Woodburner

[MrsFlorrick]

We have got an existing fire place. It's working and a open style. However it doesn't give off much heat when lit and the room is big. Plus the faff of clean up etc.

Wanting a woodburner. And have had a HEYAS engineer out to quote for installation.

Looking at various woodburners. And I quite like this one by Ekol www.fluesystems.com/shop/Ekol_Clarity_12.html

I wonder whether anyone rates this brand or are they rubbish?

Other suggestions welcome. Must be DEFRA and 8kw - 12kW

I've got a Broseley Serrano 5 which I love. They do a Serrano 7 and I think a bigger one still in the same range.

Our fireplace behind the stove is painted with a heather coloured masonary paint (recommended by our installer) as we wanted to keep it simple. We've also installed a rustic oak mantle and it looks lovely. The stove itself is on slate inset into the wooden floor.

Sorry MrsF about 200 miles away! There are lots of poor installers around though so my advice to all is to try and get a personal recommendation

have a look here for a good informative forum. There are a few hetas engineers posting on there as well ie Farenheit

Mine is a Morso Panther ; see pic in profile. A decent woodburner WILL set you back a bit so avoid the cheap chinese generic brands

decent ones are Morso, Clearview, Charnwood, Contura

MrsF
My burner is the baby Aarrow ecoburn : it cost me around £1300 including fitting but was worth every penny as it looks lovely and chucks out loads of heat
burners are something where it IS worth paying for better
and the bigger the window, the nicer the view of the flames

TIP and Gatekeeper.
£1300 inc installation!! Bargain.

The morso is £1700 just for the burner and add £2000 for install and flue lining (mega tall chimneys so scaffold req). And that puts the Morso out of budget.

I grew up with a Morso with a back boiler and Jotul. The Jotul was an ugly thing but far more efficient than the Morso.

Argh. Costs for everything these days are a nightmare.

I really liked that Ekol stove and they're not cheap Chinese ones. They are made in Devon.

Shame I can't find someone who has one?

TIP what's wrong with your Arrow??

MrsF
I love my aarrow - I'll FB a pic of it installed for you - but it does not have the finesse of the morso
www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood_burning_stoves/Aarrow-Ecoburn-stoves.html

TIP it looks great. Appreciate the loveliness of Morso. But it comes at a price!

I will get the exact quote for labour and scaffold and see where I get to.

Argh. Why is everything so fecking expensive!! I'm normally not one to moan about prices but lately everything has gone up so much.

Hehe! You DO live in a mansion, MrsFlorrick. Good luck with the quotes.

It's true about prices. Depressing...

Are you thinking of a multi-fuel stove? I would recommend, otherwise you will be shovelling in wood at a rate of knots. It's nice to have the option of coal occasionally, which burns for longer.

Phoenix. Not exactly.

Yes looking at multi fuel. It's nice to have the option.

Yes the depressing facts of prices. It's enough to make you weep. Even simple things turn into second mortgage type prices.

Fingers crossed the full quote isn't too bad.

We've got this AGA one - our third, in fact. Very pleased and it heats a large 4-bed semi extremely efficiently. We had one delivery of 800kg of logs last year, it heated the whole house, and we didn't have the heating on once - though to be fair it wasn't a very cold winter. The previous year, in cold snaps, DH would load it with coal before going to bed and it would still be going ready for a top-up in the morning.

www.firesonline.co.uk/acatalog/Aga-Ludlow-Multifuel-Stove.html#aagalud

Yes, every small-scale home improvement these days seems to cost around 3-4 grand. Wardrobes, lowering a kerb, installing a wood-burner, new carpets. All things that seem to cost in that region. Why?!

FWIW we have one made by Pevex. It's been great so far, and was easy to fit (according to our HETAS chap).

I noticed that Plumbworld are having a clearance sale on woodburners, the prices looked very low.

I have only had a Morso multifuel and I don't know if the ones in the sale are a good brand.

correction

just checked, they have multifuels on sale now. Don't know if I imagined the woodburners or if they have all sold.

Multifuel is certainly a better thing to have.

We have just had fitted a Mendip Churchill 8. Love it, big glass door with view of the flames. We were told by all the fitters that 8kw was possibly too big and we would be too hot. Not finding it so far, it does get very warm but you just open the doors ( of the room) and let it heat the rest of the room. Ours cost about £2k for the stove and fitting ( but more than than for rebuilding the fireplace too).

Agree with the poster who commented on Dovre. We had a gorgeous big Dovre cos we liked the look of it, but the HEAT!! We had to retreat to the back of the room and open the windows. reluctantly sold it on ebay and have a much smaller clean burn one, which is nice, but not as gorgeous.
heed advice on heat output needed!

we have a clearview and it's wonderful! we haven't lit a fire in our other fireplace since installing it.

We have a teeny contura one, 4.5kW and like indigo we end up sitting as far away as possible, even on the lowest setting. Those things whack some heat out, especially if you're used to the older, less efficient models.

Ours cleans itself, apart from having to empty the ash out once every couple of days.

Pigletjohn. Checking that sale now. Really want a Morso if I can afford it.

Mendip sounds good too. Off to google.

Again a hijack from a complete novice. What's the difference between a wood burner and a multi fuel ?

We also have s clearview and love it

A woodburner can burn wood. A multifuel can burn wood and/or smokeless fuel (which contains more heat and burns longer per load, so needs less frequent filling).

Smokeless fuel does not bring spiders, woodlice and mice into the house, and keeps indefinitely. It also burns more cleanly without much soot and tar, so the chimney needs sweeping only once a year instead of twice.

IME both of them will burn kitchen waste, banana skins, sweet wrappers, snout tissues and so on so are useful for rubbish disposal if you are in the country.

My multifuel had a boiler incorporated which heated the hot-water cylinder, which was directly above so no pump needed. Bigger ones can usually heat a small number of radiators.

We have a clearview multi fuel stove and it is great. I'm about to buy a fan for it having read that it dramatically increases the heat in the room.

One benefit of a decent multifuel is that you can put smokeless fuel on late in the evening and the fire will still be alight in the morning if you've closed the airflow control. Don't think you'd be able to do that with logs.