Stove Advice Tiger+ or Dunsley 5

SpongeyC

Hi Everyone,

Well we finally managed to buy a house and are now in the process of doing it up. We have had someone to quote on chimney lining and fitting a stove and are now in a situation of trying to choose between two different stoves.

Situation: 250+ Yr old 3 bed solid walled cottage existing open fire with disconnected back boiler. The stove is going in an existing fireplace which will be knocked out to an Inglenook. The living room it is going in is 6x4x2.2m with a 4x3x2.2m kitchen coming off it and we are hoping it will heat the living room and on longer burns warm some of the house.

We are hoping the stove will take some strain off of our oil bill as while we have a modern ish oil central heating system prices are going up; so been able to reduce the boilers use through keeping a low burn on the stove in the night is something we are hoping for.

We have managed to narrow the huge range of 5kw stoves down to:

Tiger + £380ish delivered cheap end of the spectrum are they ok? Hows build quality? do they burn through the night or do they leak too much to control the fire?

Dunsley Highlander 5 £630 delivered - High end, love the design! But are they overpriced? this is top end of budget. Forums and What Stove seem to have nothing bad to say about them!

Stovax Stockton 5 MF £635 - Similar again seem to be some concern surrounding QC but an attractive stove.

Thoughts and opinions from owners would be great as struggling to justify the +50% price tag of the Dunsley.

Thanks for your thoughts
Dave

Williwoodburner

Not had personal experience with any of these brands of stoves, but would personally avoid the Tiger as made in China and have heard some horror stories about cheap stoves bought on the internet.
A stove is a long term investment and I would advise to get the best you can afford.
Both the Stovax and Dunsley are quality stoves made in England and should provide many years of trouble free service, (bar the odd firerope replacement and broken glass if clumsy when loading or using the poker. Both cheap and easy to replace yourself).
I personally have a Yeoman Exe 5 kw single door which is fantastic.
However in my opinion the most important factor when running a stove is not the stove itself but the wood.
Must be well seasoned by storing outside, undercover but open to sun and wind for at least 1 year.
I always select my logs and bring into the house storing near the stove for as long as possible before use. This further dries out the wood. I also store my kindling underneath the stove so always got a ready supply which is very dry.

Hope this is of help.

Willie.

782sirbrian

I have a Dunsley Yorkshire very solidly built, very pleased with the quality. I suggest if you can visit a showroom to see the stove/s close up you'd get a feel for them.
Brian

suki1964

As williwoodburner has said - he has no experience of the tiger+

I have a Tiger+ and love it to bits. Its a good sturdy stove and I cant believe Im as lucky to get the one and only one that doesn't leak, glass hasn't cracked, inners haven't buckled in 2 years of solid use - and thats solid as in six months a year of all day lighting and another 4 months of evening lighting only

Tigar+ is a 6kw stove btw so you will need a vent


Personally I find mine pretty controllable burn wise. I use smokeless ovoids and anthracite. Wood - a I cant get decent wood at a decent price. When I do get some it burns pretty well - cooking us on about a log an hour. Otherwise its a scuttle of smokeless a day and a small amount of anthracite a day

I dont keep a fire in all night as I dont like the idea heating the house when all are sleeping but if Im going out for the afternoon I can keep the fire in for about 6 hours, just needing to open it back up and add some kindlers to get going. Even if it had died a death the residue heat in the house is ample

At full pelt I record temps of around 26 in a room thats 27x17 ft and that also keeps the bedrooms on the same floor a nice 16oC.

A._Badger

My own choice would be the Dunsley but Tigers get good reviews. All the same, check the maths on what you expect to save. If you are buying smokeless fuel or wood you might find that what you save on oil you will spend on feeding your stove - and perhaps even more.

Stoves are not a cheap heating option unless you can get cheap fuel.

SpongeyC

Thanks for your help advice guys. We spent the day at 2 stove shops and looked at a broad selection of stoves. After seeing the size of the 5kw stoves we decided they would look out of place in the large inglenook we have as we need quite a bit of width. We therefore think we may be looking to go slightly bigger. With the choice been:

Tiger Plus - 6.2kw
Dunsley Highlander 7 - 7kw
Firefox 8 - 8kw

I think we will probably end up with the Tiger. While the dunsley is nice the 5kw is just too small (the 7 is even more expensive) and the 8kw firefox i have a feeling may cook us.

Its anoying about the air vent as the open fire at the moment devours air and the house is far from air tight been 250yrs old but just have to accept it.

Thanks for all your help
Dave

smcqis

I WAS LOOKING AT THE FIREFOX 8 in store and debating it was a sanr emo 6kw, the own advised us with the 5 year warrabty with the san remo it is also an overall better stove than the firefox 8 as thye had a habit of somthing going in them (cant mind what he said it was now)

woodlice

Hi, I've been using a Tiger Plus for about 5 years, I've only had to replace the door rope. I run it without the grate as I only burn wood. I have no experience of other stoves but mine is well built and Does not leak air so it is very controllable. I realise there are better stoves but for the money the Tiger gets my vote.

highrisklowreturn

SpongeyC wrote: »

Thanks for your help advice guys. We spent the day at 2 stove shops and looked at a broad selection of stoves. After seeing the size of the 5kw stoves we decided they would look out of place in the large inglenook we have as we need quite a bit of width. We therefore think we may be looking to go slightly bigger. With the choice been:

Tiger Plus - 6.2kw
Dunsley Highlander 7 - 7kw
Firefox 8 - 8kw

I think we will probably end up with the Tiger. While the dunsley is nice the 5kw is just too small (the 7 is even more expensive) and the 8kw firefox i have a feeling may cook us.

Its anoying about the air vent as the open fire at the moment devours air and the house is far from air tight been 250yrs old but just have to accept it.

Thanks for all your help
Dave

Buy a stove relative to your room size and not relative to your inglenook size. Remember, whilst it might look better to have a larger stove complement the space, it may overheat your room, and cost you more to refuel.

Stoves burn and produce heat most efficiently when fully loaded and in full operation. The bigger your stove, the more fuel by definition you will have to put in to get a true reflection of its kw in heat.

Also bear in mind the greater the height and width of the stove the less options you will have for storing fire accessories, installing a fan, or space to dry out blocks and kindle.

Williwoodburner

highrisklowreturn wrote: »

Buy a stove relative to your room size and not relative to your inglenook size. Remember, whilst it might look better to have a larger stove complement the space, it may overheat your room, and cost you more to refuel.

Stoves burn and produce heat most efficiently when fully loaded and in full operation. The bigger your stove, the more fuel by definition you will have to put in to get a true reflection of its kw in heat.

Also bear in mind the greater the height and width of the stove the less options you will have for storing fire accessories, installing a fan, or space to dry out blocks and kindle.

Good advice.

SpongeyC

Very valid advice and one of the resons we dont want to go higher than 7 kw as we are concerned that the 8 Firefox will be too much for the room.

The calculators on the net which assume a well insulated to average insulated house give us a 5KW target but our house is not well insulated, we are working on it just ripped down 2 upstairs cielings last week and PIR lined them + the house is fairly exposed.

I think we will probably go with the Tiger + as have had a lot of very good reviews and that extra bit of heat will be needed intitally at least.