Charnwood County 4 can be found for near £500 and is a cracking British-made stove with awesome reviews...

Sorry, my bad - £1200 for the stove, the £2500 had me feeling all faint and I missed the next bit.

There are a number of good stoves to be had for £500 or less, there are also some tatty ones, but there are also plenty of tatty ones that cost over a grand; it comes down to doing some research and looking up recommendations from other users.

Having done my research, the most expensive flue liner isnt worth the extra cost, 5 years extra warranty for nearly double the price??

Steel stoves are useless and burn out in a few years.

STAINLESS steel stoves are VERY expensive, and many are not high quality SS, so burn out almost as fast as the steel ones.

Cast iron is heavy, but if well designed the stove will last a lifetime.

@ukcruiser

I assume the 8" is the OUTSIDE diameter, 8" is too big for the actual flue pipe unless you are only going to burn coal (according to my guy), he says for multi-fuel you should have no more than 6".

Yes, the flue pipe leaving the stove is 6" (internal) and "can" go straight up (in our case) in "Single wall" but MUST change to twin-wall (8" external, with insulation) 12" before the ceiling and pass through a fire-stop. - Our stove is a morso 6148 - We have 2 black sections for inside, and then goes into Stainless for outside.

We thought that the jump, from stove pipe, to twin wall, up there, 12" from the ceiling looks pants, so started ours off with a small adaptor and straight into the twin-wall. (Stove pipe is much cheaper than twin-wall)

We have two stoves here, in our house, and one is dad's "flat" - His, exits to the rear as it's on an outside wall, and then goes up. - He's got a morso too, but his is an S10 (wall hung)

Both are DEFRA approved as we are in a Smokeless zone - and we've even been dobbed-in by the neighbour! - and had environmental health out - who Loved our stove too! ha ha! - If you are in a smokeless zone, then you must have DEFRA approval or burn smokeless fuel - if you are DEFRA and your neighbour complains, like ours, there's nothing he can do about it - Smoke can be made for 30mins every time it's lit and 20mins every time it's refuelled. (altho ours smokes a little for about 5 mins when 1st lit, and nothing when refuelling) - Watch out, some multi-fuels are only DEFRA on one Fuel.

If you want any info, just let me know.

Al.

ps. Forgot to say - we don't have any Chimneys to use in the house - so had to use new flue's.

Edited 21 June, 201313 yr by ukcruiser

Technically I THINK I live in a smokeless zone, but I have been using the coal fire since I moved in 12 years ago and no-one has complained yet, and I know several other people along the road also have fires as I occasionally see the smoke.

I'm afraid I can't agree with your complete dismissal of steel stoves. My Woodwarm Fireview is made from steel (amongst other materials) and is certainly not about to burn out after a few years- Woodwarm service stoves that are a few decades old. Both cast iron and steel have their own relative merits, and with modern materials and construction techniques you really can't write steel off these days. I did tonnes of research looking at all the other quality manufacturers including Clearview and Morso and went for the Woodwarm after many 'glowing' reviews

Sorry, there are exceptions to every rule, so I am glad your stove is a good one, but generally speaking most steel stoves are tat, as can be shown by the fact they are also CHEAP (compared to other materials).

Stainless Steel is the REAL bugbear - in the UK there is NO LEGAL DEFINITION of stainless steel, so any old piece of tat can be made of mild steel, given a polish, and passed off as stainless.

That is why when I am buying SS I try to only buy GERMAN, as they are very strict about what can be called stainless.