Which woodburning stove is the best?

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  • A._Badger
    A._Badger Posts: 5,848
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    It would be almost impossible for Which? to review stoves, given the installation costs and the time it would take to familiarise their reviewers with the way each model operates under different conditions.

    People often underestimate the effect an individual installation can have on the way a stove performs, too - how the chimney its attached to draws, the influence of nearby trees and buildings, prevailing winds, the quality and type of fuels (particularly naturally occurring ones like wood and anthracite). There are just too may variables to do much more than talk about whether the castings or steel thickness are up to scratch.

    I agree about the existing 'reviews' on 'What Stove' as well, which are about as useful as Amazon product reviews (in other words not much use at all). The best route, in my experience, is at ask around from people one trusts. Pub landlords with stoves (as many now have) are a good source. Installers less so, as in my experience they tend to promote what they sell or make the most profit on. Sweeps usually know more than most, too.
  • cobminor
    cobminor Posts: 5 Forumite
    edited 21 January 2017 at 4:29PM
    I am about to buy a log burner and I live opposite a guy that installs them, his advice is the heavier the better as they store their heat better and are more controlable, size for size.

    I have looked at loads and have come up with Three that I will pick from. The Clearview Vision 500, the Charnwood country 8, and the Yeoman Devon. The Clearview runs at 1.5 - 8Kw, the other Two both at 4 - 11Kw with a nominal of 9. The Clearview is probably the best for quality, and the most expensive, it would be running too close to it's maximum to give me 7Kw though. The other Two are much the same but the Charnwood is narrower, they make it deeper to get the output. This is fine for a limited width alcove. The yeoman is wider and so has a larger visual impact.

    As for weight, the Yeoman and the Clearview hit 124-127 kilos, the Charwood 105K. I looked at a Villager Flatmate, which is about the same size and spec. and it was only 67K packed, so that was crossed off the list. There are so many cheap nasty stoves out there, and 'on the bandwagon' fitters and salesmen that it makes sense to do a lot of research. I also ruled out Arada based on user reviews. I know that web sites, such as this, are not a good guide as people favour their own choice (bit like cars), but when there is a heavy trend toward the negative then it pays to be cautious.

    Comments are, of course, welcome.

    Regards, Clive.
  • A._Badger
    A._Badger Posts: 5,848
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    Suggesting that the heavier a stove is, the better it is, is too simplistic. On that basis a cheap, Chinese cast iron stove should be 'better' than a well designed steel one - and that is certainly not the case.

    Generally, an object that retains its heat for longer will also take longer to heat up. The control of a stove, moreover, is to do with its drafting, how the air flows in and through the stove and affects its ability to combust, and that isn't a result of its mass, either, but how well it has been designed.

    A far better measure of a stove's worth would be its efficiency, but the problem there is that the figures available are those devised by the people who make them.

    Of the stoves you mention, my money would be on the Charnwood, which are well designed and made, British stoves, but that's just personal preference.
  • I expected someone to come up with the cheap Chinese stoves bit and I was not dissapointed, first reply as well. I nearly re-worded my post to stop the comments but could not be bothered.

    Chinese stuff is not all rubbish, it is only cheap when companys from the West go and ask for it to be made cheaply, due to their greed. Not many of the companies selling this cheap stuff are Chinese, they are western companies after a larger profit margin. I have a Chinese photographic tripod that is as good as a Manfrotto (who have parts made in China), you just need to research a bit.

    As for the stoves, the Clearview is definately the best made of the Three but I am not going to pay that much. I will probably get the Charnwood because it is well enough made and I like the shape of it.
  • A._Badger
    A._Badger Posts: 5,848
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    There are plenty of poor quality Chinese made stoves on the market still. Whose fault that is is neither here nor there and has no bearing on the misleading claim about the weight of a stove being somehow related to its performance. Clearly, it isn't.

    If you didn't want comments, why post at all?
  • I've been running a Franco-Belge Montfort Mk2 for the last two years.

    It's a 5 Kw fire and I've found it a well made unit which gives out plenty of heat. Spares don't seem to be a problem as they are well advertised.

    http://www.francobelge-stove-specialist.co.uk/franco-belge-montfort-elegance-multifuel-woodburning-stove.html

    http://www.hetas.co.uk/wp-content/mediauploads/Franco-Belge-Montfort-Installation-Operating-Instructions.pdf
    "There are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe a 'Princess Coronation' locomotive in full cry. We shall never see their like again". O S Nock
  • I was surprised to read the negative comments about Aga stoves.

    OK, we were also seduced into buying one by the name, and without any guarantee that Aga woodburners would be as good as legend provides that their other products are meant to be. However, the stove itself (and again I acknowledge the advice that weight is not necessarily a marker of quality) is over 200 lbs in weight and seems solidly made, with no discernable gaps between panels. It did cost us over 500 quid, however, and about £150 of that is probably the price of that name.

    The problem I found following installation was not so much operating the stove (this being not unlike the good old days of "laying" a coal fire, with kindling, firelighters, paper and simple air controls to fiddle with until you work out how best to get and keep a good fire going) but finding a reliable supply of wood that wasn't advertised as "kiln dried" and thus ludicrously expensive. So far ash seems to be the best firewood, although only available in this area in small netted bags, but the half ton mixed hardwood load that we bought today appears inconsistent in quality and dryness, so I think our search will go on.

    Storage again is an issue, our garage having been converted to a bedroom and the only significant outside space being one of those plastic storage boxes. I did read somewhere that "outside with a tarpaulin on top" is as good a way as any to keep seasoning wood, or seasoned wood that needs to dry, with the further proviso that once the warmer, sunnier weather arrives the wood should be exposed as much as possible to the sun's rays to assist the drying process.

    I've also built a small woodstore out of pallets to take any seasoned wood that isn't quite dry and doesn't fit in the storage box, so we'll see how that all goes this summer. Oh what fun it is, getting down and dirty with timber.
  • Id recommend Morsø and Villager stoves, as those are two of the best Ive used, especially Morsø . I would also recommend getting a multi fuel which can also take coal, then you have two fuel options. My other recommendation is to get a flat top stove - if electric goes off, you can cook on the top.
    For a small range, consider a canal boat stove with oven. They are like a very small range. We had one of those once.
    My dad made a few woodburners without glass in the doors, and while a bit dreary looking, they seem to get hotter, and no chance of glass breaking.

    - 40 years of fires and different stoves
    ''A moment's thinking is an hour in words.'' -Thomas Hood
  • redlady_1
    redlady_1 Posts: 1,601
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    I have a Dovre Astroline 3cb and this thing kicks out a considerable amount of heat (10kw)although this is a big room with exposed apex. This is my first full year of having the stove and so far its cost me £600. All my wood comes from White Horse Energy...unless I acquire some.

    In my previous cottage I had a Town and Country stove and it was super efficient with a 5 kw output and kept the whole house warm. I would definitely have one of their stoves in the future.
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741
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    redlady_1 wrote: »
    I have a Dovre Astroline 3cb and this thing kicks out a considerable amount of heat (10kw)although this is a big room with exposed apex. This is my first full year of having the stove and so far its cost me £600. All my wood comes from White Horse Energy...unless I acquire some.

    In my previous cottage I had a Town and Country stove and it was super efficient with a 5 kw output and kept the whole house warm. I would definitely have one of their stoves in the future.
    Making valid comparisons depends on comparing like with like, or else introducing weighting to compensate for differently constructed property of varying internal volume and space distribution.

    This is what often makes anecdote so unreliable when it comes to stoves.

    For example, my 5kW stove seems to kick out more than the much larger one that sat there last year, but since it was removed, I've had new loft insulation and a DG conservatory added to the exterior wall of the room it's in. We also haven't had much of a winter so far either!
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