Tell me about your multi-fuel stove (particularly if you have big rooms). I need to choose one!

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We're soon to have a multi-fuel stove fitted in our open fireplace. I have sorted out the fitting/hearth side of things but need to pick a stove.

It is to go in a very traditional/formal sitting room, a huge room with very high ceilings, so a classic timeless style is needed. Anything very modern would look wrong. We've been advised that we should go for 8kw+. Iwe have a big old (cold) house so there is no danger of us ever being too hot! The actual fireplace isn't particularly wide so I don't think many of the higher output stoves would fit (Charnwood do a 12kw one that would fit but dh thinks it looks too fussy ).

I've narrowed it down to:

Yeoman CL8 (the most efficient at 81%)
Morso 2110 Panther (72%)
Charnwood Cove 2 or C-Eight (78%)

Has anyone got these, or some other brand I haven't thought of (have rules out Hunter because they're too wide)?

I want something at will last forever and be easy to keep clean. Dh likes one door rather than 2.

One thing to be careful about is the chimney lining. It must be lined, to protect the chimney from catching fire which happens more than you might like to think, but is not usually a serious issue, unless it's not lined. And the lining needs to be correctly installed. If you think of the lining material as a series of connected funnel-shaped units, it must be installed so that any tar drips inside the chimney. Ours was installed incorrectly so the tar dripped outwards and a chimney fire caused the plaster to split and discolour the chimney wall going up the hall. It took ages to solve the problem and one contractor wanted to take the whole chimney breast down and re-build it at a cost of £10K!

Woodburners are wonderful, and I wouldn't be without, but you do need to ensure you burn properly seasoned (not damp) hardwood logs (which means you need space to store them for a year) and you must have your chimney professionally swept at least once a year (I prefer twice) for insurance. Softwoods burn faster and produce lots of tar which hardens and bubbles into 'clinker' and this is much more difficult to remove from your chimney. Assuming you are having everything done by a certified HETAS company, you should be fine, but do ask questions all the time, especially about sweeping; you don't want to have to part-remove the burner to sweep it; usually there's a door installed just above the stove in the metal chimney flue but in an elegant formal fireplace there needs to be room and access. Sorry if this is teaching grandma to suck eggs...

We have 3 different stoves... Can you tell we live in an old draughty house with only oil central heating..??

Number One would be the Clearview stove. Never have to clean the glass. Ever. Its slightly over specified as it heats most of the house. Had it for about 8 years. Its brilliant.

Number Two - A Franklin Stove in a huge inglenook. More like an open fire in a box, so looks good, but doesnt chuck out heat

Numer Three - a Riva 55 which we have yet to use. Glad to see someone upthread gives them a thumbs up. We'd have had another Clearview if we could, but the dimensions wouldn't work.

HTH

Lots of good advice here, thank you.

We are pros at lighting fires and buying fuel. We use our open fire(s) daily and have an ugly old stove in another room too.

I normally buy wood from a reputable supplier, but this week made the mistake of buying kindling from a garden centre (one of those red string bags). The quality is terrible!

I have the charnwood cove and I adore it. Looks amazing, easy to light, easy to control.

We've all done it, Fun! Usually when busy and stressed. And then said 'Never again!!' It's amazing what a difference it makes, isn't it?

We have a clearview and it's great. When we redo the playroom I will also put one in there. Its a very large room.

The annoying thing with the larger stoves is the need to have a permanent air vent due to the CO2 levels. In some situations this can have a significant impact on the amount of heat in the room ours might have become accidentally blocked up with silicone sealant

This is it. Loads of heat, it's just the Cove 1. It has an air wash system which keeps the glass clean.

That looks lovely!

I have a Charnwood C4, the design is unfussy and not too traditional or too modern. It is a brilliant fire, easy to light, adjust, clean and care for. My friends have a larger Charnwood (cove I think) in almond and it looks beautiful and behaves as well as our little Charnwood. I really recommend them.

We have one of these in our sitting room:

www.agaliving.com/our-products/aga-stoves/wenlock-family/much-wenlock-classic

We burn wood and this:

www.coalproducts.co.uk/product/taybrite

It stays in constantly for four and a half months most years.

I use two coal hods of taybrite a day on that stove alone. I fill it up at night and almost close it up, open up the bottom wheel when I get up in the morning and by the time the kettle has boiled a log is flaming.

The output was bigger than recommended for the room but we have a draughty old house so just ignored it.

We also have a Clearview and its fab!

Our air vent is in the floor. Amazing how often stuff gets piled on top of it.

Hahaha. We've just built a thermally really efficient extension which is attached to our draughty old house. We heat most of the county with it. Rarely open windows....

Yup. We've had to put in a vent, too! Crazy. Shame it'll be behind the sofa all blocked up, like.

We've had a Clearview 9kw (DH has good memory) for our high-ceiling lounge/dining rooms for more than 15 years. It is still fine, but could probably do with a respray at some point. We don't have a lined chimney (there would have been a kitchen range where it is for 200 years). We do get it swept regularly and we are careful to burn at a fairly high temperature to minimise tar deposits. If we had a larger stove I think the rooms would get too hot.

It is well worth investing in a stove thermometer (ours is tied onto the flue with a bit of wire). They are only a few pounds. I also agree about using seasoned, dry wood. We are lucky to have a good woodsman; even so we try to buy wood in the summer. If using your own wood you can buy probes to tell you how dry it is.

We're a bit geeky, so we recently invested in an ecofan that we've angled to push the heat into the other "room".

Our council is happy for us to put the wood ashes in with the garden waste, BTW.

Thank you all for some excellent advice. I'm still procrastinating but have had to rule out Clearview. They sound fantastic but the higher output ones are too wide for our fireplace.

Loving the pictures of stoves and fireplaces (and Marmite's clock).

Me too! That clock is loooovely! Bet the room looks terrific.

We found that the dimensions of the stoves were the thing that guided our choice in the end. It is surprising how non-uniform they are. I guess chimneys come in all shapes and sizes!

Ours is a stratford Eco 20. It is a boiler stove though but not too wide.

Thank you very much for the compliments on the clock fun and shove I will tell my dad as he made it - he's very good with wood!!

We have the Charnwood cove 3 to heat a huge open plan area. According to the installer we need the 12kw out put and I think he was right.

It is great. Very easy to light and heats the room well. Ours is on a stand so really throws the heat out into the room.

Thank you all for the advice.

We've been back to the showroom today and narrowed it down to two choices:

Charnwood Cove 2
Woodwarm Fireview 9kw

(Morso is an also ran but would apparently not be quite as efficiency or hot as the Charnwood for the same price).

Has anyone got a Woodwarm stove? I don't think they have been mentioned on the thread. They are a little bit cheaper than the Chanwood. I think the latter looks nicer but dh prefers the Woodwarm one.

I have a Morso Cleanheat Panther which I love like a third child. Our downstairs area is pretty big as the living room leads straight into the kitchen which leads straight to the sun room so pretty much open plan. Moros heats all the way through and you can feel the heat in the bedrooms esp ours which has the chimney breast running through

We don't use the central heating as a rule( maybe been on three times in the last two years) and use the fire for heat, drying clothes, kettles of water and some cooking ( drop scones, welsh cakes, soups, poached eggs, casseroles etc)

some posts regarding the Woodwarm on a forum I'm on

might be useful