Thinking of small, modern woodburning stove - tell me all about them!

[mamhaf]

We have central heating and live in a (fairly characterless) 70s house with a single-storey extension which has a sloping roof.

So the woodburner would be a cosy addition to that room rather than a heating neccessity - I love the smell of woodsmoke which takes me back to my childhood!

We don't have a chimney, so it would need to be one which has its own vent out through the lowest part of the roof, and it's not a huge room.

Any recommendations and tips please? Do you reckon there's anyone who'd fit one in time for Christmas (given that it would need some construction work to vent it through the roof)?

We live in Cardiff btw. Wood storage wouldn't be a problem.

Thanks!

I don't get much smell off my woodburner, and if I do it's a right stink (more like unwanted fumes, when something burning falls out of the stove).

You'd need a tiled space for the burner to stand on, no?

Small ones are more work because they need feeding & clearing out more often, and I suspect can be harder to manage temp (cool down faster, heat up slower).

It would go on an existing slate floor. We'd only light it at weekends, so it shouldn't be too much hassle - but bad news if it doesn't give us that lovely wood-burning smell.

We don't get any smell unless Dh lets a cloud of smoke in the house from opening the door of the stove too quick. But when it's up and running the house does have a nice warm smell, different to when the central heat is running. We don't have a chimney ours is exposed black chimney pipe, goes straight up through the roof. Ours sits on a brick floor.

We're getting one installed at the moment. We've had to wait several weeks for this so I'd be surprised if you could get it in time for Christmas.

We have 2 wood burners and they don't smell. You need to ensure there is adequate ventilation and have a CArbon Monoxide detector.

I have morso stoves as I wanted a modern style although I live in a 150 year old house.

They are wonderful!

I have an open fire, thats the smell you're after I would think.....but I have a chimney and a lovely old fireplace.

I'm not too sure a wood burner is for you, research well, dont rush in getting someone to do it, in my experience you generally have to wait for good tradesmen. Its a costly mistake to get it wrong.

Some woodburners you can leave the door open, so that would help with the woodsmoke smell. Ours is a scan andersen, v. modern and I think it looks fab. PUmps out a massive amount of heat too.

Your chances of getting a qualified hetas engineer to fit before Xmas are slim to non-existent, though, I fear, unless there are a good deal more of them round your way than ours!

Expect it to be expensive to buy and install. Very expensive. They're worth it though.

Burning wood makes a lot of tar and soot so the chimney needs sweeping every spring. If you get a multifuel stove you can put other solid fuels in as well, which give out more heat and needs less frequent feeding.

I had one in a cottage in Suffolk. It gave out plenty of heat once it got going but there was a long cold gap when I got home from work in winter.

Firewood is a useful source of interesting wildlife in the home, mostly spiders but also beetles, woodlice and snails.

Mine had a feed to the hot water cylinder which I found very useful.

There will be a certain amount of dust from the ash which you might not be used to.

It will get rid of kitchen scraps and other rubbish but paper ash will float out of the chimney. It will need a stone or concrete slab under it. Ordinary tiles may crack.

Oh yes, and woodworm from the firewood.

Oh yeah, £35/yr for a chimney sweep or dare to get your own brushes.

I wouldn't worry about woodworm unless it's otherwise a damp house.
We have had to deal with hibernating wasps brought indoors on the wood, though

£35/yr for a chimney sweep? We pay £55 so you are lucky there LLjkk!
We have an old chilton stove which used to feed a back bouiler. We wanted to put in a wood burner instead.
We didn't as the quotes we had were shocking!
£2,000 plus for the woodburner
£500 to remove old stove
£1,500 to put a flue up the chimney and fit burner.
As you can imagine we are putting up with our old chilturn - a fire is a fire!

our quote is for about 2200- that includes taking out the old concrete fireplace, making good, installing stove plus liner

there's a lot of room to manouevre there with bits of stone, model of stove etc etc

ours is an aarrow ecoburn and its lovely
had it fitted and certified by the hetas man ....
sweep is £35 a year

have you got a liner thingy, Peace?

or just the chimbley?

we're probably going to get a liner but no idea if it has to get swep or not

[ignorant face]

Your liner will need sweeping once or twice a year SHJ.

TRy ringing round OP for Christmas. My woodburner doesn't really smell but I notice the living room has that woody/woodsmoke smell when I come in.

My WB is 5kw and I find that I need to restack every hour to keep it burning well. Generally it's better to get a smaller burner for a hot brisk fire than a bigger one which you will only want to burn slowly because the latter causes tar build-up in the liner.

(Machinemart do some good burners much cheaper than elsewhere)

What does restack mean
Add more wood to the WB?

we had our chimney lined - because it was easier than checking that the whole chimney was sound after 30 years out of use - and it makes sweeping cheaper

cheap burners are more likely to crack ...

woodburners are indeed best if you fill them to the top, leave to burn right down and then re stack with wood
and of course are much better than open fires as they can be safely left roaring away while you are outside