Tell me about your wood burning stove

[WillbeanChariot]

We live in a 3 bed Victorian end of terrace, thinking of getting a small wood burner fitted. We have a through lounge which doesn't really warm up with the radiators on so we hope it will heat the room and maybe warm our room above a bit too. I also hear they dry out the house a bot which will be good in winter with DS in reusable nappies!

So... do you have one? What do you think? Hard work? Worth the expense? What type? (We're looking at the Morso squirrel or similar and it's going to cost about £3k for the whole installation including stove).

Doh.. dry out the house a BIT...

We'.ve got a clearview and it's fab. it is wonderfully efficient and burns cleanly (i.e doesn't produce much smoke). With the fire guard we have it is also excellent for drying the washing. Not hard work or expensive to run, need good chimney sweep yearly and logs cost about £55, they must be well seasoned though.

we finally got one last year after umming and ah-ing for years. it's fantastic. wish we'd done it much sooner. much cleaner and hotter than our open fire.

We have one in the middle room of our Victorian terrace (our two downstairs rooms are separate) and it does heat up our bedroom above pretty well, have had it for about 8 years. It is worth shopping around and getting recommendations for logs locally, they vary in quality and quantity a lot. You need somewhere dry to store them outside too. Ours is a Hunter Herald.

Check if you're in a smoke free zone - lots of cities/towns are. If you are then I think that clearview are the only ones you're permitted - certainly is the case where we are in Wandsworth. We have this one and it is great - with it on we turn off the central heating and also cook dinner on it! But don't leave a cup of tea on the top as you'll need the oven gloves to get it off again.

Re Logs we live near Wandsworth common and you can go up there and fill the back of the car (stupid big car for us) for £40 quid - maybe you have something similar nearby?

We've never used a fireguard - DS has always understood "HOT, HOT, HOT" despite my MIL's fretting on the subject. DS loves to help lay the fire and then stays well back when it's alight...

Sorry that should say Wimbledon Common!

We put ours in last autumn - changed our lives!

We've got a squirrel clean air areas one that we bought online. Total for stove and fitting, including chimney lining, came to about £2200. £260 got us a load of hardwood logs which lasted all winter (with a stay at home mum there, so lots of burning), although I did have to buy a big log splitting maul and chop them finer - the squirrel likes the logs thin! I didn't mind, though. It reaffirmed my masculinity to wave a honking great axe around.

It's a great way to heat a house. Instead of a couple of hours in the morning and a couple at night you end up with a warm house all day, and you can't overestimate the effect the glow has on your living room!

I have a couple and love them. You need to keep them going pretty continuously to really get the benefit ime.

Much nicer way of heating than radiators.

And you can't toast muffins on a radiator...

or crumpets

or hot cross buns

or marshmallows

we have a morso badger. looks lovely haven't really tested it out yet.

do check to see if you are in an area affected by the clean air act and then get one permitted.a

Thanks everyone, you are definitely swaying me. DH is very keen, I have been wavering but I think we will go for it. We are in a clean air area but we've been looking at ones that comply with the regs. We are near Ruislip Woods and I've seen a poster up about wood there, must investigate.

Thanks again

Oooh!!! I love our wood burning stove :) WE just moves to southampton and bought this stove just before last winter (which was perfect considering the state of things last year!) It keeps everything nice and toasty and wood isn't too unreasonable, though it does take up quite a bit of the garden to keep it dry. Definitely get one!

:)

Watching this thread with interest as we just had a back boiler removed and were hoping to install a wood burner in the gaping hole.

We have two Clearview: worth every penny !.... chimney sweep once a year, buy logs and store dry (buying in bulk much cheaper), i clean glass every day with a piece of damp magic sponge which works perfectly. Empty ash every day, put in a metal bucket and after a few weeks chuck on your borders. Er...that's it! Last winter we had ours on EVERY day from breakfast to midnight and the house felt wonderful

We have had a Morso Squirrel for 6 years and it is fabulous. We have a small lounge and it is very warm. I agree that sourcing good dry logs is key.

I really wasn't convinced but dh really wanted one so I went with it.

It is fantastic (we have a harmony) lovely heat, easy to lay & light and looks great

we have this one and haven't regretted it for a minute, it's lovely. Coming down to that lovely smell in the morning is an added bonus. Go for it!

We have a Stovax in British racing green with a clearview glass door in a sort of gothic shape. It's in our smaller living room and belts out the heat so much we have to open the doors into the other living room.

Highly recommended.

Umm... I hate to sound like a damp squib here but we got one installed last year and it didn't really heat up our back room as much as we'd hoped (to be fair, it is really freezing in there with drafts coming from all over the place). We spent what felt like a fortune on logs (prices shoot up in the winter - stock up in the summer when fuel is cheaper!). And in the morning it would take at least half an hour to start feeling any heat. And it eats up logs like nobody's business. And lighting it makes your hands filthy.

That said, it does look fabulous and I'm sure once we've put underfloor insulation in we'll feel more of a benefit.

One thing I would recommend if you get a multifuel burner is to use the heatlogs that you can get at places like Homebase - they really are toasty, especially if you use more than one at a time.

Love ours to bits, can hardly wait for another mad winter!
Brilliant for heating up mulled wine[yummm]