What's the best stove?

Ask a hundred people "What's the best stove?" inevitably you will get a hundred different answers but the common correlation will be "Its the one we own!". (Do the same with cars and the answer will usually be "The one we own." Why would you buy something you have no faith in? The answer, (Although, no one wants to admit it, has two factors, budget, and the ability of the salesman involved in the transaction) (A good salesman can persuade an Eskimo to buy ice!)

The justification for their stove being the "Best" is usually that "Loads of heat pours out of it!" Here's news for you, heat pours out of all stoves!

Open fires, the romantic logs burning in an open hearth, are, at best around 10% efficient. (Open hearth, AKA "Sherriff of Nottingham" sandstone fireplace) What heat is given to the room is NOT from the flames but from heating the stonework, which in turn behaves as a radiator to the room. Eventually, some clever dick invented the "Fireback", a sheet of cast iron at the back of the  logs, again, radiating heat forward, into the room. Hey! 15% efficient! (These, by the way are eminently collectable and some, 2-300 years old are readily avaiable in junk and antique shops for buttons, oft highly decorative.)

Taking this to the next logical step, "What would happen if I surrounded a fire in metal?" As a thought experiment, take a biscuit tin. Punch a hole in the front to let air in, and a hole in the top to let smoke out, and ignite some wood in it. (Slam the lid on) Taa Raa! 30% efficient! (My best guess, as yet untested, but now the heat generated is from the radiant surface of the metal box on six sides of the fire) You have built a stove!

You would be gobsmacked  by the amount of heat generated by your biscuit tin compared to the original "Open" fire. The amount of fuel to generate the same amount of heat will be halved...win, win!

(A quick word on "Efficiency". What we are measuring (Roughly) is the amount of heat available in the fuel that ends up in the room, against that that escapes up the chimney. 30%. 30% to the room, 70% to the chimney. Note, ALL stoves must lose heat to the chimney, that rising column of hot air, drawing fresh air through the fire is what makes a stove work. Our hypothetical "Biscuit tin" is currently uncontrollable, air rushing in and smoke, hot air, rushing out)

As time went on, as it does, manufacturers refined the biscuit tin model. "What would happen if we restricted and controlled the air inlet?", "What if we varied where air could enter the fire bed?", "What if we lined and insulated the flue from the stove?". All these questions and many others led to the emergence of the modern stove, and ultimately to legislation that assures that manufacturers MUST be selling you a product that is at least 82% efficient. (82% of available heat to the room, and 18% to the chimney) This is, realistically, about as good as it gets. Steal much more heat than this from the flue gases and the airflow through the fire bed suffers and the stove doesn't work)

Why then would you want a stove less efficient than this? 

Possibly, because your house was built before 1962. 1962 defines the inception of building regulations in the UK. Prior to this date, there was no requirement for flues to be "Lined". ( Or currently, building regulations are not retrospective. If a flue is "Sound and secure" it can be used. I live in a property that is built of Dalbeattie granite. The flues are surrounded by 300mm of stone and better joined than Mayan architecture! Are my flues "Sound and secure"? YES. I'm a chimney sweep, and have thouroughly tested them. Do I need 0.5mm of steel as a lining? NO. What I needed to do was choose an appliance that would be capable of losing enough heat to the flue to heat it enough to generate that rising column of hot air to make the stove/ flue system work. (My flues, by definition, are "Stone" cold)

I Chose Clearview stoves. I don't live in a smoke control area, I didn't particularly want the added expense of flue lining, and wanted warm flues as an addition to correcting damp issues I inherited with the property.

Clearview stoves, without the factory addition of smoke control kits, are around 70% efficient. More than twice that of my theoretical biscuit tin and seven times that of the Sherriff of Nottingham's open log fires. This assures a 30% loss of heat to the flue, enough to assure heating the stone of the flue and creating an "Updraught", and the appliance working. Bingo! Many,more efficient, appliances would struggle in these circumstances!

This, by the way, is not a downer on Clearview stoves (Oft dubbed the "Rolls Royce" of stoves, but rather an explanation of why a Clearview will oft work where others may not. and going back to my "Biscuit tin" analogy, why you will be impressed! Note, ALL electric fires in the UK market give you 2kw of output, more than this and they will blow the fuse. Gas fires typically at max, give you 3kw, so a 5kw woodburner is awe inspiring, regardless of the manufacturer or fuel consumption!)

(For many years the "Go to" Wood burning stove in the UK market was the Morso squirrel product. As a salesman I would ask the potential purchaser if their budget would stretch to flue linng. Oft, as I was dealing with a rural community and equally oft with young couples seting up home in old cottages (Pre 1962) they ad the option of two products, both Morso squirrels, but one at 80% + efficiency, requiring flue lining, (Narrowing the flue diameter and retaining the lower flue gas temperatures) or an older model of around 70% efficiency capable of heating brick and stonework to successfully work.)

So, What is the "Best" stove? All stoves compared to open fires are awe inspiring in terms of heat output. The biggest differences one to the other are firstly, efficiency. (Today it is difficult to buy an "Inefficient" stove thanks to current legislation) Beyond that you will be looking at, build quality, (One Chinese manufacturer describes their product as "The "ONLY" one piece cast iron stove in the market" To my mind not a good thing, every other manufacturer has learned that castings need to expand when heated, so roped joints are essential) (A popular British manufacturer describes their product as "The "Only" stove built entirely from 5mm steel plate". A curious virtue when all other manufacturers variously make their top plates from 8 or 10mm steel plate) Oft the best indicator (But not always) of "Build quality" is represented by the warranty period. If a manufacturer has invested in, and is proud of their product, they will stand by it for a longer period. Clearview offer a 3 year warranty, Jotul offer 25 years...just saying!

User friendly? Bear in mind the purpose of controls on a stove is to vary the airflow through the stove. At its simplest this is oft done with sliding metal plates on the front or under the stove, or "Spinners" on the front of the stove. Be wary of over complex mechanisms that provide little additional advantage, but more to fail!

Added value? Variously, manufacturers add "Value" to their product. What you choose to buy into will enhance your experience of using the stove but will not change, fundamentally, that it is basically a metal box to burn wood in! Double glazing, (Glass stays cleaner), Removable handles, (Always cool, because sitting on the mantel shelf when not being used. Also keeps little fingers away from them!), Rotating grates, (Absolutely useless. A single bit of clinker prevents the mechanism turning, but endemic in the industry. Buy a poker!) Asthetics. Bear in mind that all stoves have long life expectancies, so you will be looking at it for a long time.....

The big decision is oft Woodburning or Multifuel. Purchasers get hung up about this. A "Woodburning" stove will happily burn, wood, peat, and most manufactured wood based fuels. A "Multifuel" stove extends fuel use to "Black stuff", essentially manufactured smokeless fuels. (Hideously expensive per KW, huge amount of ash, boring fire) Oft though, a multifuel stove may be bought for a simple reason, it includes an ashpan. True, wood burning stoves rarely have an ashpan. Its not needed. A kilo of wood burnt generates less than a 100g of ash. A kilo of solid fuel can give you a kilo of ash. When burning the black stuff, an ashpan is a necessity, not a luxury as, at the very least it will be a daily chore. Burning wood alone and this exercise will likely be weekly, and the residual ash can go straight into the flowerbeds! (Wood also burns more controllably on a bed of ash, restricting air flow under the logs)

Phew! This is a quick precis of a vast industry. On a last note, I always told potential purchasers to take their time. We are discussing four figure sums here. Not a decision to take lightly. Speak to more than one retailer. Without being unkind to retailers, bear in mind that they are in business to make profit, its not a public service. Far be it for me to suggest that a retailer may direct you to the product that he makes most profit on! (Not always the most expensive as often the discounts available on "Premium" products are less than those from mass produced products)

Good luck!