Have one in an inglenook that’s been plumbed into the radiators and heats hot water. If you keep on top of it all day it’ll heat the whole house. Conversely we normally heat by a Raeburn as we can’t get gas here, I’ve bought more than a Porsche over the years filling that b’stards oil store.
I'm not an expert on stoves but I had an old Villager in my last house that was brilliant. Shut right down it would stay alight almost for 24 hours with the right wood and revved up the heat it could pump out was incredible. The longest I had it burning without it ever going out was six weeks. Trouble was it would black the glass up very quickly. You couldn't see the fire through the glass and after a few weeks the damper started to clog up, even with the best seasoned wood, so it had to be let out so it could be cleaned. But the house was toasty and my heating bill was zero as I rarely have to pay for firewood. I'm not convinced the latest air-wash type designs are as fuel efficient as the old school stoves. They look better. The glass stays clean and you can see cheery flames but they seem to eat the wood much faster. If I bought another I'd want a flat topped stove so I could use it for cooking. When you've got an iron stove ticking over all day while you're at work it seems daft to come home and turn on a gas or electric cooker to cook food when there could have been something waiting on the wood burner. Proper cooking wood burning stoves are eye-wateringly expensive but I guess they'd pay for themselves.
I'm an environmental freak (my wife just says mental freak but wtf does she know) so went for a bio fuel fire instead of a log burner. No flue needed, no cleaning or log chopping required and the fuel comes same day (with Amazon Prime). Can't see the reasoning behind a log burner in this day and age at all.
The one we are looking at is dual fuel, and allegedly very efficient and pre discount £1000. It’s a late 60’s house, access is good and there is a full chimney so they have said they can just drop down and fix at the bottom, no problem. Sounds like price maybe in ballpark then. And wife now says’ I want a nice fire, it’s worth it...’
Bradders. Sounds like really good advice from Gimlet to me. These things always cost more than you think and take longer than you think to install. He and Finm are totally right on avoiding cheap materials especially in an area that's difficult to get to. At first the cost sounded a lot to me but when you think it through... hmm. That's what it costs. I'd pay Gimlet to do it. Seems to know what he's on aboot.
I'm only a bricklayer not a Hetas fitter. I've built stacks of chimneys and fitted loads of liners but a Hetas fitter will install the stove and sign it off which you need if you want your house insurance to be worth the paper its written on. If you're taking the pots off its worth getting a chimney-savvie brickie to do the trowel work in conjunction with a Hetas stove fitter. You'll probably get the lining materials cheaper yourself (making sure its the correct spec) as fitting companies will make a handling charge. One-stop supply and fit stove companies can do the lot but if needed it'll probably be cheaper to employer your own independent brickie and a single sole-trader stove fitter and get them to work in conjunction. I've been left pretty unimpressed with the way some specialist stove fit companies have set chimney pots. The flaunching is usually totally inadequate, they use the wrong mortar and if the stack isn't high enough to comply with fire regs for solid fuel stoves with liners, you definitely need a qualified brickie who knows how to build chimney terminals properly.
Sounds like my circumstance. 1958 house, had to open the fireplace up. Had chimney lined in stainless flue. Went for a Flavel multi fuel stove. Not the most expensive (or the cheapest) but good quality. I know someone who bought a cheap stove and soon after bits were dropping off it. Ours cost in the region a £3K about 10 months ago. Very happy with. I keep it clean and don't burn anything sappy or that has adhesive in it (no pallets and such) I get briquettes made from sawdust. A local timber yard sells for a good price and I get smokeless coal from homebargains. Check on your local council website for burning restrictions.
I have previously fitted hundreds of stoves (Hetas approved), Twin wall insulated, flexible liners etc etc ... drop me a pm if you want/any specific questions or have any concerns.
if i mind right there's a pic of an amateurs hand on here (no disrespect intendedcomfy) after pulling a liner through his chimney. nasty, v,nasty.
They have one of these on the wood stove in our local pub - it's brilliant ! https://www.amazon.co.uk/4YourHome-...=UTF8&qid=1513425213&sr=8-4&keywords=fire+fan
I can believe that. I lived in a rented cottage once that had a huge inglenook with a log burner. The register plate was enormous and constructed from several parts riveted together. Whoever had fitted it had made a frame from angle iron set into the walls to fit it to, which was fine, but they'd cut the two pieces of plate that fitted around the stove pipe too small so they didn't overlap the metal frame enough to get a rivet in but rather than remake those pieces the correct size, they packed out the iron frame around the hot stove pipe with 2x1 timber and screwed the register plate to that. One day when I was about to leave for work I heard an odd rushing sound coming from the fireplace. The stove was made up but shut down, all dampers closed and wasn't roaring but the register plate around the stove pipe was glowing red hot. The timber battens had ignited. And the house was thatched... Luckily I had a ten meter ladder so I emptied the stove, put the burning timbers out with a fire extinguisher, checked and watered the thatch around the stack and swept the chimney down from above. Then I remade the register plate so it fitted - minus the wood. If I'd left five minutes earlier I wouldn't have noticed it and I probably wouldn't have had a house to come home to.
nasty. ours burst through the wall at the soot box in our room. it was the first time i was left to look after the wee man on me todd. i had the fire raring in the living room and was halfway up the stairs just taking him up for a kip when the phone rang, i put him on the stair while i chatted for about 15mins, put the phone down and went into the room to find flames coming through the wall and no fire alarms going off. if that phone hadn't rang..........
The mind boggles. You're not allowed to let structural steel intrude into a flue, live or not, so what kind of mentality would think to OK to put timber into one? Mind you, even a correctly fitted stove and flue isn't numpty-proof. I rented my own house out a few years ago. It had a Hunter log burner (correctly installed fortunately). It pumped out a lot of heat and it had a back boiler. When I lived there I used to chuck an armful of old roof battens into it, even in summer, and after they'd roared up and gone there'd be enough hot water for a bath. One tenant managed to get the stove so hot that he buckled the iron doors and melted the glass. Completely wrecked the stove. To this day I've no idea how he managed it or what on earth he was burning to generate that kind of heat.
yip, i have a mate thats banned from being in the kitchen on his own by the mrs after we came down in the morning after a sesh to find all the coal gone. and the plastic bucket that held it. . dumb fuck.
Not with stainless as it was an open fire but we had the fireproof cement and balloon lining done in 2008 in an old farmhouse. It cost around £1,200 then. It was swept, lined and came with a guarantee. In the grand scheme of things it hurt at the time but we paid it because like so many skilled jobs, some jobs are just worth professionals doing it. It also was a selling bonus when we came to sell that the chimney had been done and had a warranty/guarranty forgot to mention, the reason we had it done was that as it was an old farmhouse, it had a fire place in the lounge and dining room that also linked to the fireplace in the bedrooms above those rooms. When we lit the lounge fire, smoke but more fumes, were going into the bedroom above the lounge through their fireplace/joint chimney so thats why we let the pro's do it. We also had to have what I call a whurly gig, a spinner on the chimney to create "draw" as heat alone will not pull all the fumes out. Similar to this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stainles...840171?hash=item4d5663742b:g:7i4AAOSwXrdaBC39
I should add that I am also in the fire service, and you would not believe sime of the installs I have seen! DIY and ‘Hetas Installers’ .... the amount of liners I have also seen installed upside down is also mental! Someone once used gas flue for a multi fuel stove once that didnt end well!
