Log / Multifuel Burners

[DOD]Asprilla

[DOD]Asprilla

[DOD]Asprilla

Soldato
Joined
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Surrey, by the river
My living room has a gas fire in it at the moment and it's worse than useless. It sits in the original fireplace and vents via the chimney.

I really want to replace it with a log or multi-fuel burner and I'm going to be getting a few folks to come round and give me quotes for decommissioning and removing the existing gas fire and installing the log burner.

Unfortunately I know next to nothing about them other than that I like them so can anyone give men any pointers on:

- Selecting a burner
- Things I should specify for the installation
- Anything else I should know

Cheers.
 
Go for the decent brand of stoves, not cheap steel knockoffs. Morso/Stovax/etc. Also make sure you size it well, don't be tempted to go too big else you'll have to keep the door open. Going for a big stove and burning it at a low temp isn't good either.

Your installer should be HETAS registered and potentially Gas Safe if you want him to remove your gas fire too (else you'll need someone else to do that).

If your hearth and fire place is ready to accept a stove (ie, your clearances around the sides are good for building control, you don't need any work to the opening or any replacements of the hearth), then you'll be given two options, either an unlined install with backfill (ie, you're using your chimney to vent as it was intended) or you line it (a big steel tube going from the top of your chimney stack down to the stove). Pros for an unlined chimney - cost, Pros for a lined chimney - safety, better draw. An unlined chimney will need smoke test to confirm it's sealed before it can be used. I actually have an unlined chimney but it's on a party wall of a semi-detached so never actually gets too cold, I also burn at the right temperate and get it swept well. If I were to do it on an outside wall I'd probably line it.


Ref anything else:

1.) Get a thermometer for your flue pipe once installed and keep it burning in a safe range. Anything too low will build up creosote which could cause a chimney fire and anything too high could crack your stove.
2.) Never burn anything that isn't dry wood.

For info, I was quoted around £350-£400 for an unlined install and my 5kw Morso cost around £700.

If I was to have had a liner it would have been approx £700-800 more but this depends on the length of run you'd need.
 
Further to that, I'd had all the building work to my fireplace done when we redid the room so the cost was literally just to install the stove, flue pipe, register plate and backfill (with smoke test).
 
There's a log burner about that you can replace a radiator or plumb direct to your heating system via the radiator circuit and use the controls on the burner to pump hot water around your heating system without using any of your heating mechanics.

Trying to find it now.

Looked really interesting.
 
Loads of log burners can be part of a central heating loop - mine can with an optional add on - cost lots of money to install and more to run, also takes lots of heat out of the room.

If your builder installs it he needs it signed off by the council if not HETAS registered, you also need a co2 alarm in the room but this is part of being signed off either way.

Room size, construction and number of windows dictates how much output you need - anything over 5kw needs an air vent on an external wall.

Stove wise as said, anything under 450 new will be cheap Chinese tat - avoid!

I have a Clearview 400 and love it, i would look at moreso, charnwood, clearview & contura personally - all very well made and run well by all accounts.

We had our chimney lined, having not tired a stove in unlined chimeny at this house its hard to say but ours is far easier to light, control and unaffected by weather that my mum & dads suffer from - they have had theirs longer than us and have an Esse, they are going to change the stove and line the chimney so impressed have they been with our setup!

We did all the knocking about, so opened up etc but had pros in to do the hearth and install the stove & liner - not much change from 2.5k but it was with the higher grade liner, 1200 quid stove & granite (albeit Chinese) hearth!

Also a biggie here, if your wood is not free running a stove is an expensive business - wood is getting dearer year on year and currently is vastly dearer to use than gas or oil.

You cant beat them tho, wife and i were saying last night that we are looking forward to those cold nights with the stove going and a glass of red, cant beat it!
 
maccapacca said:
There's a log burner about that you can replace a radiator or plumb direct to your heating system via the radiator circuit and use the controls on the burner to pump hot water around your heating system without using any of your heating mechanics.

Trying to find it now.

Looked really interesting.
Click to expand...

This what you were thinking of: http://www.fhtstoves.com/index.html ?
 
Resurrection time....

I'm looking at a Contura 51l but another option is a Merlin stove. Merlins are UK designed but Chinese made but apparently they are attempting to move production back to the UK.

Anyone got any experience of them?
 
Dont bother with cheap chinese stoves, you will struggle for spares, different flue sizes etc its a nightmare i sell stove spares, stick with charnwood, morso, stovax clearview, hunter, aga etc and you cant go wrong, personally i would go for a morso squirrel very nice stove comes in a range of outputs and spares are readily available, and as long as you run them correctly they go on for ever, not to mention the great support from morso.

Hunter often have problems during winter with spares especially firebars for the herald 8-14 they have ran out and been huuge shortages in stock from them for years now and they still have not sorted it out, also trying to get support from hunter is a nightmare very short staffed!

Also your buying a stove now at the wrong time of year, we are very very busy and getting a nice discount on the stoves/install is very hard as their is no need to discount much come summer and sellers are basically giving them away at cost price
 
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To be honest its not anything anyone has ever asked me for since i have been selling stoves/spares im sure their are drawbacks or everyone would be doing it, i would not bother personally and go for a standard stove with a back boiler. I will be asking my boss about it on monday though as its not something i have even heard of before, we make our own stoves with boilers built in mainly for boats but can be used in home too.
 
Also one thing hardly anyone looks at when buying stoves is prices of spares for them, stay away from stoves with glass that is not flat, shaped or really large, i have known glass for some stoves to be £150! vs standard 20-50
 
I love the Morso squirrel but its quite small and cast, lots of people having issues with cracking as they tend to be run flat out due to their size.

Merlin stoves look a bit too Clearview for me, design nicked in Britain ;) - they are already now being built in the UK AFAIK

Contura are brilliant, check out the green living forum if you are after so good advice - best stove forum about IMO
 
brightside229 said:
Dont bother with cheap chinese stoves, you will struggle for spares, different flue sizes etc its a nightmare i sell stove spares, stick with charnwood, morso, stovax clearview, hunter, aga etc and you cant go wrong, personally i would go for a morso squirrel very nice stove comes in a range of outputs and spares are readily available, and as long as you run them correctly they go on for ever, not to mention the great support from morso.

Hunter often have problems during winter with spares especially firebars for the herald 8-14 they have ran out and been huuge shortages in stock from them for years now and they still have not sorted it out, also trying to get support from hunter is a nightmare very short staffed!

Also your buying a stove now at the wrong time of year, we are very very busy and getting a nice discount on the stoves/install is very hard as their is no need to discount much come summer and sellers are basically giving them away at cost price
Click to expand...

Cheers for that. As I said the Merlin is a GB design and someone has mentioned that they may have moved manufacture back to the UK already. The Midline that was recommended retails at about £1k. For £100 more I can get the Contura which to me looks a lot better.

Agree about buying at the wrong time, but it is what it is. Waiting six months is going to disrupt our whole schedule for the house, we wanted to get it done earlier in the summer but we just couldn't get any weekends to sort it out.

I'm looking for something reasonably contemporary and most of the units out there do nothing for me.
 
If you like the Merlin then the Clearview pioneer 400 is worth looking at, Merlin look to have been inspired by the design ;) I think we paid around 1200 for the Clearview and i would have another - Contura is also the one i would consider with the Clearview if i was getting one today!
 
TBH I'm not a massive fan of the Merlin, but its the least ugliest of the alternatives to the Contura. I think I'm just trying to see if there is another reason I can discount it other than the cosmetic.
 
Does anyone know of any creative chimney options? We live in a fairly modern (15 years old) house and it has no chimney. We'd like to put one in our lounge but the chimney pipe would then need to run outside to the height of the house. I've only seen shiny steel ones so far, and they're far too ugly.
 
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