Alycidon

I sell stoves and do firewood as a side line. Cutting at 240mm or thereabouts will fit all stoves that I am aware of. CW cut at 250mm. That will fit all stoves up to 5kw, that covers about 80% of the market. A

Shame I have just bought most if not all of the cord I will need for 12-13, I am between Northampton and Rugby so maybe 15 miles, pm me your details for the future please. Delivery costs are always an issue, its very expensive running a 44 tonner, Nick Channor could do the haulage at a fair rate but he is some way away. Maybe there is someone more local to you with a crane timber trailer or a 8x4. A

Be honest with your customers, tell them that demand has massively exceeded supply and all you have left is wood for winter 12-13. To get them back on board next year you may think about a small discount on the first order as a gesture of thanks. Depending on where you are you might be able to buy 25 tons or so from someone else here but you wont be making much money selling it. A

Stoves look nice, made in England as well which is a big plus. So 101 cu meters of space to heat in a well insulated property, divide volume by 16, ( 14 for average ins, 12 for poor), that comes back at about 6kw. On that basis the 7.5 might be a bit big but if you have a conservatory or similar to bleed excess heat into when required it should be ok. But as a secondary heat source the smaller one might be a better bet. If the sitting area is close to the stove and TV which most are then I would err towards the smaller stove, you want to see lots of flame but dont want to be mega hot. A

For over 30 years I acted for Mintex-Don in the commercial vehicle field. Now I retired from that industry 3 years so things might have changed but I was the buying group leader on friction products for a group of 20 independent wholesalers, we had a combined spend on several million on friction, you could count the quality problems usually on one hand. I am sure Mintex would like to know about any issues with their products, they did have field engineers who could visit and advise but if the problem lay elsewhere then their time was chargeable. It would not be the first time that fake brake pads have been sold in the UK as others have said. Assuming you have used good or OE quality parts its probably time to take it to an independent Land-rover specialist. A

A piece of wood contains only so much energy, how fast you release that energy will depend on how much air you put into the stove, that should depend on the position of the secondary air supply lever, this is the air curtain down the inside of the glass. All the stoves I sell that have a direct air facilty have a controlable opening so that you control now much air enters the stove and therefore how fast and hot it burns. Think of it as an engine inlet manifold that fits over the existing air inlet, normally the stove would draw air from the room, with an outside air kit any air required is drawn from the manifold which connects to the air vent. The existance of the outside air supply should in no way impede the way the stove is controlled, its simply an air supply that is used as and when directed by the operator. This means that there is no drafts from the air vent entering the room. New houses are all tested for air tightness, all stoves fitted in such houses need to be in rooms with either an air vent or the stove must be fitted with a direct air supply that is connected to the air vent. Under the building regs older properties require air vents only when the stove has a capacity of 5.1kw or above. 5.0kw and below do not require an air vent. Regarding the stoves, cant say I have ever heard of either, perhaps you could post a link. 4.5 I assume is 4,5kw output, enough for a 63 cu m room assuming average insulation, 7.5kw would do a 105 cu m room assuming average insulation, thats a pretty big room. It is far better to drive a small stove hard that have a big one ticking over, more flames, less soot and tar. My calc's are based on the Morso size table, getting a 21 C temp rise in the room if its 1 C outside. I have just installed a direct air kit on my own Morso Panther 8kw, works well, it is a sensible way forward as it prevent heat loss through an open vent. Hope that helps. A

10-15 is perfect. A

Thats something you can do nothing about at all so whats the point worrying about it. Cant see why they should, they are pretty cute unless they are specifically targeting someone, that happens in my old industry, put someone out of the game then slide prices back up. A

We had a thread on CW very recently when most of these points were aired. Couple of additional thoughts; A, Pellets, I would have thought that using DIN spec pellets instead of commercial pellets would give to boiler manufacturer no option on a warranty issue. My home Tadano Mini K25 boiler has no statement about using DIN pellets even. B, CW, They dont want their distributers handling any more than the small bags and ideally giving a bag away with each stove. CW deliver direct, retailer makes about 10% for handing the paperwork. BUT CW gain a name and address of a user who has used their products. So who does the business when the customer rings CW direct for a refill !!. Cost of carriage is the key issue, pallet rate is currently £30-£45 depending on volume so that is also a plus point. Keeping your own marketing and local service sharp will also be important. Believe me it is far far better to have a comptetitor selling at a higher price than you than someone selling at your cost or below. Been there and got that T shirt in another industry. A

Looks like the remains of a hay baler to me, designed for shoving grass along a tube maybe 18 inches square not splitting wood. If the operators hands survive intact to lunchtime ( which I doubt !!) then I cant see even a JD lasting that long. I wonder what the H&S would say !!. A

In Sept last year my logs were 5% and 9% MC for soft and hard respectively. Measured again in December they had risen to 10% and 16% or thereabouts, barn stored. 16% is still ideal to burn but it shows that even barn stored MC will rise. A

Thanks for that, makes interesting reading for all the firewood pros here. Looking at your web site you have a lot of useful info on the industry, shame there does not seem to be an equivalent covering England. A

Let them get wet and they will increase in moisture levels. Inside is best, outside with a sheet over the top is second best, A

I caught someone with a bowsaw on some property I own cutting willow last winter !!. Seemed to think as it was a road hedge he had the right!!. Hetas have just started with an approved firewood scheme, CW are one of the first members. Will it help you sell more wood?, not sure. I have just joined the Hetas approved retailer scheme and I have passed the HETAS installers course, I can therefore display the Hetas logo on premisies and web site but not sure yet if it will help me sell more product. If you are a firewood supplier I can only suggest you tie up with a local stove retailer. He has first access to new stove owners, I frequently deliver a stove and a cu m of wood in a bag at the same time. A

Yes, but be aware that there is an occasional building inspector who don't know the regs. They deal with the whole regime of building regs, we just deal with Approved Doc J that relates to stoves. I had a council BI recently that signed off an installation done by a builder, the Redbank cowl that had been put onto the top of the pot was for venting an unused chimney only, it even had marked on it 'not for use above ANY live appliance'. As there are not currently any regs covering cowls then technically its a grey area. Luckily I spotted it when I delivered the stove, that cowl has a series of small round holes in it, these would have blocked with soot after a few months with potentially nasty if not fatel results. The BI now refuses to return calls etc, it may now be going to higher authorities. In the end I supplied the correct cowl and the customer fitted it himself. A The procedure to use a BI is: A, Contact the BI, explain what you are planning, listen to his advice. B, He will send you a bill for inspecting the job. C, Pay the bill, he will then give you permission to start work. D, Do the job. E, Call the BI in to inspect the job and sign it off. Stoves must be installed to Approved Document J of the building regs, this can be downloaded for free from the Planning Portal site. You use the first sections, the back end of the regs covers gas installations, you CANNOT do gas installs. Just put Approved Doc J into google, Planning Portal should be on page 1.

I had this issue on my 03 plate Disco, we took the cat off. Passed MOT no issues and goes like hell, just stinks a bit!!. Need to have the engine switched off when hitching a trailer up for sure. A

In my old business for 23 years I ran small Diesel vans ( fleet of 8 or 9 usually) for around 300,000 miles in about 5 years usually Ford Connects were our favourites followed by Vauxhall Combos. Only ever had 1 VW Caddy thank god, that spent most of its life broken down. I was pleased when the insurers scrapped it after a prang and only 180,000. Fuel wise there was not a lot to choose between the Ford and the Vauxhall, both were returning about 50-52 mpg even at 300,000. The VW never came close, best it ever did was 46mpg, average was nearer 43. VW promised me 60mpg then blamed my drivers when they consumption was so bad. A

Grabber ATs on my Disco, done about 90,000 miles on them so far, about another 20.000 left in them. On the wifes Defender we have BFGs, much lower milage as the wife uses it. Only thing about some mud terrain tyres is they may let go tractionwise suddenly on good surfaces, a friend has them on his 60 plate Defender, great off road but on but at 70mph they are to be treated with care. He has a bit of a scare on the A14 a few weeks ago, the backside started coming round on him. My SWB Defender County 7 seater gets unstable very fast if you have a full passenger load on, I suspect its the design of the chassis/suspension rather than the tyre. M6-M1 junction coming south, you have a long sweeping downhill bend, Disco with 7 up does that at 70 mph no issues, Defender with 7 up was on the edge of rolling at 60 mph. A

I have been burning pop in the showroom this week, wedges cut when trees were felled that I picked up in May time. They had laid on the ground for over a year. They simply burst into flame almost immediately. A

Hetas are the body that oversee the solid fuel industry, HETAS : Homepage If you or anyone else does not have a sign off cert for your stove ( and a copy is also lodged with your local building inspector) if you ever have a fire your insurers will pass your claim to a loss adjuster whose job it is to get out of paying a claim. In short no sign off usually = no insurance cover for house or contents. Putting a pipe part way up an existing liner can ( will) lead to falling soot lodging between the 2 pipes and then possably catching fire. Dodgy. A

Well post up the figures then, I am sure we would all be interested. A

Not seen or heard anything about it through the trade. It was not at the stove trade show last summer that I noticed. I would ask a lot more questions, some of the statements about how efficient the stove is compared to those on the market currently ( some of which have stated EN efficiencies of over 80%) take some believeing as you are always going to loose some heat into the flue pipe. Wonder if its CE marked, its not an offence to sell a non CE marked stove but I understand that it is an offence to install one. Maybe it is a big breakthrough, maybe not. A

Last presentation I went to at the chimney sweeps show indicated that in the previous year 140,000 stoves had been sold yet only 30,000 had been installed and signed off as being safe to use by Hetas regisitered engineers. Add another 5000 perhaps done via the building inspector leaves a lot of stoves installed by unqualified persons and not signed off. Any of these people having fires in their property risk having their insurance being invalidated and being prosecuted for breach of building regs. A

Height of the flue needs to be either 600mm clear of the ridge or 2.3m ( might be 2.5 cant quite remember) away from the top surface of the roof tiles under the building regs. So height above roof will depend on flue position on roof and roof angle. Cant say I have ever heard on Merlin stoves, google dont show them either. A

A is 1/2 inch top width, B is 5/8 inch if it helps. A