Stoves, Steel V's Cast Iron

hethmar

We have been fitting stoves for 30 years - our own one is a Clearview - if you have the finance, thats the one to go for. Its so controllable, its virtually like having a gas fire in the room. The Pioneer 400 is the 5Kw model.

We are always concerned when people tell us they have bought a stove online or havent seen one working. Try to find a shop where you can see the stoves working and can even light them up and use the controls yourself.

norfolk.enchance_2

Hi,

After a lot of looking, for a stove for our house, I believe that the best stove is one that you like the look of and one that will look good in your home and comes in within the budget. After all Cast or Steel they are there to warm the house and both will do the job.

We ended up buying a steel "Town and Country Rosedale" which is DEFRA approved for smokeless zones. The particular way that Town and Country get their stoves approved is by restricting the amount you can close off the top air controls to 50%. This makes the stoves impossible to keep in overnight as you cannot close off the air supply. Other manufactures do different things but with the same results.

Oh, with Town and Country stoves the air supply restictors are only tapped grub screws, which if inclined, could be removed.

RHYSDAD

We, after many fretful nights, settled on a Charnwood country four. We didn't want to massively alter our fireplace and chimney breast so this fitted the bill beautifully. Cost us £510 delivered from Stovesite.com who were excellent. The stove body is good thick steel with a cast door. We are very happy so far and it's much more efficient than the open fire we persevered with. We haven't needed the central heating on since we fitted it three weeks ago. The lounge was 28c the other night and upstairs was also beautifully warm. We should have got a stove years ago!!!

highrisklowreturn

Mine is regularly 28c +, but the heat never seems to get as far as upstairs (no more than a degree or 2).

RHYSDAD

highrisklowreturn wrote: »

Mine is regularly 28c +, but the heat never seems to get as far as upstairs (no more than a degree or 2).

When you're sitting in the lounge it 'feels' cold when the door to the hallway is open. It's not until you get upstairs you realise how warm it actually is. We're saving a fortune on gas here!

highrisklowreturn

What kw is your stove? Next year I intend to avoid CH entirely. I can heat the water with the immersion, so there is really no point in having CH anymore. Makes me wonder why people bother with it. Coal would cost me £64 a month tops, and that's assuming no discount and buying it all in Winter at the height of demand. Kindling can be made out of twigs - my favourite.

Has anybody any experience in using candle wax in a stove? Think I read someone before saying not to do it, but threw a bit in earlier and it burnt like crazy, with no smoke, so reckon it would make a superb firelighter.

RHYSDAD

highrisklowreturn wrote: »

What kw is your stove? Next year I intend to avoid CH entirely. I can heat the water with the immersion, so there is really no point in having CH anymore. Makes me wonder why people bother with it. Coal would cost me £64 a month tops, and that's assuming no discount and buying it all in Winter at the height of demand. Kindling can be made out of twigs - my favourite.

Has anybody any experience in using candle wax in a stove? Think I read someone before saying not to do it, but threw a bit in earlier and it burnt like crazy, with no smoke, so reckon it would make a superb firelighter.

It's rated at 4.9kw max (to avoid additional air vent requirement) but realistically I'd estimate it ticking over circa 4kw or so. We didn't bother faffing with a backboiler option so would still use gas to heat water. As for home, it's a three bed semi with cavity wall insulation, new double glazing with energy efficient glass and 250mm loft lagging. Warm as toast here and, coincendentally, BG (after latest meter readings) are reducing our monthly DD from £38 to £34 and I can only see that going down from
Here on in. As for candle wax, not for me and, to be honest, with good draw and dry kindling, why would you need to?

muckybutt

highrisklowreturn wrote: »

Has anybody any experience in using candle wax in a stove? Think I read someone before saying not to do it (SO DONT DO IT), but threw a bit in earlier and it burnt like crazy (BECAUSE CANDLE WAX IS A PETROLEUM BASED PRODUCT), with no smoke, so reckon it would make a superb firelighter.

Yes dont burn it ! simple as :wall:, when burnt off it creates a hell of a lot of soot and leaves a very sticky deposit to stick to your chimney seeing as you dont have a liner. That combined with the damp / unseasoned wood you burn are all the right breeding grounds for a good oll chimney fire :wall:

Try burning a candle against a tin lid with the tin above the flame, you will soon see a layer of soot developing which will be very oily to touch, just because you cant see smoke doesnt mean it doesnt produce any.

highrisklowreturn

When you say petroleum based product do you think then I should avoid coked coal with petroleum in it?

highrisklowreturn

RHYSDAD wrote: »

It's rated at 4.9kw max (to avoid additional air vent requirement) but realistically I'd estimate it ticking over circa 4kw or so. We didn't bother faffing with a backboiler option so would still use gas to heat water. As for home, it's a three bed semi with cavity wall insulation, new double glazing with energy efficient glass and 250mm loft lagging. Warm as toast here and, coincendentally, BG (after latest meter readings) are reducing our monthly DD from £38 to £34 and I can only see that going down from
Here on in. As for candle wax, not for me and, to be honest, with good draw and dry kindling, why would you need to?

Was just going to use it to get rid of it, as I always end up with a lot spare when burning a pillar candle.

My stove is a 6kw - but my house is old and I have no neighbours on either terrace side - so I guess this probably loses me a few degrees in temperature. Combined with that I can't properly close the hatch to my roofspace which is bad as I lose heat up through it, but good as if ever the there was a cold snap again the pipes up there wouldn't freeze over.