Woodburners

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

villagers are good quality and very well made- a flue damper enables them to be shut right down. shop around on the net as prices vary alot. i got one from somewhere in wales- a few hundred off list price:thumbup1:

 

Agree to differ; I'm with tommer on this one, cheap crap imo

[landyrob]

hunter multifuel, ours is 20+ years old and still going strong heats the whole house day in day out! my advice would get the biggest output you can afford. know a few people who have gone for smaller outputs and regreted it.

[Catweazle]

I have a Dunsley Yorkshire multi-fuel with backboiler. I'm pleased with the heat output - maximum 17kw - and it has a thermostat which opens and closes the air supply to regulate it.

 

It works well, no complaints on heat from 7 radiators and a 170 litre water tank in a reasonable sized semi.

 

One downside, when the top air vents are closed and it is running on thermostat control the glass smokes up overnight, and of course you can't clean it in the morning because the stove is still burning. If you chuck some wood in and open it right up some, but not all, of the glass burns clear.

[tommer9]

villagers are good quality and very well made- a flue damper enables them to be shut right down. shop around on the net as prices vary alot. i got one from somewhere in wales- a few hundred off list price:thumbup1:

 

I am glad you have (evidently) had good experiences with these stoves.

I have to stick to my original point here and disagree with you though. Every Villager stove I have had/ used has been distinctly lacking in build quality, efficiency and longevity when compared to the likes of Woodwarm, Jotul, Esse, Coalbrookdale (always made by Aga-rayburn, but now sold as Aga) to name a few. Villager are great until you use something better and realise that actually they are very budget.

[Tom D]

Villager are more of an open fire in a box than an actual stove.

 

We have an aarrow boiler stove, its been pretty good but it does annoy me that if you allow the ash to build up a bit,( as you should for wood) it falls out when you open the door. Can't fault it otherwise.

 

TD Tree & Land Services Ltd.

[MR TREEBUS]

Villager are pretty (ahem) 'budget' shall we say. Innefficient and hard to shut right down in my experience.

These stoves are the nicest and most efficient I have come across. My parents have had a couple and the friends i have recommended them to have been VERY happy with them. they are very very efficient stoves, and the glass stays clean too.

 

 

Had a Villager for 4 years now and its taken some abuse,burnt tons and tons of wood....no probs so far other than replacing consumables ie stove rope,fire bricks and i can shut it down overnight!

 

Just finished installing an old Coalbrookdale that i got for a bargain on Fleabay in another room so gonna be toasty this winter :thumbup:

 

Ps both stoves are cast iron!!

[County4x4]

Far too many people get talked into buying stoves that are far too big, and then have to run them really choked back if they want to be in the same room. This won't do your chimney (or liner if you have one) any good at all - I've seen plenty of liners completely blocked with tar/creosote and it can happen in a matter of weeks. The risk of a chimney fire is also much greater. If you're going to run the stove at an efficient setting, then a large stove will also take a lot more feeding.

 

It's much better to have a smaller stove running fairly hard - and I don't advise anyone to try and keep them in overnight - much better to let it go out and restart in the morning. A decent stove burning decent fuel can be chucking the heat out in a matter of minutes.

 

Not much to choose between iron and steel - iron's better if you want fancy details in the body - but there are absolutely top of the range stoves made in both materials. Many of the Chinese stoves are poorly built, hard to control, impossible to keep the glass clean and use way too much fuel - you'll spend the money you saved on the stove on buying more wood for it.

 

I'd agree with several of the comments regarding Villagers - they're okay, but they're not great compared to a number of other makes. Some of their designs are pretty dated too.

 

Cheers,

 

Andy

[Big J]

We have a 7kw villager, and despite popular consensus, it's been a good little stove. An overnight burn is achievable with a good bed of embers, and it's more or less been our sole source of heat for 3 years.

 

How a stove performs depends on the user I find. My neighbour has the exact same stove, but no real idea of how to efficiently burn (regularly shuts it down too early to 'tick over' - the stove is very sooted up and I assume her flue is too). I've come across very few folk that pay much attention to exactly what the fire is doing, and wonder why their chimney is blocked.

 

Regarding stove recommendations, as is always the case in such threads, I recommend the make my uncle has two of - Bullerjan. They are stunning and highly efficient stoves that make excellent centrepieces for any large room:

 

[Robert Raven]

I knew there'd be a wealth of experience here. I guess if you run them flat out, being able to seal it up is less important. And I can see the sense in not letting them smoulder all night- I used to deal with a strawburner which switched off it's air supply when heat wasn't needed, and the cool smouldering burn pretty much wrecked it.

 

I'm learning that the cost of the burner is pretty minor compared to the s/s flue I'll need anyway, so I'll see if I can afford that first. Anyone installed their own?

[Robert Raven]

Ps very jealous of that pic Big J!