OK, just had a chap round for a fitting quote. Money ain’t bad but he doesn’t supply the stove, reason being its so easy to order your own its not worth his trouble.
Thing is, i know nowt about these things, so what am i looking for?
I need a 5Kw stove, preferably a wider fronted one, any recommendations?

First of 5kw is a bit meaningless. It’s a nominal figure and most makers stick the figure on a stove as it sells well as above 5kw part j insists on ventilation to the room, off putting to many customers. So 5kw stoves actually vary in size a great deal. So if you want a big stove, more heat and longer burns look for larger fire box stoves. If it’s just for show that doesn’t matter so much.
Are you in a smoke control zone? If so you need a defra approved appliance.
Beyond that it’s personal preference on appearance, plus pay more for good brand that is well built, supported, controlable and lasts.
Steel stoves tend to heat up quicker, but cool quicker. Cast iron the opposite.
Plenty of great brands. Morso, stovax, Franco belge, dovre, burley, woodwarm, clear view……. Have A browse and see what style you like.

I’m completely bemused by what is on offer tbh! I know i need a DEFRA certified model & the fitting chap recommends a wider fronted one for the large hearth i have,

My supplier quoted a formula for m3 of room to be heated x a coefficient. Maybe if you post up where you are and room size, if primary heating, then someone else can advise optimum kW. For me the room was c 5x3x3 =45m3 and I got a 12kw, so the coefficient for my area is 0.25. It’s easily enough, too warm in fact but I am in spain and I can always have a smaller fire.

Well worth having a look round

here http://www.stovefittersmanual.co.uk/
and
here: http://www.stovefitterswarehouse.co.uk/

Best resource I’ve seen that puts all the info about what you need and why you need it. Plenty in there about the installation process as well, which is well worth a read even if you’re paying someone else for the install- good to have a little education already about what someone’s recommending.

For me the room was c 5x3x3 =45m3 and I got a 12kw

8OSounds way too big TBH.

Room is roughly 4.5m x 4.5m with a 9ft ceiling – he did a rough estimate & reckoned 5Kw was about right.
I’m in Rochdale btw.

Sorry I just remeasured I have 120m3 air volume and got a 12kw, so coefficient of 0.1. But I think it has 80% efficiency, anyway it is easily enough.

I have two morso squirrels in my life, one a convector and one radiant. They are both fantastic stoves and I would have another without question. They are rated at 5kw but are smallish in stature. The radiant was 800, the convector a grand. My neighbour has a burley fireball which is also rated at 5kw but is very much bigger, and hotter! It’s a nice stove too.

Having a high kw stove in a room too small for it is a problem as you won’t be running it near capacity which will mean it soots up quicker and is harder to control. We run our squirrels hard and they stay pretty clean and very controllable.

If you didnt want to spend that much they can be picked up second hand – there was a thread the other day on exactly this.

From the time you light the stove for the first time you will never regret the outlay!

I’ve got a 5kw stove in a room twice that size and never shut the doors between any rooms, including upstairs. Sitting in our pants with the patio door open in the depth of winter is not uncommon when I get carried away with too many logs.

The 3 grand stove in the living room is no better at being a stove than the two £250 ebay specials I have elsewhere. So no need to get carried away. It’s a box you light a fire in.

its really not hard to fit one, i’ve done all mine although in fairness my father in law is a chimney sweep and helped me at first so i did’nt come at it totally green.

also the one stove i did not install, i could have, but as its in a rental i needed all the paperwork i paid a fortune to have done from a supposedly reputable large local company (if you are in west cornwall email me and i will tell you who so you can avoid them) and it was the biggest bodge job with major violations of the stove/flue/hetas specifications you can imagine. thank goodness i knew what i was looking at otherwise it could have been very serious and it took threats of legals to get sorted. so be careful who you use!

and my last 2p worth, don’t burn wood, buy hotmax fuel logs. far superior and cheaper than wood too.

As above have a 5kw stove in a 6 x 4m room and have to have doors open to be comfortable (otherwise often too hot)

Charnwood C4 – perfect for 3 years

tried wood/ oak, and it was rubbish.

Now on the recycled logs – bought in bulk online – so much better

I’ve a Clearview Solution 400 5kW that heats my whole house..small but three bedrooms. Lovely.

djflexure – Member
Now on the recycled logs – bought in bulk online – so much better

Do you have a link please? We’re just getting used to a 5kw termatech which burns well, heats the space and is quite controllable in an open plan kitchen diner with vaulted ceiling (c130sqm). The top vent is proving a sticky devil though so the supplier/fitter is still working on that….

Use these – been great

Tip: I drop the bag to split them in two or three – a complete log burns very hot

Plenty to think about then! It’s a small house so 5Kw more than enough, not only for heat but to sort out the condensation problems since the new windows etc were fitted.

@djflexure – cheers.

Good call on the heatlogs!

djflexure – Member
Use these – been great

Tip: I drop the bag to split them in two or three – a complete log burns very hot

POSTED 2 HOURS AGO #

Are you still using kindling for those? How many logs would you use to fire up for an evening?

There is nothing poor about real wood, it just needs to be properly dry.

I second the suggestions of stovefittersmanual and warehouse.

Seconding Neil’s comment- ‘real’ wood is surely what woodburners are meant for. I’m lucky enough to live in an area that offers a fair few opportunities to forage fuel from hedgerows etc.

Freshly cut timber is not suitable for burning so will be needed to be seasoned in order to reduce moisture content. The rate that this happens will depend upon several factors- exposure, weather, temperature, air-flow etc. When all is said and done though, storing freshly cut logs in a free air flow environment will really help dry them out. Some birch I felled in September ( that was splashing me me with sap when I was splitting it- so a pretty high moisture content) are now down to 30% or so. Hopefully ready to burn before the winter’s end.

I’ve been doing this exercise recently, as what neilnevill says, 5kw can be various sizes, I’m not sure what you mean by ‘wide front’? they are normally the same size front and back. I’d start by measuring your fireplace opening and decide what will look ok within that space. If it’s a big space then you can have what you want I suppose, if it’s tight, then you should buy something that looks appropriate in the small space. Stove and Size may be dictated by the gaps that the manufacturer recommends but maybe you can be a bit flexible if the fireplace is bare brick or just rendered ie no combustible materials, but you still should be be sensible re size of space v size of stove. After that, it’s just a case of what you like the look of and what you want to spend. I’ve played with a few at friends and family and a bigger firebox space was that bit easier to use.

Go to ‘Stoves are Us’ in Elland they have a hundred or more to look at and maybe also visit the two in nearby Brighouse at the same time (one is called Aristan Fireplaces, the other is a short distance away but can’t recall the name probably Brighouse Stoves or something). Maybe you’ll get an idea of what type you want, very traditional, trad/contemporary or very contemporary.

If you don’t want to pay full price (ex showroom display) or are happy with second hand, then I don’t see a problem with ebay / Gumtree for someone who has their head screwed on.
I have a small space with low lintle, so was pretty limited on choice, I decided on a contemporary stove ie basically a box with no feet, big screen. Went to Stoves are Us and looked around with an idea of what I wanted, really liked the Westfire Uniq35, found a new exdisplay for sale on ebay, won the auction for nearly half the showroom price, picked it up from the shop.

I drew a little diagram beforehand based on the dimensions of the fireplace, stove and pipe to ensure that the gaps around the stove would be reasonable, it will probably need an offset pipe to give a reasonable gap at the back.

By ‘wide front’ I mean a stove that is a double door set up – possibly.
The fitter explained that stoves tend to be narrow and deep, versus wide and shallow. My hearth is an old Victorian era forge so needs a fairly wide stove to fill a wide hole.

If you are after wide but shallow then it’s worth checking out the Parkray Aspect 5 slimline, Dunsley Highlander 5 Slimline or Portway stoves. Also Esse 100.

Why do you need to fill the hole? A nice gap either side for airflow and storing a few logs??

Actually, I recall looking at a stove at PanAsh nr Skipton which was wide but quite short (back to front), wasn’t double door as it was still quite small. one of it’s redeeming features was that it would fit into a small space only 40cm/50cm gap required all round quoted by the manufacturer.

Spent a day last week with my new Aldi electric chainsaw logging some “liberated” oak and a cherry tree from my garden ready for next winter. I have free access to as much willow as I want from a local cricket bat manufacturers woodpile (great when dried, which only takes a few months) so a bit of high quality wood on top sees me through winter self sufficiently. Living in a heavily wooded, lowly populated area is ace, on many levels!

Ps – I have a villager flat c 5kw woodburner – about £500 I think, and very controllable. Have a google of “top down stoking” for a fresh view on how to light a fire quickly without wasting combustible gasses straight up the chimney.

If you have an independant fitter, so not tied to buying from a shops catalogue, have a look at the Ekol stoves – that’s my plan for my second one going in next year.

Oh – and get the “Norwegian Wood” book for Xmas!!

dantsw13 – Member
Why do you need to fill the hole? A nice gap either side for airflow and storing a few logs??

You don’t, unless the hole is really small, then you need to be more selective.
Mine is roughly 750 x 900 x 450 (W x H x D), only a small stove would fit or look right.

We are in the process of hving our first ever log burner fitted (along with a whole new chimney breast)!

Also didnt know what to go for – except that we knew we wanted something with a wide-ish viewing window amd it needed to be 5kw because of room size.

After a hell of a lot of browsing I found the Chili Penguin Woody – slim and wide design and looks good. Highly regarded but fairly steep at £1300.

Then someone pointed out the Dean Forge brand. Ended up going for the Dartmoor W5 which actually has the same dimensions as the Woody! Im sure in some respects it might not be as good as the Woody but it’s still supposed to he a very good stove and it’s nearly £500 cheaper!! 🙂

Can’t wait to fire it uo next week!!

(Not sure if any of that helps OP)

Ambrose, don’y burn the birch this year, it won’t be dry. its bark is waterproof so it needs to be split to dry and even then it won’t get to <20% this winter.

Bnana, not quite, some stoves are wider fronted (eg stockton 5 from stovax), some are narrow and taller (eg stockton 3), some are deeper (eg franco belge belfort)

getting wood isn’t too hard if you hunt around, contact local tree surgeons. I bought my stove July 2015, and started getting wood then. fitted the stove the other week and am heating the house for free. I’ve 12-14m3 of wood stocked up, some hard but a lot of soft, but enough for 3 years so am already at the ‘3 years ahead’ point so my wood should all be well seasoned when burnt. I’ve had no trouble doing this despite living in south london, zone 3.

As for gumtree buys for stoves….I bought stove number 2 last week on ebay. £68 for a franco belge belfort, a stove i know well as my parents have it. its £650 new. this one needs some parts but I’ll have it running for under £100. I was very lucky though!

Yep after thinking a bit I ‘got’ what the OP meant by wide front.

The ‘problem’ as such is that the fireplace is an old forge so it’s quite wide and tall, but the room is only 4.5m2 so a 5Kw model is needed. Most are on the smaller side so would look odd stuck inside a large aperture which is why I want something a little wider. Purely for aesthetic purposes.
Plenty of info here to be going on with so I’ll do some browsing. Although internet sites can be cheaper I’m tempted to go to several suppliers to see them in the metal to get a better idea of what I want – after all its going to be a focal point of the room.

Just be warned..the stove is just the tip of the iceberg…I’m currently up to 3 log stores and friends and neighbors are still dumping wood on the drive for me!!!

At present I feel a bit like “stig of the log pile”….

DrP

djflexure – Member
Use these – been great
Tip: I drop the bag to split them in two or three – a complete log burns very hot

POSTED 2 HOURS AGO #

Are you still using kindling for those? How many logs would you use to fire up for an evening?

Yes you still need kindling – not a huge amount. A log lasts about an hour. Probably burn 3 in a night. Still have a few bags left from the pallet that I had delivered last winter.

Dean Forge Dartmoor W5 was made for you!

The Dartmoor W5 has been developed to provide a wide door 5kw stove. An ideal choice for smaller rooms with larger fireplaces.

http://www.deanforge.co.uk/products/dean-stoves-1156/dean-forge-dartmoor-w5/

Decent stoves from what I’ve read, too.

Edit: just seen zeesaffa on 1st page has this one.

Just been looking at the Dartmoor W5, looks like a decent model – can’t see a price though?

If it’s an exercise in who can find the widest 5kw have a look at esse (made in barnoldswick). Pretty sure they do a slimline / widescreen in the 100 that’s about 610 and the 100SE is 645 wide

Cheers ‘Nana, will take a peek at that.
Bloke has quoted me £1440 for the work, plus the price of the stove. I was reckoning on £2.5K all in so that leaves me with enough for a nice stove.