WHICH LOG BURNING STOVE

[tom.harrigan]

Mild steel has a slightly higher heat capacity than iron, so for the same weight of iron, steel will take longer to heat up and will retain more heat.

Cast iron has a higher thermal conductivity than steel, but this is irrelevant in stove design, as air has a conductivity 3 orders of magnitude lower than either.

T

 

[tom.harrigan]

Nemesis

Limited lifetime warranty means exactly the same thing as limited 3 year warranty - only for much longer.

Translation: They're pretty confident their steel stoves won't crack!

T

 

[Nemesis]

Warranties - the small print is interesting. Suggest people read them. Carefully. Especially the Vermont Stoves warranties.

Tom - no-one in truth cares much apart from you I think. Both heat the room.

Some of us like our cast iron stoves. As I have never had one crack yet then I will carry on using it. After 200 plus years my hobgrate looks as fresh as the day it was cast too.

And sorry Andy - Tom has problems I think relating to people. He really doesn't know that people have long ago lost interest.

 

[grays85]

Hi All

Very fraut? if thats how you spell it...?? sure someone can tell me?

I had a cast iron villager in my last house and very good it was indeed, if however a little lacking in features.. We now have a vermont (scary territory now ulp!!) Intrepid II or is it 3.. cant remember. anyhoo it has a thermostatic control stays in when its windy or calm and is very nice to look at (you can boil a kettle on it when the gas /electric run out.. yeaahow tea on tap!! its wood (carbon friendly and also solid fuel, without changing the bricks / bars etc etc

Go for what you like... only thing is there is no ash pan handle
wrote to them about it, and no answer>?? anyhoo i made me one now..

Cheerio. hope it helps

 

[tom.harrigan]

grays85

I wasn't aware Villager ever made cast iron stoves. They certainly have been steel for some time. If the body was plain looking, and it had curved corners, chances are that it was steel with cast iron doors. It certainly came as a surprise to me how many stoves are in fact steel!

T

 

[Nemesis]

According to this website, there is 'only' a three year guarantee on the Villager body, with certain other parts not even covered.

http://www.firesonline.co.uk/acatalog/Villager-Stoves.html

Hmmmm.

Stovax has a two year guarantee on its cast iron (and there's that pesky claim again about heat diffusion which Tom is surely going to follow up with the ASA):

http://www.stovax.com/images/cms_brochures/43_stovax_cast_iron_stoves.pdf


and the same on its steel:

http://www.stovax.com/images/cms_brochures/48_stovax_steel_stoves.pdf

 

[tom.harrigan]

According to this website, there is 'only' a one year guarantee on the Vermont Castings body, with certain other parts not even covered.

http://www.firesonline.co.uk/acatalog/Vermont-Stoves.html

Hmmmm HHHHHHHHmmmmmmmmmm!!!!

I can't believe you've reduced me to this!

 

[Nemesis]

Oh but check back with the link you provided earlier and read the guarantee on the PDF.

It's very interesting. Lifetime warranty - yours, its, the cats?

The warranty is invalidated if - oooh, it's Friday or you haven't the paperwork to say it complies with whatever the latest loony regs are or indeed you've bought the house from someone else.

Warranties mean basically not a great deal.

They are hardly any guide to the life expectancy of a stove or the problems which may be encountered.

Do I detect a faint gibbering from the Naughty Corner?

 

[tom.harrigan]

Looks like most of the AArrow STEEL stoves come with a lifetime guarantee. Any cast iron ones do that?

I still want a Jotul though!

 

[Nemesis]

Whose lifetime?

Define lifetime. Read the small print.



These may be said to have lasted 'a lifetime' - depending on how you define it.

http://www.hevac-heritage.org/items_of_interest/heating/churches_&_chapels/hereford_&_tewkesbury/hereford_&_tewkesbury.htm

 

[elm]

Haven't had time yet to absorb this entire thread but would recommend one of these every time for a small room:

http://www.northernfabricationservices.co.uk/

Designed for narrowboats therefore very safe and reliable, and not too small - we left one in our last house and have not long bought another for the 'parlour' here.

 

[Schoolmarm]

Does Tom work for a steel stove company? :roll:

 

[skier-hughes]

No,

He doesn't have any prejudice, he is merely pointing out that there are more sides to the situation than Nemesis seems to wish to portray.

 

[Tom]

Designed for narrowboats therefore very safe and reliable,

What differences, in safety and reliability, are there between stoves made for narrowboats and any other stove?

Jaqy

 

[Mark]

Designed for narrowboats therefore very safe and reliable,

What differences, in safety and reliability, are there between stoves made for narrowboats and any other stove?

Jaqy

Interesting point.

All I can think of is that they might be designed not to throw much heat out of the back and bottom - on the basis that you're not likely to have a hearth and burning a hole in the bottom of your boat is not recommended

 

[Tom]

Well, narrowboats are made from steel (that should please Tom!!) so not too many worries about burning a hole in the bottom. Also, to get a Boat Safety Certificate, you'd have to site it away from combustible materials anyway. To be honest, I doubt at all that there's any difference. It would be interesting to know why Elm made that statement and what facts it was based upon.

Jaqy

 

[elm]

My reply was based on experience - I say that the 'Boatman' stove is safe and reliable simply because in my opinion, it is. It's very controllable, and when you close it down, it stays closed down. Of course you can put any small stove you like on a boat, but this one seems to me safer and better designed than most in its price bracket.

We have a chinese 'Evergreen' stove installed as a temporary measure in another fireplace, looks very pretty but not really up to the job. Glass panels fell out after three days and the ash pan warped immediately making the stove impossible to close down safely for the night.

Andy was looking for a 4kw stove of a certain maximum size at a reasonable price, I say the 'Boatman' could be the 'better one hiding out there', don't think you'll find anything as good for the price.

 

[Vik]

Hi all, my first post!

I'm about to get quotes for installing a stove, my requirements seem to be almost identical to Andy's, except I want a multifuel stove. Are there any particular brands to avoid, or, as it's for supplementary heating only, therefore won't be on all day, every day (unless we enter an ice age!) will more or less anything be ok?

At the moment I'm tending towards an Aarrow Acorn 5. I'm thinking it should cost around £450 for materials (chimney liner etc.) and another £400 ish for labour, plus the stove itself - haven't had any quotes yet, am I in the right sort of ball-park?

Thanks

 

[pieman]

I have 2 Morso Squirrels, first class.

 

[Nemesis]

No,

He doesn't have any prejudice, he is merely pointing out that there are more sides to the situation than Nemesis seems to wish to portray.

Actually if Graham reads carefully he will see what I am saying is that I prefer cast iron.

If a preference is now a prejudice so be it.

I've had three. More decorative than steel too, in my opinion.

No problems at all with them. Stovax makes cast iron as well as steel, and that's not a misleading statement is it Graham?

As for Tom's claims re warranties - I suggest anyone buying a stove reads carefully what the warranty states. Don't be misled by claims of 'lifetime' warranties - that's not very meaningful.

I look forward to the results of Tom's complaints to the ASA regarding the performance of cast iron as claimed by at least two leading stove manufacturers.