We have small lounge 5m x 3m and would like a small log burner. What do people recommend? Any reason why the price of log burners / stoves vary so much.
Whats the current stove of choice, I'm hoping cheap.
The flue, hearth, registry plate, fitting, etc will cost the same regardless of what stove you go for.
Up to a point the more expensive the stove the more controllable it will be and stuff will probably fit together better. Some stoves just have a bigger following and can therefore command a higher price.
As the saying goes, 'buy cheap, buy twice'
Do you 'really' need a stove (and the associated expense) to heat a 9' x 15' room?
Loads of naysayers on here mate... i put a Contura i4 Modern (4kw) stove into a similar space. Did it myself and then got it signed off by building control; there are some good deals on display models etc on the bay.
I have [url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rosa-5kw-Wood-Burning-Stove-Multifuel-Log-Burner-Cast-Iron-Traditional-Stove-/331122653283 ]two sub 300 quid stoves[/url] that are just as good as the 3K one I have.
The cost of our stove was about 1/4 of the price of the whole thing. The Victorian cast fireplace has been concreted in place by a previous builder (with no lintel) and had to be removed with a demolition hammer, then the fireplace re-build with a lintel, before they could even start installation....
On our second Westfire Series 1. Had one fitted in the old house and we preferred it to the Morso O4 in the other room. So much so we didn't even shop around, just got another Westfire when we moved.
Westfire is £900+ 🙁
Not a naysayer ..... just pointing out that by far the biggest cost of a stove install is generally not the stove itself, so getting a cheap one may not save much money overall.Loads of naysayers on here mate...
My current install is running at around £2k, the stove was £619 so its the rest of it that racks up the pennies.
I`m planning on going for the following this or next week. Works out at approx £740 for stove liner fitting kit etc
[url= http://www.stovefitterswarehouse.co.uk/collections/saltfire-wood-multifuel-stoves/products/copy-of-saltfire-st1-wood-only-se-with-100-free-chimney-liner ]Saltfire st 1[/url]
Just need to buy it and then get installed for Xmas.
stove
I'm hoping cheap
Ha!
Anyway. If you are able to reuse the existing fireplace, I'd fit an insert. If you're making a big recess of the fireplace and doing a load of plaster/paint/tidyup, get a freestanding. As folk have pointed out, the cheap ones do most of the stuff the pricier ones do... but perhaps not quite as well... The airwash over the glass, the secondary air preheating, etc.
We have a Dean Forge Clearburn, its very good, but not cheap.
Do you 'really' need a stove (and the associated expense) to heat a 9' x 15' room?
"Darling, wouldn't it be lovely if we could get a fire going for Christmas?"
We have an Aga Little Wenlock. Nice compact burner.
http://www.agastoves.co.uk/aga-stoves/traditional-stoves/wenlock-family/little-wenlock-classic-smoke-exempt
Westfire owner here too, got a uniq35 as an ex display model off eBay for a lot below rrp, was still £700 tho. mine is 4.3kw and for a small fireplace.
I've got a aarrow ecoburn in my office. Been great.
These are all within 25miles of your work, ex display or owner refurb. They are brands I recognise as being good.
[url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stovax-Stockton-3-Wood-burner-multi-fuel-stove-/162279296391?hash=item25c8998d87:g:CTkAAOSwtnpXl7Uy ]Stovax Stockton 3[/url]
[url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/esse-1-5kw-wood-burning-stove-ex-display-unused-/192017513791?hash=item2cb522bd3f:g:Cz8AAOSw4GVYGyz~ ]Esse 1[/url]
[url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hunter-hawk-3-multifuel-stove-Unused-Ex-Display-/192017801366?hash=item2cb5272096:g:wT0AAOSwImRYG4eG ]Hunter Hawk 3[/url]
We have a Stovax Stockton 5. Very happy with it, although with just the one it's hard to compare it to anything else......
Thanks everyone. We currently have a gas fire that is broken and to get it replaced was going to costs £1100 all in so not that much more for a stove to be fitted, maybe £2000 if we can get a stove for around £500. The wife really wants a stove, she is not the one who is cutting up the wood each day!!. However we are just about to have a tree felled in the garden and the tree surgeon reckons we will have 3 tons of Ash, which is perfect for burning. Seems a shame not to use a free resource and of course keeps the wife happy. A month ago she gave me the green light to buy a Santa Cruz 5010 so I can't complain. Maybe me chopping some wood is fair compensation!!
Oh and do people have a view on insert log burners? That would be much quicker and cheaper to install as we wouldn't have to open up the chimney.
we are just about to have a tree felled in the garden and the tree surgeon reckons we will have 3 tons of Ash,
Sounds great... for next year.
Oh and do people have a view on insert log burners?
If you are able to reuse the existing fireplace, I'd fit an insert.
Same basic end result but less decorating. My parents have a jetmaster insert. It works very nicely.
BTW.
Don't get a logburner. Get a multifuel.
I've never regretted the ability to chuck a load of nuggets on without having to chop/stack/wait-a-year/swear-at-"dry"-wood-what-turned-out-to-be-damp/reload-every-five-minutes.
When I say log burner I do mean MultiFuel, totally agree coal has its place.
According to the tree surgeon, Ash is good to burn straight away!!
We are big fans of our Morso Squirrel multifuel stove.
Mind you the £1100 quoted for the flue liner, associated gubbins & fitting was a bit eye watering....
Tick
Aarrow Becton Bunny here. Crap name and basic but has been great. Helped by the fact I got it second hand for £35 unused.
We have both an inset and a 'standalone'. The inset is good but you don't get the same feeling of heat coming off it like the standalone - this is because an inset will put more heat into the chimney breast.Oh and do people have a view on insert log burners?
This is not necessarily a bad thing as you are then heating up the structure of the house which acts like a storage heater so the room stays warm for longer.
Ash can be burnt green, but it'll burn better dry. It gives up its moisture quite easily, so won't take long to dry, especially if it's cut and split and stored somewhere airy with a roof.
Small stove flat out is better than a big stove on tickover.
Choice is huge, like bikes, you pay more for design, finish, features and some brands never seem as good value whilst others are bargains.
Morso Squirrel gets my vote and never burn green wood, even ash, it'll do your chimney no good and you'll lose half the heat evaporating off the water.
How often should i have the flue swept, and is it expensive?
(will be a stove owner tomorrow)
How often should i have the flue swept, and is it expensive?
We use our fire every day for maybe 5 months of the year. Annual sweep produces very little soot, so once a year seems fine.
Dry wood of any species here, flat out burning most of the time, always finish on full burn.
Sweep says we can leave it at least a couple of years before it's worth him coming.
"always finish on a full burn" means what, exactly? Sorry, not being rude but all this is new to me & I want to start right.
Volvo 240?
always finish on a full burn
Ensure the fire burns right out so there's no tar left in the flue.
*I can't believe I just commented on a wood-burner thread, I think I need to be banned from STW*
muddydwarf, you might find it helpful to get a flue thermometer, they are only 3 or 4 quid on ebay, and help you to burn hot enough but not too hot. It's basically bad to stifle the stove, as lack of air creates smoke and smoke is lost energy and potentially creosote. The smoke is unburnt Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) such as resin from the wood, if it condenses it forms creosote, the tar or sooty like substance. Creosote is bad as it builds up in the flue, blocking it if really bad and since its flamable it can cause a chimney fire if you later burn hot and ignite it...very bad, could spread to the house.
So don't stifle the stove too much and it is good to burn a bit hotter regularly, finish of burn is a good time, to drive out any condensate from the flue so it doesn't build up.
Sweeping yourself isn't too hard but can be messy if you aren't careful. If yu tape up some plastic sheeting and use a dust sheet in front of the stove there should be little mess though. If your flue is fairly straight then old fashioned 'drain rods' and a brush are bout £40. If you've tight bends a rotary power sweep system with more flexible rods starts from £40 and goes up from there
this sort of thing
If you burn good dry wood, and burn hot enough, your flue can stay clean enough to go a few years between sweeps. But if the draw is bad, or the flue exceptionally long, or cold because its on an exposed wall, or..or....or....then you'll get more creosote. I'd say get it swept after first winter, and see how much comes out, ten decide if annual is needed.
Oh and as for costs, I detailed full costs on a thread a few weeks ago. IIRC the materials for installing, plus £216 for building control, came to £600-£700. Liner is the costly bit but also hanging cowl, adapter to stove pipe, stove pipe, register plate and odds and sods add up.
I also detailed the costs for tools to process your wood if you do it yourself and its similar, about £500-£600 (chainsaw, all PPE, splitting axe, maul, wedges, sledge hammer, hatchet)
However we are just about to have a tree felled in the garden and the tree surgeon reckons we will have 3 tons of Ash, which is perfect for burning.
Maybe in 2 to 3 years time....
Stoves look nice, but what do you want it to do? Heat the one room or heat the house? If its the one room, you will need a very small KW one. If its the whole house be prepared to boil in the room where the stove is.
Also, if you get a stove small enough to heat the room without boiling you, then you will have to chop every single log yourself.
Most bought cut logs fit just in a 5KW stove.
most log suppliers will do 10" long logs, which will fit all stoves from about 4.5kw up*. Lots of log suppliers will cut and supply shorter if you need, but may charge a bit extra as you'd be special.
My stovax stockton 5 takes 13" logs and is 5Kw*. My parents have a franco belge belfort, 4.5Kw stove, and it takes 10", just.
You could burn ok in any moderate sized 5Kw* stove and not fry in a 3mx5m room...or you could run it hard and sweat your knackers off. My lounge is 4.5m x 4.5 m and my stockton 5 is great at heating it. If i chose to open the doors to study and dinning room I can run it harder and heat the 3 rooms fairly well, still comfy in the lounge but probably no need for a sweater. , This is where a decent stove wins over the rubbish ones from china and elsewhere, as they don't have the control (the really cheap ones will also warp/crack making them race away even more as air leaks in and making the warping worse)
* Note the KW rating on a stove is nominal and largely made up. Its advantageous to advertise a stove as 5Kw as above this requires a permanent air vent to the room with the stove and lots of people don't want drafty air vents. The stove manufacturer sets the size of wood, the amount of wood and various other/virtually all variables for the test, e test that shows the stove can be run at the stated nominal output, on average over a burn, and achieve the stated efficiency.
Oh and Ash, no it doesn't burn green. You really really need lower than 25% moisture content in the wood to burn it, and ideally you really want lower than 20% to burn nicely without wasting energy boiling off water and risking a creosote filled flue. Most woods are about 40% ish when growing (less in winter, more in summer when leafed up) Ash however is about 30% when growing so its close to burnable...it can be made to burn green IF you have some dry stuff to mix with it. That's a waste though and will creosote the flue. CUt it to length (bucking), split it to 4" splits, stack it somewhere, ideally sunny and windy, on pallets so its off the ground, and cover it on the top but let the air to the sides. By next winter it will be <25%, by the following it will be <20%. If your splits are big or your pile not in ideal conditions it may take a 3rd summer. Hardwoods relinquish the water slowly. They burn great when finally dry though.
A pile i made earlier...
[img] 
[/img]
Not an ideal pile, but its softwood and will dry faster than hardwood. Its next winter's pile.
Well, my stove has arrived. Hunter Herald 5 slimline - weighty wee nuggets aren't they?
Seems well made to the casual inspection although I won't know until its fitted and working of course. Firebox area seems decent enough, and has a good sized top plate for heating mulled wine 🙂
Does anyone know where I might get something like this indoor storage?:
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
🙂 sounds good.
Heavy? oh yeah. Took me 15 or more minutes to move mine, a few paces at a time, about 30 yards from the garage where it was stored to the lounge where it was fitted. I was pooped after! Your 'standard' sized 5Kw stove of a decent quality will be around 80 kilos. If its lighter I'd be dubious on its quality and durability.
Right, I'm off to swing the X27 and work on 20118/19s pile for 30 minutes.
This model is 93kg - was fun trying to get it off the pallet & into the house!
😀
I bought an old stove on ebay the other day, a good quality one but in need of refurbishing. Only paid £68. lifting it into the car boot when i collected it was an exercise.
Spitting wood is good exercise too. Its well below zero and the ground is hard frozen but I was soon down to a t-shirt and sweating. I'd read wood can often split very easily when frozen, hence why I went out. Don't believe everything you read. Although to be fair, the wood was not frozen, just a thick layer of frost. Still a lot of water coming to the surface on several axe strikes.
I'm not that far along (yet) will probably be having wood delivered.
MsD doesn't want me to have a chainsaw & the police took one of my axes away..
Fuel - what are the advantages/disadvantages of softwoods Vs hardwoods?
Also, naturally seasoned Vs kiln-dried logs.
Seems a fair discrepancy in price.
Basically all wood of any type has the same energy per kilo. However soft woods are less dense, so less energy dense. Seasoned hardwood will have a specific density around 0.75, soft wood about 0.5. So for the same energy output you need to process, store and burn half as much again of soft wood. So more splitting, more large piles and more refueling the stove. On the plus side it dries quicker, about a year instead of 3, it lights quicker and it burns hotter. Soft is good for getting the stove lit and quickly up to temp, hard good for a nice steady burn.
Kiln dried pricing is odd as the money isn't made in selling it.... It's almost a waste product. The money is made in government green grants, called rhi. Run a kiln and get paid, a princly sum even. As for burning it, well it depends on the moisture content. It might be 'too dry'. Below 10% and it'll go 'Woof!'. A controlled burn will be hard. However chances are it'll be about 18? when you burn it, unless you store it inside. If stored outside it will absorb moisture and equalise with surrounding air, and just like air seasoned logs, gets to 15-19? in the UK, depending on summer vs winter and south vs colder north.
Oh and it varies a great deal on numerous things, but soft usually cuts and splits a bit easier.
