Multi fuel or wood only?

[HalfGreekBitch]

We are just starting to research putting in a woodburner and wondered what others’ experiences of wood or multifuel burners have been. I read that if wood only, get DEFRA approved, and multifuel not as efficient if you happen to burn wood. We live in a small town, quite rural. TIA

Do you live in a smoke control zone? Multi-fuel gives the option of smokeless fuel which could be useful if smoke control exists or might be introduced in the future.

The only difference I am aware of is that dedicated wood burning stoves don’t generally have a grate, riddle or ash box.

I would only ever get multifuel, we burn smokeless coal and can leave the fire most of the day or all night without it going completely out. With wood you have to put more on frequently to keep it going. You also need a lot of wood and somewhere to store it all.

Do you need DEFRA approval? We installed a multifuel last year in an edge of town location and didn’t need anything except HETAS sign off. As it happens, we tried burning coal but just found it too smelly and messy compared to wood. With wood only, it’s still fantastically efficient and a real joy in the winter.

Go with multi fuel and have the fire box as high off the ground as possible so you are not bending down to load it or clean out the ash. Plus look at the economics of adding in a boiler as part of the water heating plumbing.

We had two stoves fitted at our last (very rural) cottage. One was a multifuel, the other wood only. We only ever burned smokeless coal once and found it smelled unpleasant so didn't bother again.

In our new (less rural) cottage we opted for wood only for that reason. We have plenty of wood storage space, although don't have our own supply here as we did previously.

Regarding the fire box height, we've twice purchased Charnwood stoves with the higher legs/log store stand which raises it higher than the basic models, therefore there's less distance to bend for loading etc.

Wood burns better in a wood only stove

Agree with adding a boiler for heating/hot water

Thanks for all your comments, really helpful and much appreciated 😊

Multi fuel

Multi fuel all the way