Black Or White Log Burner Stove

[TheCatsBlanket]

We’ve decided to get a multi fuel stove in the living room.
I’d like a white one to make it seem more posh/fancy in the living room, but husband prefers the black ones. Can anyone tell me if the white ones begin to discolour after a while, or is my husband just trying to put me off to get his own way!
Also, as I’ve never had this type of stove in a house before, are they as good as every one claims they are?

Sorry to say OP but the white stove looks very tacky. I would definitely go black!

I’ve had a cream one for about 5 years. In fairness it’s hardly used, perhaps 30 times per year, it’s for cosy decoration in the snug. I was warned it would discolour over time and it has a tiny amount. But, the enamel has flaked off in a small area on the top. Mine’s a Carron very like the one below.

I had one and loved it - some years go now.

However, it was always filthy - I imagine a white one would be a nightmare to keep looking good.

It was also impossible to keep the ask and soot from dirtying up the surrounding floor/area. Plus logs leave bits of wood everywhere they go.

They are also quite a bit of faff. That's ok if you like the ritual of making, lighting and then maintaining a good fire for heat (I did) but they can be labour intensive if you want more than a single quick burn for the flames.

Lots of fine dust with logs also bringing logs into the house creates mess. I’d personally go with black or you can get a nice pewter as easier to maintain. You can get tubes of stove polish on Amazon. It’s a once a year job but makes them look like new.

The colour is the least of your issues, but at least with the white one you'll be more aware of what it is doing to your lungs!

Thanks for all the answers, looks like white is a definite no from the majority of you.

In an ideal world, I’d rather have gas, but there’s no gas supply to the fireplace in question and several gas engineers have drawn a sharp intake of breath when asked how feasible it would be to install……cost alone is around £35 per metre and we’d need around 40m (plus loads of disruption having to lay the pipe under the flooring etc) so a log burner has been decided upon as the slightly easier/cheaper option.

The things you don’t think about when buying a house, we saw a lovely open fire place and stupidly assumed it had a gas supply 🙁

If you or any of your relatives have lung issues, think about the increase in particulates inside your home.

Also a risk factor for dementia & heart disease.

Also you might not be popular with your neighbours, if they are sensitive to the fumes & smell.

One (actually several but this guy is particularly bad) of my neighbours burns lots & it's really awkward having to keep all the doors & windows shut plus run air filters all the time.

I really wanted a cream one, we have a Charnwood that came at the time in 7 colours, not sure if it still does. However OH thought it would get dirty too much. Its not enamel. We got a brown/chcolate colour in the end, I love it, wouldnt be without it

You're going to have to have your chimney lined anyway, that's not cheap particularly if you need scaffolding.

Its this one we have and I see they do still do all the colours. It was the Almond I wanted, really love that colour. Also I think we thought we'd ordered the bronze but when it turned up we ordered the brown. I do like that bronze colour

https://www.charnwood.com/all-stoves/room-heating-stoves/c-series/c-five/

Everhots (electric) are supposed to be good.

Op have you priced them up fully inc the fitting, as 1400 for gas would be significantly cheaper than a log burner, generally for a small one fully fitted it’s 2k plus, we paid 4.

The Evernote are really good. They make aga style cookers as well. You only have the purchase cost. Literally zero maintenance.

We’ve been quoted around £3,000 for the gas pipe to be installed and that doesn’t take into account for the repairs needed to sort the woodblock floor which would have to be lifted in order to run the pipe underneath.

Nothing is cheap nowadays for home improvements 🙁

Ah ok that’s a lot more than 35 a sq metre. Closer to 70. Yes you may find the wood burner is the same. We had ours done about 5 years ago, cost, 4, but is a large 11w one. I think costs though went through the roof when energy prices went up.

make sure you use a hetas registered engineer. We did and we had a problem and hetas stepped in and sorted it. It’s like an insurance.

We had a white one and it was a nightmare to keep clean and always looked a bit grubby. I also think they look a bit plasticky. We've got a black one in the new house and I love it. It looks far more elegant and classy than the white one ever did.

It baffles me when people say bringing logs into house creates mess ????

Fill plastic bucket with wood from outside/store, carry into house, place next to log basket , fill log basket ……..repeat until full, zero mess ………..

Yes bringing the logs in doesn’t create mess in my house either, and we carry them in, due to the large size of the basket.

I don’t see how it can create mess.

Another one saying Clearview stoves are fabulous. Mine is black but it's great. Everyone asks how it stays so clean after so much use and it's because of the airflow over the door which I think is a clearview 'thing'.

I think white would go out of fashion really quickly which is what would put me off!

heating with electric is however extremely expensive. three times the cost of heating with gas (not sure about wood since we don't pay for ours)

The white one looks like the ghost of a woodburner haunting the hearth.

White would just be a faff because it would jsut get covered in dirt.

The stoves are a faff anyway because of all the ash, and obviously a health hazard both to people in the house and outside it.

I don't understand the gas issue. 40m ? Unless you are the King and live in Buck House. And if there is a chimney then they are normally on the outside of the house so why can you not run the gas through there. Unless it is a terrace. In which case why would you need 40m of piping unless it was the worlds hugest terrace ?

I would think about what I wanted this for. If it was not for the main heating (you already have radiators in that room) you could get something electric instead that would give a realistic flame effect, be cheaper to install. But the power rating would probably be low (less than 3kW) and obviously electricity is expensive so if you were to use it a lot it could get pricey.

Edit : I see regs don't allow you to run through chimneys. But surely could run in close proximity to it.

Black will radiate heat better and be more efficient. It will also be easier to maintain as you touch up or respray with standard stove paint.

The cookers are actually cheaper to run than oil agas.
I have a woodburner and burner wood, it’s a main source of heat for us. We don’t pay for logs but if I lived in a town had to buy and store logs Gas or electric would be better. Gas has higher installation costs but electric higher running costs. It also depends how often it will be used. If it’s only used once a week is it worth having wood?

They make a lot of dust and the whole house will smell awful. Then of course there's your lungs to think about.