Which woodburning stove is the best?

A question about : Which woodburning stove is the best?

I have one woodburning stove and am about to purchase another traditional type design (not modern) about 10kw output. Interested in finding out which ones everbody rates as best and why. I bought my first stove about a year ago, it was very reasonably priced and has worked well so far, there are some expensive models out there and just wondered what everyones opinion is, do they really justify paying a premium price tag? There surely cannot be that much difference, they are hardly high tech???

Best answers:

• We've got a Clearview and highly recommend them. No experience of other makes, though.
• Lots of reviews by stove owners on this site>.. https://www.whatstove.co.uk/ .
  There are lots of stove owners on this forum and each seems happy with their choice of stove. I would find a stove that you like the look of and in the size that you require and check out the reviews and ask again on this forum as I am sure someone somewhere will have one fitted.
  I also have a Clearview and love it. They are pricey though.
• I dont really think anyone can answer that for you, it has to be down to personal choice, and financial reasoning.
• I have a Villager AL bought off e-bay for Ј250. It replaced a China import and is so much better. If the weather's not too cold then I only use one half of the fire box, but if it gets cold then I fill her up and boy does it throw out some heat! Ticking over it needs refuelling every 2-3 hours. It's most probably one of my best ever purchases, since my neighbours have seen it all 5 have bought one and all are very pleased.
• The problem is there aren't that many people who have had more than one stove. I've had a Tiger plus for about 6 years which I acknowledge could be better but for the money I'm happy. Also its not just the stove to consider as stove's will behave differently depending on the chimney and the situation of the building.
• I have had no problems with a waterford stanley - easy to use, light, controllable, can burn overnight with coal. Would happily buy from Stanleys again - I think their 10kws would start around 750-1000.
• Clarke stoves from machine mart are excellent for the price. I have one and love it.
• Sorry to disagree but the only time I'd recommend a Clarke stove would be if someone wanted a cheap and very heavy Chinese ornament that looked a bit like a stove! I'm actually removing one for a customer today as I've advised her it's not suitable for use in a house she owns! There are no seals on any of the doors, the castings are so poor there are gaps between them, the flue design is so poor that it's effectively self-blocking after a period of use - the list goes on. The fact they leak so much means they are basically uncontrollable - possibly okay for a garage or workshop - but I wouldn't have one in the house. I don't know if every model they do is like this, but I've seen a few around and they've been very poor indeed.
  Andy
• I remember the choice of stove is a pretty difficult decision. The key point has been stated before - most people have experience of just one stove, so all they (that includes me) can say is say whether they think that particular one is great or not, but not whether it is much better or worse than other models. So Installers/sweeps etc would have the best views.
  I just bought one on the name (taking any reviews I could find into account a bit, but I don't have great confidence in internet reviews on review sites) - figuring AGA wouldn't put their name to a heap of junk. Obviously, AGA ranges are bomb proof, so I expected (rightly or wrongly) their badged stoves to be too. The stove price isn't worth skimping on since the price compared to the total installation price isn't great.
  So I went for an Aga Little Wenlock, and installed it myself, with lots of help from these forums. Works great for me, as it has done for about 5 years now.
  Critical factor (in my amateur opinion) is to match the heat output to the room you want to heat. You want to drive the stove hot to avoid all sorts of problems - running a 12 kW monster low all the time isn't a great idea, better to run a 5kW hot and get the same heating. I don't know what the spec tables show, but 5kW (nominal, it blasts out more than that if required) heats my 100m**3 room sufficiently, although I can't heat the hall too if its really cold (by keeping the door open for example).
• the correct and obvious answer is of course a San Remo UK built 5 year warranty
• Do I detect the aroma of spam?
  As grahamc2003 says, choosing a stove is hard and some of the user reviews are skewed by the sheer cluelessness of the very users. Then again, the stove retailing and installing business has far more than its fair share of chancers, conmen and ratbags, so I'd take anything they told me with a huge pinch of salt. The problem is that this is now a fashion market and a lot of people have scented easy money (one reason for the preponderance of dodgy Chinese stoves). It isn't helped by the 'Green' lobby, brand snobbery and most certainly not by the HETAS closed-shop cabal.
  In the end you have to make your choice based on as much information as you can gather and with a keen eye for when you might be being spun a yarn by someone who wants to get his hand in your pocket.
• I have to be really honest and say that it depends on the size of the room. I bought a cheap model from ebay 2 winters ago and I can't fault it. It heats the room that it's meant for and the rest of the house that the heat can naturally flow from.
  After all it's only a metal box that gets made hot once you burn something.
  I am not sure if I went for one for my living room which is larger, that I might change my style.
  We burn wood and smokeless fuel and so far this winter have only had the central heating on between 7-8am for the children to warm up. Hubs has recently lagged the loft and the heat is sooooo retained by this.
  I live in a Victorian terraced house which on one side does not have any central heating (next door).
  However, you do have to work hard for wood and to get it in a decent size for burning. We have invested in a chainsaw and friends bought us one of the brickette thingies for christmas so we will be making sawdust/paper logs this summer.
• Thanks everyone for your replies. I take the point that most people have experience of only one stove. I have looked on the review website https://www.whatstove.co.uk/. However I am a bit dubious of any review website because they are not all as unbiased as you would think and anyone can spam their product anyway. My main big question mark at the moment is over the "big" brand names and whether it is worth paying extra for these. After all, is it not true that most cast iron stoves originate in China because that is where the the big founderies are these days? I rather suspect that most of the so called British and European manufactured stoves are actually manufactured in China and just overbranded in another country. Can anyone comment on this? I will research further to confirm this but I have seen it happening a lot with other products that I am more familiar with. Yet I can see above that the so called "Chinese" stoves get really bad press!! Seems to me that you are only paying for a brand name, brands are not infallible some manufacturers release complete doozies on the unsuspecting public - I know of some complete rubbish central heating boilers for example released under big brand names!!
• We found it very confusing when we first started looking for a stove. Walking round a showroom, looking at unlit stoves, didn't really give us any idea of what the stoves were like.
  We took a trip to Clearview to visit their display house where the stoves are lit every day. Their stoves are made locally.
  Combining liking what we saw with the very good reviews their stoves get and the fact that we were looking for a stove with an oven (which restricted our choice), it was just a case of deciding whether the price was worth paying out. We bought a Pioneer Oven and are very pleased with it. It lights easily, is instantly controllable and cooks casseroles and baked potatoes beautifully.
• We have a firefox 5 - multifuel so we can also put coal in it but we mainly use wood. Very happy with it, heats the room well, looks good, 5kw output and we have quite a big but not huge living room
  https://www.stovesareus.co.uk/catalog...ve-p-3143.html
• As with most things, you get generally find you get what you pay for.
  I would avoid the very cheap stoves, anything over Ј600 should be well made and last many years.
  Our old cast iron scandanavian stove was in use for over 40 years and was secondhand when my father bought it at a farming auction.
  We only replaced it because it had no viewing window and we wanted to see the fire.
  Replaced it with a Yeoman Exe 5kw (nominal) which with the help of the Rayburn in the kitchen nicely heats the downstairs of the farmhouse if you leave interior doors open.
  Chose it because it is British made, has a big window, single door and very wide to take big logs (less chopping).
  It is very sturdy and well made, and we are very happy with it.
  Looking at the whatstove site best user rated stoves, it is worth bearing in mind how many persons have made an entry on the stove you are looking at, to give a more balanced opinion.
  Clearview and Town and Country appear to be well liked.
  Most important factor in my opinion when operating a stove is the wood. Must be well seasoned for at least 2 years outside, open to the wind and sun but covered on top so doesnt get wet when it rains.
  Regards
  Willie.
• I'd just like to add my 5 penn'orth to the Clearview lobby. We have two in our converted barn, and they've been great. The amount of heat they put out is tremendous - whatever you do, don't oversize! Easy to light and very controllable. As another poster has said, if you can visit a Clearview shop, you'll be able to see one working.