wood fuel cooking ranges

[woodland dweller]

Hi anybody had any experience with these ? as on another thread i'm thinking of giving the old aga the boot , it never worked properly and i cannot afford all the oil they consume. I need something thats going to cook, heat up the water and warm the house as i have no radiaters , all the things the aga does. I have 25 acres of mainly 50 year old Douglas so the fuel would be free. They seem to be very expensive to buy, around 3,000 to 4,000 mark. Has any one got one fitted and are they as good as i have been reading about them. It would be good to be oil free. Are their any grants available for their purchase as i don't have this sort of money to hand. Or any government paybacks that i have read about.

[normandylumberjack]

I have a rayburn, refurbed and bought from country style cookers in Hereford. cost about £2.5k plus you may need tank and rads, pump and pipe etc.

Fitted it myself, and plumbed all the rads etc. Best money I ever spent. It heats our house via the rads really well, and its a BIG house, 180m2 ish.

Had it 5 years and no problems.. get a good flue for it, a double insulated one works great on ours, oh and make a rodding point outside the kitchen so the soot dont make a mess when you sweep.

[bobh]

Got a Rayburn Royal SF in our current house, been living here for a year and it's been excellent. It does everything that you want and the savings in fuel costs are massive but I wouldn't want to be buying in logs for it! (Our electricity bill for the winter quarter last year was £56)

Not sure about the age of ours but I have seen older ones around.

We do all the cooking on it, it heats the water to a skin burning temperature whilst ticking over and also keeps the house fairly warm although we do light the woodburner in the lounge in the evening at this time of year.

Fuel wise it uses about 2 cube of loose softwood every 3 weeks or so but we do put 1/2 a scuttle of coal on it every night just to help keep it in.

As to cost, surely your aga is worth nearly as much as normandylumberjck paid for his reconditioned rayburn.

Unfortunately we have just been given notice by our landlords so will be leaving this house shortly, the rayburn is one of the things I will miss about this place.

[StephF]

Cant beat an Esse, economical with the logs and a joy to cook on, easy to light and keep temperature steady once you have learned the ropes.

The preparation/planning of the logs is essential, as they must be dry and always available, as this is our only source of heat in kitchen, cooking.

Ours does hot water which is a bonus and some models do central heating.

[woodland dweller]

Thanks guys for all your reply's, shall be taking a trip to dean forge at buckfastleigh devon to have a look at their rayburn and esse wood fuel cookers tomorrow.

[Joy Yeomans]

we have a stanley very similar to a rayburn bought second hand 13 years ago for 500 and still brill

joy

 

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[Stereo]

We got our esse w23 off Dean Forge. It's great but you MUST have very dry fuel. I believe the w25 has better water control. Also consider a second hand Rayburn from eBay. Cheap as chips but may need new boiler and other. Bits. To be honest, if I was doing it again I would spend less an get a Rayburn on the cheap.

[Stereo]

From the sound of it you don't need central heating so one of the older rayburns should be fine for just domestic hot water and they are very cheap. You can buy kits to convert oil ones back to solid fuel as well and last time I looked new boilers for the old ones were quite cheap.

[Big J]

We have an old Rayburn that was fitted last winter by a friend. It's excellent and I now wouldn't be without it. Does most of our cooking, all our heating and hot water. It's 8 celcius outside and was minus 3 this morning and I'm sitting round in my pants and t-shirt as any more would be too warm!

 

Jonathan

[mendiplogs]

We have an old Rayburn that was fitted last winter by a friend. It's excellent and I now wouldn't be without it. Does most of our cooking, all our heating and hot water. It's 8 celcius outside and was minus 3 this morning and I'm sitting round in my pants and t-shirt as any more would be too warm!

 

Jonathan

 

HI BIG JON yes there very good rayburn food i think is better on them dad his use to heat the house well jon