Alycidon

Thats interesting, I would be interested to know how long the fan motor lasts positioned like that, looks like its a genuine Ecofan, they suggest not to long, From an operational point of view the stove is freestanding and in a corner so hot air will just be blown out of the RH side, cant see that would make much difference to the preferred position on the rear edge of the stove. No doubt you have tried that, so what are your conclusions in practise ?. Thanks A

Very few I would say, one town nearby was charging £400 to travel 5 miles, 2 minute check and certify, Another town was charging £150 for the same service. Maybe home insurance companies should start asking questions, is there a wood burning stove installed in the property, if so in which room, etc etc, and asking for proof of sign off, at the end of the day there are not enough civil servants to Police the existing smoke control regs let alone anything in addition. Yesterday I came across an old Clearview 650, run without firebricks, being overfired using small joinery off cuts, wooden beam about 150mm from the flue pipe shielded by a steel plate. Stove was only fit for scrap as the casing had buckled and some of the welds cracked. A

Ash snapped off in a July storm, trunk which was over 4 feet in diameter was rotten up the middle. Had two down that night, one on the road that the council cleared and the wood fairies did most of the rest,

Its running at present, since it came back its done about two hours work, been cleaned, sharpened, fuel emptied and put away. Unless we get more storm damage I have about a days work with the 462 till next spring, thats ringing large branches with the 25 inch bar. But I do need to find a better Husky repairer for the future. A

There is a link of the top of the page to Sthil 462, its coming up as a bad link. A

Dont have an issue, all mine are cut at 240mm on long cord or 200mm if I am cutting billeted cord. Billets from the splitter are usually 900mm long give or take. If customers are pedantic enough to want all exactly the same then its stacked crated kiln dried for them. A

Sounds like the canopy was part of the firebox, Charnwood, Yeoman and a few others made them like that in the past. A

To answer the question, I feel most manufacturers user instructions are pretty inadequate, I send my own supplementary instructions out with each stove. This covers using the stove glove, use of the stove, suitable fuels, unsuitable fuels, FC info on firewood and the importance of low moisture levels, tips on burning wood, warnings about using man made solid fuels with 316 grade liner, a list of local sweeps, etc. It may be an idea to outlaw self installs, so a stove can only be sold as part of an install package, most problems are caused by self installs. Had two cases on Monday, one guy bought a non defra woodburner who lived in a smoke control area, he hung up when I gave him the good news. Another bought an inset on line because she liked it with no idea at all if it was suited to her requirements, when I asked her she just shrugged her shoulders. Then she got her son to fit it !!, he pretty obviously had little idea. A

Friend of mine is a senior person in the old Gas board. One of their engineers condemed a boiler, stuck a label on it, disconnected it and told the lady home owner and got her to sign the paperwork to say that she understood the reason why the boiler had been disconnected etc. Next day they get a call from the Police, Mr Home Owner had returned and reconnected his dangerous boiler, that night the fumes given off killed his wife. One of my regular clients sent me a pic of his nice creme Ecoburn that we installed a year or two ago, complete with a stash of my very dry kiln dried Birch stacked up behind it. The stove was running, he got an immediate phone call. A

It ran pretty well once running, just would not start after a 20-30 minute break. In fairness one of the two bolts that held the muffler on was missing, ( visible on the front of the saw), maybe that had an input. If so my fault as it had been missing for a while and I did not bother replacing it as it seemed to run just fine without it. I did nothing repair wise to it at all, I took it to the local Husky dealer who supplied it, I know when I am out of my depth !!. A

You cant put a normal fan on top of the chelsea canopy even if there is enough room, two reasons,. A, The Chelsea canopy is an add on unlike some older Charnwoods etc where the inside of the canopy is part of the inside of the stove. As such is not get hot enough to drive the fan properly. B, The fan needs to sit right on the back of the stove as it needs cool air coming up the back of the stove to keep the motor cool, that is likely to be restricted at best or non existant at worse with a canopy. You CAN get a cool top stove fan for use with gas and cylinder type stoves where the tops are only half as hot as the sides, this is though getting on towards £200, but it still needs the cool air flow. http://www.ecofan.co.uk/gas-stove-ecofans.html Someone else mentioned a fan stopping and starting, I only sell Ecofans so cant speak for the rest, the usual problem with them is people knock them off the stove and bend the motor shaft. In that situation a new motor resolves the issue. But they dont stop and start, you bend the shaft and its all stop period. A

The gasket had failed between the two halves of the crankcase, Husky now fit an extra bolt in uprate the clamping force, that suggests its a design issue and a common fault, I have had it rebuilt, again, but will only use it as a back up saw to a Sthil 462 I have recently bought. Shame its so unreliable as when its running its a great saw. A

You will need a 150mm but if your stove is approved by Defra for use burning wood within a smoke control area then you can now use a 125mm liner providing the stove has a 125mm outlet,. Defra approved stoves are set up in such a way that you cant shut them all they way down, shutting an old stove down radically increases smoke and particulate emissions and soot deposits in the flue liner. Hence a bigger liner is needed in case it gets blocked. Burn times do vary depending on the log size and moisture level, burning very dry crap in my showroom all of which is cut pretty small for max flame effect then 40 mins is about it. I have been burning a few lumps for Eucaliptus over the last few days, that was still standing in March and by my normal standards is way to wet. Its 17% on the outside which Woodsure says is acceptable, it does burn and stays in maybe 90 minutes but its not a spectacular fire which when selling the stove concept is what I need. Heat output is also modest when compared to my roaring fires. A

The issue is that all stoves need to be CE tested, as I understand it the stove manufacturer usually gets to supply the test fuel as specify how many bits are to be burnt on a test. The public want bigger and bigger glass areas but dont want the air vent that has to be installed with all stoves with a 5.1kw or more nominal rating. 5.0kw or below no air vent is needed unless the property is built post 2007 but it is good practise/ recommended to install same if room is effectively air tight. So manufacturers are now building big stoves but having them rated at 5.0 kw thus negating the need for a vent. 3 logs burnt on a small stove with yield about 4.5kw, the same 3 burnt on a big one will yield the same. Thus there are now many 'widescreen' stoves on the market rated at 5kw with a max output of 9kw or so. The Hamlet and Aarrow ( Arada) are both of this type. As such they are very unsuited to a 3m x 4m room as the thread started has. The true 5kw output stove will have a max output of around 6.5kw. The output of any stove will depend on what you fuel it with and what volume of fuel is loaded, people when loading a stove always tend to fill it to capacity. With a modern stove that does not lead to extended burn times but a higher heat output for the same 45 mins or so before the next refuel. This practise has in effect killed demand for any traditional stove between 5kw and 8kw as a widescreen will do the job nicely and will not usually need air vents installing. We have got a couple of Arada Ecoburn 7 freestanding stoves if anyone wants a deal !!. A

For the stated small room ( 30 cu m vol approx) the heat output would be way to high, I am sure you know why and why a standard 5kw or less would be a better option in this case. The Arada version of the widescreen stove is also my best seller and has been since launch but you cant sell it into small rooms as people tend to fill the stove with logs instead of a couple at a time. Widescreen will take 5 average size logs and running pretty well flat out will be generating 7.5kw plus in this situation. A