Cast iron woodburning stove recs?

Hi folks. In the new year we're planning on getting a cast-iron wood-burning stove - a Morso 06 or a Charningwood (?) - and wondered if anyone here is a 'stove person' and can maybe give me a few pointers. We've yet to have the chimney inspected and cleaned, and we've decided to wait until after Christmas due to having enough on our plate without ripping our living room apart (plus, maybe some deals in the new year?).

Anyway, if anyone wants to talk stoves, please do!

John

 

We had one fitted a couple of years ago a Morso Squirrel. Best advice we had was don't get one that's too big, you won't be able to use it without opening all the windows and doors, and seriously don't worry about the mess. It took them a day, they popped a liner into the chimney, fitted the stove, the pipe and the plate to seal off the chimney, and was all done with little or no mess. So only the fire place could cause a huge mess if you want to change it.
Don't think they'll be any cheaper in the new year, it's not the sort of product that has lots of changes.

 

Hi, it's a moderately large space - 11' ceilings, open plan onto kitchen and dining conservatory, so we worked out our volume to be ~135 cubic metres. Which is to say around a 9 to 10kW output to heat, but we also have central heating which means we figured we'd get away with a 6kW output. Does that sound sensible? Space-wise, a 6kW isn't so much bigger than a 4kW stove, but there's a big jump in size and price to 10kW. The two stoves we like are around £1100, which seems pricy but they are top of range models.

 

I've just installed one in my current house (one month ago), and I had put one in my last house also.
My advice: Don't get one that's too small either!

Last house; living room 14 by 12 ft. Burner: Villager, 7-8KW output = roasting (lovely), but easily controlled once you get used to the....er....controls. When I first tried this one it was just about autumn and not very cold. I had to take my t-shirt off after about 45 minutes and then had to open all the windows and doors to cool down, ha ha.

This house; living room 12 by 24 ft. Burner: (Aarrow) Hamlet Hereford 7, 4-5KW output = takes the chill off the room and gets it comfortable, eventually. It just doesn't really cut it in this bigger room to be honest, but still looks very nice!

I'd go for the larger output if I were you, unless you tend to have your central heating on all the time.

A chimney liner may not be necessary (although not a bad idea if you don't mind the extra cost), a decent sweep will be able to tell you if you definitely need one.

 

We have a charnwood and its the dogs danglies, I swear to god you could stick a match in with a log and it would take!

They are based on the Isle Of Wight and are very helpfull.

 

hunter

John,

we've got the "14" version of this one


see here

it's in a room that's about 20 x 14 x 8 ft with a staircase going upstairs in it which takes out a bit of heat, it's nicely controllable, and the company are based fairly close, which was a bonus.

I'd definitely recomend it. We opted to have the crosses on the doors removed, and went for the wood burning only model - ie no griddle inside as wood burns best on a bed of ash, and also opted for the optional flue damper which gives more controllability - a good thing for us as our chimney has a good draw on it.

Morso squirrels are great things too, and hopefully we'll be going for one of those in our smaller living room to replace the aarow that's currently there which is a little long in the tooth.

cheers
Matt

 

I've got 2 - one does coal as well..
One's a Villager, and the coal/wood one's an Efel 9kW - the Efel's great, it's got a clearwash draught system (like the Clearviews) which keeps the glass clean, and it's cast as opposed to welded boiler plate, so much stronger than the Clearviews. This is the smaller one.

And I recommend a chimney liner. We had just a register plate blocking the chimney off - when we lit the fire we discovered that crows had been shoving twigs down the chimney to a depth of about 5 feet. The discovery came when we saw the register plate glowing red, then collapsing, which threw all the burning twigs all over the place. Right mess the fire brigade caused with their 000s of gallons of water :EEK:
So we get liners on both chimneys (which isn't cheap at £30 per metre, in an 8 metre chimney..)

 

I think I will get ours done next year with the liner. The house is very old and the chimmines are done reguarly but still I would feel happier with the liner. If I were having one installed I would certainly have the liner installed at the same time.

The charnwood has the clear window thingy, but unless you run the thing really hot, it will still blacken. It comes off real easy with a blade.

One other thing, I don't know what you have now but mess and work are inevitable. Consider the dust its heavy, and black. And then you need to organise wood each year, probably two or three times if like us you don't have the storage. This needs to be fetched in reguarly we can happily chug through ten logs a night. A good clean needs to be done once a week, if you chuck a bit of coal on the ashes will soon get out of hand and need clearing as well. This also creates a lot of mess.

The upside is there is nothing what so ever like real fire, I am not putting you off, but if your house is clean cuts and white lines, kiss goodbye to it!

 

Thanks, everyone. We're going to wait until the Spring, by which time I will have earned some money to actually afford to get a stove. Looks like the Morsos are that bit pricier than other makes, especially if one chooses the more contemporary designs. The Charnwood Cove (smaller one) is what we're thinking of:



...a modern look with top-notch build and it's slightly shallower than most stoves despite having a good heat output (8kW nominal, 11kW max I think). The wood-store bit is an optional extra, by the way - we might get it, just depends.

John

 

Morso are great. We've never had a problem with the glass so long as it's being run hot, which we do most of the time, except if we're going out. We just keep the top vent (the airwash) somewhere between half and three quarters open

 

when I lived with my ex - we had a hunter stove a bit like this one...tho we mainly used coal...it was great...however - the amount of coal dust was unbelievable (not as bad with wood I'd say) and I refused to have my hifi in the same room as it was a continual chore to clean up....just my two pennies worth!

 

we are blessed with free wood, hence why we burn only wood. FWIW the main hifi does live in the same room as the hunter, though I reckon last winter I only had to empty the ashes twice, so the hifi doesn't suffer too much at all, and that was with 2 or 3 days use a week, right through from mid October to early March. We were both sceptical at first about the burning on a bed of ash, but I have to say the advice was spot on (provided you ONLY burn wood)

cheers
Matt

 

Wood is so much cleaner. I'm using coal atm because I stupidly ran out of logs. Normal service will be resumed later though as I'm going to have a few trips out if it ever bloody stops raining.

 

Be a touch careful with the wood store...
Not for fire safety reasons, but because the wood is likely to harbour all sorts of slow-release creepy crawlies such as wood worm. If you have old beams you're likely to get a bit of infestion, which can be exciting if you go through a floor! I bring in logs about 2 or 3 at a time..
I've built 3 log stores - one's on the leeward side of the shed which consists of a treated batten frame covered by corrugated iron. Took about 2 hours to build and takes up an extra foot of garden to store about 1-2 months worth of logs..
And we have no trouble with dust - the dogs cause much more mess than the stoves!

 

If you are just burning wood as we are this evening you hardly ever have to clean it out, neither is there so much dust, but coal is useful if you want to keep the fire in, and frankly to balance costs out a bit.

I got a good load of logs for 50 quid two weeks ago, I think I am around a third through and we have not had proper cold yet. Gulp.

Still there is no beating this in the evening with a bit of music and a gloss 'o' wine:

 

WAHEY - Stanford 13 gets fited today - gorgeous 'buffed' finish instead of the matt black paint, airwash system etc etc.....cant wait to get home!!

plan to burn logs but not prepared enough this year to get some stacked up and seasoned and, though we have plenty of space on the drive i cant face buying a bulk load now (to be ready for next year) cos i'll only have to move the stack in the summer when we get the drive done...
anyone looing for a lot of wood - albeit it would only be ready for next year - i have been recomended to Bingley Logs - look em up if wood is your choise of fuel - a flat bed transit load is his standard delivery

 

Most (all?) of the log suppliers round my way only deliver seasoned wood - you don't have to store it for a year first, it's all ready to use, you just chuck it in your stove! Also, they deliver as much or as little as you want, no problem getting just enough for the winter!!

 

not too many suppliers around us i'm afraid and i have been warned that the goods may be advertised as 'seasoned' but it may not be the case on delivery....though i do have to admit i have not tried the suppliers myself as yet..

 

A year? Surely 2 to 3.

 

yep - or so it says in the manual for our new stove.

as if to prove my earlier point the sack of 'seasoned' logs i got for the inagural lighting were such that i currently have a nice bronzed effect on the glass......
i ended up cutting up some of the scapr wood leftover from the house revonation.
let the quest for good logs begin...........