multifuel stove

brickie58

can anyone reccomend a stove around £500,ta.

welda

brickie58 wrote: »

can anyone reccomend a stove around £500,ta.

Cut and paste of my reply to your first post in DIY section>>>

Ditto as per A. Badger, 3rd season with my multi fuel stove, it has only been in the last month that I used for the first time, solid fuel coal, always been wood, I have to say, having the option to use two types of fuel is fantastic. My wood pile is getting lower by the day, I have plenty rounds waiting to be split, coal will buy me time to split the rounds. So yes, bad advice to go for wood burning stove only.

I bought a BRITISH manufactured Villager Duo M/F stove, well proud of it over the seasons, even more so beginning of this winter. I paid less than 500 three year ago.

Good luck with your quest, there are many options out there!!

A._Badger

You need to work out how big a stove you need first - not how much you want to pay for it.

Once you've calculated the output you need to heat your space, then you can start considering the options (and there are a lot of them).

A good place to start might be at http://www.stovesonline.co.uk I've no connecton with them, nor have I ever bought a product from them but they have a really informative website, which will help you decide the type and size of stove you need.

From there, user reviews on whatstove.co.uk (as advised earlier) will help - as will posters here, if you've got several options and need some help choosing.

Good luck!

A._Badger

Oh -one other thing.

Avoid stoves on eBay. There is some complete rubbish on there.

brickie58

i need a stove in the 5 to 6kw range and yes its like a minefield out there so hoping for a few views from forum members,ta.

suki1964

Well contrary to those who will knock Chinese imports, I have the Tigar which is around the 5kw output and for the price Im more then happy ( I didnt buy from that link - just used it to show you)

I burn mostly smokeless but do use wood and even paper logs.

I liked the look of it. I like that its so easy to clean, that it has a big fire area and that the glass rarely gets dirty. And the stay cool handles are a bonus

A._Badger

brickie58 wrote: »

i need a stove in the 5 to 6kw range and yes its like a minefield out there so hoping for a few views from forum members,ta.

If £500 is your limit, Suki's advice is good. There are some rotten Chinese stoves on the market, but the Tiger/Firefox models have got a good reputation.

Around the £5-600 mark you could also look at British-made Villagers (Welda loves his!) and you might even get an Aarow for that sort of money.

The trick is to look for major brand names who will back their products with warranties and spares. Stove retailers will always try to 'talk you up' to expensive stoves which, while some of them are excellent, may cost more that you want to pay and may offer more benefit to the retailer's bank balance than your comfort!

suki1964

A._Badger wrote: »

The trick is to look for major brand names who will back their products with warranties and spares. Stove retailers will always try to 'talk you up' to expensive stoves which, while some of them are excellent, may cost more that you want to pay and may offer more benefit to the retailer's bank balance than your comfort!

The other trick is to find a stove retailer who actually knows what it is hes selling

When we were out looking last year we found many a retailer who were just that - selling stoves - with no idea about stoves at all. Many retailers were fire place retailers who were cashing in on the stove popularity

We finally settled on our retailer because he was a very well respected heating engineer with years of experience in boilers, also used stoves in his own home and was up to date on the building regulations in this country. He actually pointed out wee tigar out to us after hearing what we were looking at - and hes given the same guarantee on the stove as he gives all his stoves.

My mother ( and Im sure everyone is sick of hearing about her) instead went to the flashy big showroom place up the road, got sold what they knew she could afford and is left with a stove and fire place that would make you cry

And whist her stove carries a very old English name - its actually Chinese and in this case is a heap of junk with no control at all

Munketytunkety

Control is vital, I have an Evergreen Holly 16kw in the front room and a Firewarm 6 in the back room.

The Holly is a beast of a stove and takes some filling but will burn for 4 or 5 hours between fills. This would be even longer except the controls are pretty poor and even when shut right down it still burns a little quicker than I'd like. Because of the way the airflows on this it is more suited to wood than coal.

The firewarm 6 was recommended to me by the chap that fitted the Holly and after 6 weeks of use I can see why he rates it. It is quite simply a cheaper end stove with the features and build quality of a top end stove. The lower air control wheels have a fire rope lining so you can shut the air right off to virtually nothing so the stove will keep light all night, when you get up in the morning just open the wheels and this sends the air up into the grate like a furnace so the embers glow red hot again so no need for kindling just throw some logs on. The airwash simply works as it should with the stove glass staying clean.

I wish I had bought a firewarm for the front room too, mainly because the firewarm seems so much more efficient, uses very little timber for a lot of heat and the quality is way ahead of the Holly.

We have a large detached house with old metal frame windows and the two burners are more than enough to heat the entire house. If you are having to buy firewood then don't think logburners are a cheap option because logs are silly money at the moment.

edit to add : I have previously had a tiger stove, the controls were not brilliant on it either. The firewarm is a big improvement over it.

brickie58

thanks to everyone who answered some good info here, another query perhaps for the technically minded, i have had some negative answers re stoves about running costs but i have read somewhere that an open fire is only 30% efficient ie 70% of heating is going up the chimney, so as a stove is rated around 70% efficient only 30% waste heat surely then i am going to get more value for my money fuel wise,ta

angelsmomma

I am no expert at all on stoves but bought an ecoburn 5 around 3 years ago.

I am almost certain it was stovesonline I bought it from but did go to stove showrooms and get advice on my needs by the room size. I decided on the stove I was reccomended and then went online to price it up.

I got a quote of £530 including delivery then phoned the shop I got the advice from to give them a chance to price match it but they would only go to £625 plus a delivery charge.

I am really happy with it and have used both fuels but mostly scrap wood.