Why are UK stoves so basic?

[Billhook]

The Aarrow Stratford does our water and is fairly unsophisticated compared to what is being discussed here with US stoves.

The biggest eye opener for us has been the Danish Aduro room heater which burns a very small amount of wood which lasts a whole evening of my wife's box set movies!

When I first lit the stove I had not read the instructions which described how to lay the kindling using no paper with the larger pieces at the bottom and building up in a noughts and crosses fashion untilyou reach the top where you put the very fine pieces.  Very counter intuitive but it really works.

 

 

 

[pancakedan]

I read a fair bit on the US based sites and it strikes me that the stoves they have are much more capable than anything in our market.  Many stoves with fans/blowers to shift heat off the stove, and also many catalytic stoves with a cat matrix above the firebox to burn the smoke.  This then allows them to be loaded full of wood but run low, the wood in the firebox smolders but the cat burn the smoke so emissions are clean, and with most of the heat coming off the cat the firebox itself can smolder really slow so a load of wood can last many many many hours.  Stoves such as the Blaze King Princess add thermostatic control to this, not sure but probably just a bimetallic strip type thing like a thermostatic shower valve, the user sets a temp on the knob and the stove varies the burn rate to auto adjust as the load burns down to coals.
Why do we not have stove like this in the UK?  I can see that the market would be somewhat small by comparison, but I'm a bit surprised it's not big enough for someone to start importing these US stoves.  I'd be interested to hear from both stove owners and users if they wold like these kind of stoves, and from our resident stove retailers on if they think they would or wouldn't sell.

I’ve often wondered this as well, I’d love to have a clean burning stove with a cat that will provide an 8 hour plus burn from one load!

[Stubby]

On 22/01/2020 at 23:06, Billhook said:

The Aarrow Stratford does our water and is fairly unsophisticated compared to what is being discussed here with US stoves.

The biggest eye opener for us has been the Danish Aduro room heater which burns a very small amount of wood which lasts a whole evening of my wife's box set movies!

When I first lit the stove I had not read the instructions which described how to lay the kindling using no paper with the larger pieces at the bottom and building up in a noughts and crosses fashion untilyou reach the top where you put the very fine pieces.  Very counter intuitive but it really works.

 

 

 

I have tried the " upside down " fire and found it to be no different than the conventional  method  .  Both work well . As I understand it there is supposed to be less smoke on start up with the upside down method .

Edited January 28, 2020 by Stubby

[neiln]

2 hours ago, pancakedan said:

I’ve often wondered this as well, I’d love to have a clean burning stove with a cat that will provide an 8 hour plus burn from one load!

The big US stoves like the Blaze King Princess or King will do way more than that,  ok they are large lumps of stove too and would be out of place in a small..or average UK stove, but then they are heating bigger houses and giving 12 hour burns in cold climates (0F and below), milder climates result in 24 hour or even longer burns

[Alycidon]

Arada Farringdon Catalyst Eco - Freestanding stoves - Arada Stoves

WWW.ARADASTOVES.COM

---

Ecodesign Ready large wood stove with inbuilt catalyst for very low emissions. Superior fuel efficiency with long burn times. Large fire viewing glass. 11.4kW output. VIEW...

 

[neiln]

ooo, do you have any experience with them alycidon? i wonder what the burn time is at various outputs.

[Mick Dempsey]

Finally a real thread about wood burners @BowlandStoves surely has to have a take?

[Woodworks]

Surly it will be nearly impossible to have clean burn, long burn and efficient. unless a stove gets properly hot much of the volatiles will go un-combusted so you need to burn relatively quickly to keep the temps up.

 

The Burley stoves have a basic cat. as standard. 

[BowlandStoves]

Hi @Mick Dempsey

 

I pop in every few days to see what is happening and see you have mentioned us in your post

 

Without looking into this subject in minute detail there are a number of issues I would like bring to the discussion table:-

• Very often US and UK/EU regulations are not identical - there may be some issues here
• Cost of exporting/cost of US companies setting up a new operation here
• The UK market is heavily influenced by Scandinavian countries where the "basic" styles are more popular
• Cost can also be an issue - US companies tend to export to the UK on a £1 to $1 basis which is very unfair for UK consumers
• Everything is bigger in the US (joke )

These are just a few issues which spring to mind.

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by BowlandStoves

[neiln]

I'm not expert but I think the EU regs have been following the American EPA regs, including the new ones coming along.

 

Woodworks, a lot of the burn time comes simply by having a large firebox with a lot of fuel, but the cat stoves do allow the burn rate to be slowed much much more than the purely air controlled stoves.  It seems, when running low the firebox is only warm and the wood smolders, the cat is separate from the firebox and burns the smoke emitting most of the heat from the stove in "low' and just enough of the heat keeps the firebox temp at smolder.  I understand they are cleaner than non cat stoves as the regs ensure they allow for some cat degradation over time.  All regulated by a thermostat so the user does very little other than reload every 12/24 hours ish.  It must be a very different experience, more akin to a boiler or furnace...functional but probably not very homely/ambient.

 

I put this in the wrong spot didn't I, sorry, should have been in the stove sub forum.