piece of glass everytime it broke. Everyone always says to us 'it just broke'......which i think sometimes it does but most of the time it doesn't.........we've had an Esse 200 in our shop for 8 years and we've never broken the glass and it's used all day every day. They can just break but not often.

It's not expensive.....£40 will probably get you a new piece of glass.

I wouldn't say life expectancy is forever.....no product is forever.

monkeydog

crphillips wrote: »

In all fairness gas isn't a very expensive way of heating your home.....everyone has just got used to cheap heating and doesn't like it when it goes up. Our gas bill is around £80 a month in the middle of winter......i don't think that's bad to heat a 400 year old farm house.

There's no way someone can get wood to their house cheaper than gas. The only thing that makes wood burners cheaper is the fact that your not wasting money by heating the whole house......if you were heating your entire house to the level that gas central heating does it'd be way more expensive.

I install stoves and myself and my customers love them but non of my customers are under the impression it's 'cheap heating'.

As to the cost of lining there's more to it than buying the parts. Here's a genuine break down of our costs:

8m 316 liner £120
Pot hanging cowl £80
Adapter £20
Register plate £20
Length of stove pipe £30
Misc parts (fire cement, rope, paint, rivets, drill bits) £10
2 men for the day £300
Fuel (including quoting for the job) £10
Van insurance £6
Office staff £50.00
Hetas Registration £3.50
Hetas certificate £3.50
Employer and liability cover £5
Advertising £10.00
Vehicle financing, servicing repairs £20.00
Premises £14.00
Waste disposal £4
Accounting fees £8.50
Carbon monoxide alarm £15.00
Data Plate £1.50
Invoice and business card £1

Total £732,00

That is before we've made a penny. So if we work back from your £1100.00 thats £936.17 less the VAT so your guy running the stove installation business is making approx £200 per job. I don't think that's out of the way really for working 14 hour days and having the stress and pressure of being self employed. Do you? There's probably other costs i've not accounted for too.

The above prices are based on us carrying out 300 installs a year and i've divided our annual costs by that. Your clearly not self employed and don't have a clue about the general costs of running a business.

In fact it's a long time since i've gone through all of the costs in that amount of detail and i reckon we need to put our prices up!

I dont' think anyone is using the stove to heat their whole house, more as a replacement to a gas fire. Hence the is it 'cheaper' with regards to a gas fire vs wood burner. IMO a wood burner is best used to suppliment.

If you read back, the person who mentioned the £1100, said that was 'just to fit'. I've taken that to be the cost of fitting, excluding the parts, which based on your prices would bring the total cost to circa £1400, hence my comment. If it turns out that it's £1100 all in, it's better, but still over priced for what is involved imo.
It seems like you're giving quotes for stove installation, where im just on about the flue lining.